SMSC has launched LAN9303 and LAN9303M, the new 3-port 10/100 managed Ethernet switches with support for single/dual MII/RMII/Turbo MII (Media Independent, Reduced Media Independent and Turbo Media Independent Interfaces).
The LAN9303M device has a second MII/RMII/Turbo MII port which reportedly allows direct connectivity to home networking technologies such as MoCA, HomePNA (HPNA), HomePlug and Optical Fiber.
According to SMSC, with the new devices, equipment manufacturers can add a second Ethernet port to connect multiple Ethernet components without adding additional networking switches. These devices also support Turbo MII mode to support network speeds up to 200Mbps. Other target applications include digital video recorders, VOIP phones, home gateways and industrial automation equipment.
The company said that the new devices support compact PCB design with one (LAN9303) or two MII/RMII/Turbo MII (LAN9303M) ports. Both support a Virtual PHY feature that allows system designers to create multiple SKUs for single port and dual port networking connections, without change in the system software.
The LAN9303 and LAN9303M each combine a set of 10/100 switch system features, including switch fabric, packet buffers, buffer management, Media Access Controllers (MACs), PHY transceivers and optional serial management functions, SMSC said.
Other features include: IGMP v1/v2 monitoring for multicast packet filtering; optional external CPU management support through an I2C interface; and per-port MIB counters for network management.
The company said that both devices comply with the IEEE 802.3 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX Ethernet protocol specifications, enabling compatibility with Ethernet and Fast Ethernet applications.
