AMD and Kawasaki LSI to Provide USB-to-HomePNA Reference Design For PC Peripherals and Home Networking

Business Wire, June 28, 1999

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 28, 1999--

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. and Kawasaki LSI, Inc., are now offering a reference design for development of PC peripherals and home appliances capable of supporting HomePNA 1.0-based or 10Mbps Ethernet networking.

This new reference design provides a cost-effective, quick time-to-market solution for printers, scanners, set-top boxes, Web phones, residential gateways, cable modems and home appliances. The silicon component of the reference design includes Kawasaki LSI's USB-to-Home PNA controller and AMD's HomePHY(tm) 1/10Mbps physical layer (PHY) device.

AMD, a founding member of the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance, was first to market with the PCnet(tm)-Home (Am79C978), HomePNA PCI controller for PC and motherboards, and the single-chip HomePHY (Am79C901).

"The combination of the HomePHY physical layer device and Kawasaki LSI's USB controller allows vendors to easily build products that will expand the growing USB and HomePNA peripherals markets," said Dr. Laila Razouk, vice president and general manager of AMD's Networking Products Division.

The HomePHY offers design flexibility via two physical layer interfaces, Media Independent Interface (MII)-compatible and General Purpose Serial Interface (GPSI). The device also supports auto-configuration, which determines which networking protocol is available, HomePNA or 10BaseT. Its dual PHY layer functions allow USB-based peripherals to access and transfer data at 1 or 10 Mbps, depending on application.

Kawasaki LSI's controller (KL5KUSB111) integrates a HomePNA 1.0 Media Access Controller (MAC), enabling connection from a USB host to a HomePNA 1.0 physical layer device. It also offers 10Mbps Ethernet connectivity via the controller's on-chip 10BaseT Ethernet link, consisting of an Ethernet MAC (IEEE802.3) and Ethernet PHY interface.

"Our USB capabilities combined with AMD's physical layer expertise makes home networking products easier to build and easier for the end customer to install and use," said Joel Silverman, vice president of marketing at Kawasaki LSI.

Kawasaki LSI's USB controllers offer true plug n' play in accordance with Microsoft's Universal Plug N' Play initiative.

Both AMD and Kawasaki LSI devices are available now.

The reference design will be available at www.klsi.com and www.amd.com in July.

Combined pricing enables a silicon system solution at less than $17. Pricing for the Am79C901 is less than $7 in quantities of 10,000. The KL5KUSB111 is less than $10 in like quantities.

The Am79C901 is offered in 68-pin PLCC or 80-pin TQFP.

The KL5KUSB111 is available in 100 pin LQFP.

Customers should contact Bryan Chin, Kawasaki LSI marketing manager at 408/570-0555, ext. 411, or brian@klsi.com and Jennifer Collis at AMD, 408/749-3314 or jennifer.collis@amd.com.

The Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA) is an association of industry-leading companies working to ensure adoption of a single, unified phoneline networking standard and rapidly bring to market a range of interoperable home networking solutions.

Kawasaki LSI, U.S.A. (San Jose, CA) is the North American affiliate of Kawasaki LSI, which in turn is a division of Kawasaki Steel in Japan. The company provides the product development, marketing, sales and technical support for customers in the Americas in connectivity and data communication applications.

AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets. AMD produces Microsoft(R) Windows(R)-compatible microprocessors, flash memories and integrated circuits for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, Calif., AMD had revenues of $2.5 billion in 1998 (NYSE:AMD).