(Source: Business Wire)
Supporting the ever-increasing growth of networked devices in home consumer electronics, SMSC (NASDAQ: SMSC), a leading semiconductor company that provides Smart Mixed-Signal Connectivity solutions, today introduced the LAN9303 and LAN9303M Ethernet switches. These devices are the industry's smallest fully-integrated, 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). With these products, system designers will now have a flexible integrated solution to overcome the challenges of integrating multiple networking technologies inside the house.
As set-top box and digital TV applications require the flexibility to support a variety of high-performance networking options, having a second MII/RMII/Turbo MII port in the LAN9303M allows direct connectivity to home networking technologies such as MoCA®, HomePNA (HPNA), HomePlug® and Optical Fiber, among others. With the LAN9303/9303M devices, equipment manufacturers can add a second Ethernet port to ease the connection of multiple Ethernet components without adding additional stand-alone networking switches. The LAN9303/LAN9303M also supports 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 where cost, reduced development time and space matter most.
"As end users demand more network-enabled services such as IPTV and VoIP, system designers are racing to provide connection options for both consumers and infrastructure providers that ease the challenges of integrating equipment into home networking environments. To address this, SMSC is delivering network switching solutions that address a variety of networking protocols and system designs in a compact solution that enables connectivity in virtually any design form factor," said Mark Bode Vice President of Marketing at SMSC.
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 significant change in the system software -- saving valuable design time. To do this, the virtual PHY feature mimics a single PHY connection through a MII/RMII/Turbo-MII interface which reduces the software development time required to add switching capabilities to a host system-on-chip (SoC).
