Level One upgrades repeater chip

Electronic News, August 25, 1997 by Will Wade

Sacramento, Calif.--Although several manufacturers have recently announced low-cost switches which they say will drive repeaters out of the market, Level One Communications has introduced a new Ethernet/Fast Ethernet quad repeater chip with four integrated physical layer devices. The company claims the LXT980 is the first fully integrated chip on the market with 10Mps/100Mps capability and auto-negotiation features.

The LXT980 is the successor to Level One's LXT970, and uses the same transceiver core as that single 10Mps/100Mps product. The newest version also supports data management using both SNMP and RMON protocols, and the auto-negotiation feature allows backwards-compatibility with older Ethernet connections. It is sampling now at $30 apiece for large OEM orders, and volume production is slated for next quarter.

"This is an enabling technology that will allow for cost effective implementation of 10/100 systems, and will allow information system managers to upgrade at their own pace," said David Chase, director of network products for Level One. He notes that many of the Fast Ethernet repeaters currently available will not run at standard Ethernet speeds, which makes them useless unless every port running on the repeater is upgraded to 100Mps technology. "We believe this solves a real-world problem by allowing people to upgrade their networks slowly, rather than all at once," he said.

Repeaters, or hubs, which require users to share bandwidth, have come under fire from several recent introductions of low-cost switch engines. Switches give users dedicated bandwidth, and are generally seen as superior, although repeaters have benefitted from lower price points and are widely used.

Although low-cost switches may be approaching repeaters in price, Mr. Chase said repeaters are not likely to disappear. Some market studies show demand for 100 Mbps-capable repeaters growing from a current level of just over 5 million ports to nearly 30 million ports in 2000. Demand for Ethernet and Fast Ethernet switch engines is also expected to grow significantly over the same period, but price factors will probably limit their implementation. Ethernet switches currently connect about 6 million ports, which should expand to just over 20 million ports in 2000; a current level of about 1 million Fast Ethernet connections should grow only slightly, to about 4 million in 2000.

"I think there will be a market for both technologies," said Mr. Chase. "I'm not convinced the 10Mps switch market is where the industry is heading for the long term, when 100Mps is so much more cost-effective."

Dean McCarron, principal at Mercury Research, agrees that while eventually repeaters may be replaced by switches, in the short term, the transition will not occur any time soon. "The switch guys will do everything they can to drive the hub guys out, but there will be a market for hubs for a long time," he said.

Mr. McCarron also noted that Level One's integration of physical layer devices into a 10/100 repeater chip is a significant achievement. "Current implementations use several chips. The alternative now is using four PHYs or a quad PHY, so this should result in significant cost savings." he said.