FireWire Devices Set To Rev Up Home Network Market

Introduced as the market’s first 1394b FireWire devices for home networking applications, the TSB41BA3 and TSB17BA1 perform PHY and transceiver functions, respectively. The TSB41BA3 three-port bilingual PHY device operates at speeds up to 400 Mb/s and is compliant with the approved version of the IEEE 1394b-2002 specification - this spec increases communication distances up to 100m over Category 5, glass optical fiber, or plastic optical fiber cables. The device is backward compatible with 1394a devices and supports the data strobe encoding scheme of IEEE 1394a-2000 and the 8B/10B encoding scheme for 1394b-2002. It automatically detects and corrects loops, allowing the use of any cable topology. Companioning the PHY chip is the TSB17BA1 transceiver, a one-port, 100 Mb/s transceiver designed for 1394b connections over Category 5 cable. The 80-pin PFP TSB41BA3 and 24-pin TSSOP TSB17BA1 are priced at $6.50 and $2.50 each/1,000, respectively. For more details, contact TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC., Dallas, TX. (800) 477-8924.