Reference Board Handles Eight Gigabit Ethernet Port Designs

Sept. 18, 2000
The industry's first reference board with eight 1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet ports is now available from Allayer Communications Inc. The AL1023DM-8 provides a board-level solution for the design of multiport Gigabit Ethernet LAN systems. It's...

The industry's first reference board with eight 1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet ports is now available from Allayer Communications Inc. The AL1023DM-8 provides a board-level solution for the design of multiport Gigabit Ethernet LAN systems. It's targeted at OEMs that are designing switches with two, four, six, or eight Gigabit Ethernet ports, or combinations of Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet ports. Such systems enable high-performance, high-availability networks from the WAN edge all the way to the server and desktop computer.

This device features eight 10/100/1000Base-T ports for connection over standard Category 5 twisted-pair cable. It includes four AL1023 dual-port Gigabit switches, each with the RoX-II interface. These switches support essential network features, such as trunking, port-based quality of service (QoS), and tag-based VLANs. The board also supports four classes of service that let a networking switch recognize and give priority to delay-sensitive packets of data that have been marked for prioritized delivery.

The trunking feature is fully compatible with the IEEE-802.3ad standard. With it, designers can combine multiple Gigabit channels into a single logical channel with load-balancing and trunk-failover capabilities. The VLAN features also let designers create multiple logical LANs from one physical LAN. Additionally, the AL1023 supports advanced features like broadcast storm control and Layer-2-based security for each port. And, it can be used in conjunction with Allayer's ALPOS48 Ethernet-to-WAN translator device to enable seamless LAN-to-WAN connectivity.

The RoX-II system can be extended with additional RoX-II-based network devices, such as network-management circuits. Connectors for adding Allayer's existing AL300A-based management daughterboard are provided by the reference board. The AL300A management engine collects network-management information from up to 32 ports and provides spanning-tree support. Also, it supplies all of the management-information-base statistics required to support both the SNMP and the RMON protocol. The device even contains a separate bus that reports network-management and/or data packets to an attached CPU.

Available now, the AL1023DM-8 costs $4000 each.

Allayer Communications Inc., 107 Bonaventura Dr., San Jose, CA 95134; (408) 570-0888; fax (408) 570-0880; www.allayer.com.

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About the Author

Roger Allan

Roger Allan is an electronics journalism veteran, and served as Electronic Design's Executive Editor for 15 of those years. He has covered just about every technology beat from semiconductors, components, packaging and power devices, to communications, test and measurement, automotive electronics, robotics, medical electronics, military electronics, robotics, and industrial electronics. His specialties include MEMS and nanoelectronics technologies. He is a contributor to the McGraw Hill Annual Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. He is also a Life Senior Member of the IEEE and holds a BSEE from New York University's School of Engineering and Science. Roger has worked for major electronics magazines besides Electronic Design, including the IEEE Spectrum, Electronics, EDN, Electronic Products, and the British New Scientist. He also has working experience in the electronics industry as a design engineer in filters, power supplies and control systems.

After his retirement from Electronic Design Magazine, He has been extensively contributing articles for Penton’s Electronic Design, Power Electronics Technology, Energy Efficiency and Technology (EE&T) and Microwaves RF Magazine, covering all of the aforementioned electronics segments as well as energy efficiency, harvesting and related technologies. He has also contributed articles to other electronics technology magazines worldwide.

He is a “jack of all trades and a master in leading-edge technologies” like MEMS, nanolectronics, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, military electronics, biometrics, implantable medical devices, and energy harvesting and related technologies.

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