Key Circuitry For Multi-Port Gateway Fits On Single Chip

By melding together five-port fast Ethernet transceivers, MACs, switch controller, frame buffer memory, and an ARM922T core, the KS8695 is said to provide on-chip all of the key components needed to build high-performance, low-cost multiple-Ethernet-port broadband gateways for the SOHO and residential markets. One of the device's five ports is partitioned for WAN interfacing with the other four used for LAN accessing. The 166-MHz, 32-bit ARM CPU core has a memory management unit (MMU) and 8 KB each of I and D cache -- the MMU is needed to run certain embedded operating systems, such as Linux or WinCE. The core is also said to provide a platform for delivering end-product differentiating features, such as a firewall or routing. Other features of the highly integrated KS8695 gateway-on-a-chip include an independent MAC unit for supporting MAC or PHY mode MII interfacing for network expansion and a protocol engine to offload CPU utilization by performing IPv4 packet filtering based on checksum errors and TCP/UDP/IP packet header checksum generation. The chip requires a 1.8V core supply, 3.3V I/O supply, and 1.8V and 2.5V for Ethernet transceivers, and comes in a 208-pin PQFP priced at under $20 each/10,000. A gateway turnkey reference design, complete with firmware, kernel and application software support, is also available. For further information, contact Russell Yin at MICREL SEMICONDUCTOR, San Jose, CA. (408) 735-1118 ext 269.