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September 1996, vol.13, no. 6
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Access TI's on-line technical documentation.
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First Ethernet Switch-on-a-chip
TI's new Ethernet "switch-on-a-chip" offers performance, flexibility and affordability, enabling new, extensible designs and reducing costs for a wide variety of network switching equipment. The TNETX3150 is the first of a family of 10/100 Mbps Ethernet single-chip network switching solutions based on TI's ThunderSWITCH™ scaleable switch-ing architecture. The device integrates the key components used in switch designs, saving board space and significantly reducing component costs, both of which reduce price per port and increase performance. The device can be connected directly to traditional 10Base-T and high-speed 100Base-T Ethernet protocols. The high level of integration in the ThunderSWITCH architecture simplifies design complexity and helps shorten development times for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). ThunderSWITCH offers OEMs and information systems managers (MIS) a wide latitude of application alternatives. Besides its targeted low-cost desktop switching application, it can be used as a desktop switching card within high-speed servers, remote-access servers and as a front end on routers. High-performance architectureAt the heart of the ThunderSWITCH architecture is a high-performance data throughput engine that supports an aggregate bandwidth of 3.2 gigabits per second (Gbps). In addition, the TNETX3150 fully integrates 12 10Base-T media access controllers (MACs) and three 10/100Base-T MACs, one of which supports 400 Mbps throughput.ThunderSWITCH chips can be cascaded via the high-speed MACs, creating desktop switches with 24 10Base-T ports and two 10/100Base-T ports. All MACs terminate with media-independent interfaces (MIIs) using the seven-wire serial network interface (SNI) for connection to standard physical layer (PHY) devices. Because the 'X3150 offloads software forwarding tasks from the dedicated CPU, a switch designer has the option of creating a system with no onboard CPU for low-cost desktop applications. Or, the designer can use a lower-cost CPU or a CPU add-in card for management upgrades. Two other new devices complement the 'X3150. TI's new TNETE2004 Quad PHY integrates four 10Base-T physical layer devices into a single chip. Three Quad PHYs used in conjunction with ThunderSWITCH create a 12-port 10Base-T Ethernet switch, with three additional ports available for network management, high-traffic servers and enterprise connections. The TNETX315AL Address Lookup enables a low-cost solution for supporting multiple addresses. All devices are available now from Texas Instruments. ThunderSWITCH
Suggested resale pricing in U.S. dollars in 1K quantities. |
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