The DAC3482 has a dual clock setup in which a DAC clock signal is used to clock the DAC cores and internal digital logic and a separate DATA clock is used to clock the input LVDS receivers and FIFO input. The DAC3482 DAC clock signal can be sourced directly or generated through an on-chip low-jitter phase-locked loop (PLL).

In those applications requiring extremely low noise it is recommended to bypass the PLL and source the DAC clock directly from a high-quality external clock to the DACCLK input. In most applications system clocking can be simplified by using the on-chip PLL to generate the DAC core clock while still satisfying performance requirements. In this case the DACCLK pins are used as the reference frequency input to the PLL.

Figure 6-7 Top Level Clock Diagram