Communications: Dual-Port Ethernet Switch Meets Many Embedded/Industrial Needs

Aug. 18, 2005

The KS8842M family of dual-port switches is a good match for embedded and industrial networking as well as the latest "triple-play" voice, video, and data systems. These dual-port switches offer dual Ethernet ports plus a generic 8/16-bit or a 32-bit host interface port. They also provide four priority queues to improve quality of service and IPv6 snooping to permit IPv6 packets to be identified and sent to the host CPU for further processing. The company's Auto-MDIXs, also included, let designers connect straight or crossover cables, eliminating cabling concerns. The chips can be fully configured as a fully managed layer 2 switch or as a repeater for use in latency-critical industrial Ethernet applications where all packets from one port are broadcast to the remaining ports, bypassing lookup tables used in a typical store-and-forward switch architecture. The chips also could replace two single Ethernet controllers where network traffic is 100% segregated between the two ports. Contact the company for volume pricing.

Micrel Inc.www.micrel.com

About the Author

Dave Bursky

Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.