That means TI has flagged this part for eventual end-of-life, though it remains available for existing production runs through the last-time-buy window. For a new design, you would typically select the active successor in the DS90LV011 family — the exact order code depends on the package variant you need.
400 Mbps — the signal-integrity budget
At 400 Mbps the DS90LV011ATMF delivers a 2.5 ns bit period, so the driver output rise/fall times are fast enough to maintain eye opening across a few metres of twisted-pair cable or a backplane trace. The LVDS swing (~350 mV typical) keeps EMI low, which matters when the link runs near the edge of the board. The single driver channel means you need one device per differential pair — no integrated termination.
SOT-23-5 footprint and supply rails
The SOT-23-5 package (SC-74A body) is a five-pin surface-mount footprint with 0.95 mm pitch — standard for low-pin-count linear and interface ICs. No external components beyond a decoupling capacitor are required; the driver output is internally current-limited to meet LVDS levels.