Atmel Targets Network Connectivity Market

Enterprise Networks & Servers, Mar 2004

Atmel Corp. has released the AT79C1020 Level-2 Gigabit Ethernet Switch which has a multi-port MII/GMII interface that supports various speed requirements of 10/100/1000 Mbps. The device is " linkable" to make higher level ports with standard interface that can seamlessly connect to Gigabit PHY and is fully compliant with IEEE 802.3ab CSMA/CD.

AT79C1020 is manufactured in low power 0.18-micron CMOS technology. It is capable of offering a smooth network migration to a natural upgrade of network capacity through a glue-less connection to the other Gigabit and Fast Ethernet products.

"Gigabit Ethernet has become the leading technology for NIC, switch and networking equipment," said George Perlegos, Atmel's president and CEO.

"An important trend in networking is the migration of packet-based technology from local area networks to metropolitan area networks. The rapidly increase volume of data traffic is challenging the storage and network capacity limits. Atmel's AT79C1020 is the first member of a complete product family for the network storage products market."

AT79C1020 also provides packet switching functions between multi-port Ethernet ports designed for SOHO (small office/home office) application. It can expand the network by "linking" multiple switches.

The gigabit switch integrates flow control for duplex and backpressure for half duplex. Speed and duplex mode auto-negotiation is done through the MDIO for providing serial management data signal.

AT79C1020 on-chip packet buffer supports a store-and-forward switching approach that eliminates the need for additional RAM chips as packet buffers. This device supports a wide range of SOHO applications such as standalone home switches, firewall appliances, IP phones, media converters, wireless and wired gateway routers and wireless access points.

www.atmel.com