Rockwell's LANfinity Chipset Enables Affordable Multi-Function Home Networking

Business Wire, Oct 7, 1998

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 1998--Rockwell Semiconductor Systems today began shipping samples of the first member of its LANfinity family of multi-function chips for home networking applications.

Using a unique "SuperComms" architecture (see sidebar listed below this release) that supports a broad range of connectivity technologies, the latest member of the LANfinity family enables simultaneous V.90 modem operation and low-cost networking over existing phone lines in the home.

Rockwell's home networking entry is compliant with the 1 Mbps specification that is nearing completion by the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA). The HomePNA specification forms the basis for low-cost home and small-business networking products, using the existing phone lines already in place within the home. Rockwell is a founding member of the HomePNA.

In addition to supporting 1 Mbps home and small-business networking, the LANfinity family's super-communications architecture will simultaneously enable shared Internet access over a single phone line using V.90 or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology, and/or over a 10 Base-T connection to a cable modem.

Multiple PC users will be able to simultaneously access the Internet without the expense of additional phone line charges and Internet Service Provider (ISP) subscriber fees.

In addition, LANfinity chipsets will allow existing home phone lines to be used for playing networked games or sharing interconnected printers, peripherals, files and applications, all without interrupting standard phone service.

Rockwell's initial home networking product is the RS7111A, a high-performance multi-function PCI/CardBus Fast Ethernet LAN controller with modem, home-networking, and corporate-networking interfaces.

The single-chip RS7111A incorporates all IEEE and 802.3 Media Access Control (MAC) functions, plus a Media Independent Interface (MII) in support of full-duplex 10/100 Mbps corporate LAN cards and cable modems with 10 Base-T connections. It becomes the heart of a PCI Multifunction Communications Interface Card that also incorporates Rockwell's host-controlled V.90 modem device.

"Rockwell has taken an integrated approach to the home networking challenge, combining functionality for the way consumers will use their home networks in the real world," said Jim Muth, Product Line Manager, Home Networking.

"With our LANfinity family, OEMs will be able to create a wide variety of home-networking products including full-featured multi-function solutions that combine a comprehensive array of home and small-business communications onto a single, affordable PC card," Muth added.

"Our goal was to create a solution that will give consumers the broadest possible utility from their home or small-business networks, which includes the ability to make Wide Area Network access available to anyone on the network."

Rockwell's customers will either bundle the RS7111A into off-the-shelf PCs, or use the chip to create an add-in PCI card that presents one convenient RJ11 jack to the user for analog modem connectivity and home networking.

The user can also plug the card into an RJ-45 jack for cable modem connectivity or corporate Ethernet/Fast Ethernet networking. LANfinity's multi-function logic also enables simultaneous analog modem connectivity and cable-modem or corporate-network operation.

Future LANfinity products will support the emerging "always on" splitterless 1.5Mbps Universal ADSL (UADSL) standard, also known as G.lite. With this DSL WAN link, users will be able to simultaneously make phone calls, transmit home-networking data, and access the Internet using a single phone line.

Rockwell's RS7111A is sampling now, and volume production is scheduled for December. The home networking/V.90 modem chipset, is priced at $35 in OEM volumes of 10,000.

Based in Newport Beach, Calif., Rockwell Semiconductor Systems is a leading worldwide provider of semiconductor system solutions for personal communications electronics products used in personal computing, network access, personal imaging, wireless communications and digital infotainment.

These product platforms offer a variety of technology convergence opportunities and each leverages the company's 30-year mixed-signal computing heritage in such key areas as signal-processing algorithms, signal conversion, and communications protocols. For more information, visit the Rockwell Semiconductor Systems website at http://www.rss.rockwell.com/.> Rockwell (NYSE:ROK) is a global electronic controls and communications company with leadership positions in industrial automation, avionics and communications, and electronic commerce.

SIDEBAR:
                Rockwell's SuperComms Architecture Makes
                Multifunction Home Networking Possible
     Rockwell's super-communications -- or "SuperComms" --
architecture consolidates all of the internal and external
communications functions for a home or small-business network onto a
single card or module using Rockwell's LANfinity chipsets.
     In the same way that the early "Super I/O" chips of the early
1990s consolidated all data storage and serial/parallel port
interfaces into a single unified solution, Rockwell's SuperComms
architecture lets OEMs combine a wide variety of communications
functions into one affordable and easy-to-install PC peripheral.
     Rockwell's SuperComms architecture uses a PCI bus interface,
buffering, and an arbiter to manage all the interrupt-handling for
home networking, V.90 modem connectivity, Digital Subscriber Line
(DSL) links, and/or cable-modem/corporate-LAN operations.
     These functions can then reside on a single card and use a single
RJ11 jack for input and output (an RJ45 for
cable-modem/corporate-LAN), while creating a single PCI load and
occupying a single PCI slot in the PC.
     Without the SuperComms architecture, OEMs would incur cost
burdens to connect multiple cards in multiple slots to the single RJ11
jack in the wall, including significant customer support calls to
resolve connection problems.
     The SuperComms architecture also offers an easy upgrade path to
incremental new communications capabilities, and can fuel a wide
variety of product feature sets and price points. For instance, an OEM
could choose to offer a single-function home-networking product today,
and later integrate the necessary silicon to add V.90, ADSL and/or
cable modem connectivity as required.
     This flexibility will be particularly important as OEMs begin to
segment their product lines to include a variety of multifunction
products for a home's main "server" PC, as well as networking-only
products for a home's secondary PCs.