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Micrel (News - Alert) Inc., a provider of analog, high-bandwidth communications and Ethernet IC solutions, today launched the KSZ8851, a single-port embedded controller chip with 8/16/32-bit and SPI host interfaces. The high-throughput device is pin compatible with Micrel's KSZ8841 and KSZ8842 product families and ideal for a wide variety of Ethernet applications in the IPSTB, VoIP, and Industrial Ethernet markets.

 

Micrel Inc. is a global manufacturer of IC solutions for the worldwide analog, Ethernet and high-bandwidth markets. Its products comprise of mixed-signal, analog and power semiconductors; high performance communication, clock management, Ethernet switch and physical layer transceiver ICs. Its customers include leading manufacturers of enterprise, consumer, industrial, mobile, telecommunications, automotive, and computer products.

 

"With more than 250 million ports shipped since 1999, Ethernet continues to require higher and higher throughput devices," explains Richard Bowers, Micrel's director of marketing for Ethernet. "Micrel's new KSZ8851 gives existing customers the industry's highest throughput embedded controller that also features Industry support for SPI interface (32-pin QFN) and a small package option for generic bus interface (48-pin LQFP)."

 

The controller chip KSZ8851 integrates a Fast Ethernet MAC/PHY with an 8/16/32-bit generic host processor interface and SPI interface. The high-throughput device has 18KB of internal buffer memory which is shared between the RXQ and TXQ. The receive queue shares 12KB of buffer memory, while for the transmit queue, the buffer memory is set for 6KB. 

 

Pin compatible with Micrel's existing KSZ8841MQL and KSZ8842MQL families which ensures the device offers performance at 80Mbps or higher. The solution supports both Big-Endian and Little-Endian processors, as well as IPv4/IPv6 checksum generation and checking. All of these features help in reducing CPU usage and improve overall system performance.

 

The KSZ8851chip set also gives designers an enhanced power management feature with energy detect mode, programmable IO options of 3.3V/2.5V/1.8V and an industrial temperature range of -40-degC to +85-degC. The device is available in a variety of package options including 128-pin PQFP, 48-pin LQFP and 32-pin QFN. The device will be available in the third quarter of 2008 and is priced at $4 for 1K quantities.