San Jose, August 21, 2001 Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX), a leading supplier of communications IC solutions, today announced it has begun sampling a highly integrated, 24+2G Ethernet switch-on-a-chip with embedded memory. The PLB2224 switch-on-a-chip device offers the highest density, lowest power and smallest footprint on the market, making it ideal for enterprise LAN and multi-tenant unit (MTU) switching applications.
The MTU market focus is shifting to more efficient use of bandwidth and delivery requirements to address the growing connectivity needs of tenants residing and working within buildings and enterprise LAN users, said Daniel Wong, vice president of Infineons communications group and general manager of the LAN Business Unit. The embedded DRAM enables our Ethernet switch-on-a-chip to handle more data at faster speeds, and offer a lower system cost.
In addition, when combined with Infineons Octal 10BaseSä Ethernet over VDSL transceiver technology, and the production ready managed switch reference design package, the PLB2224 provides OEMs with a complete, easy to implement system solution for fully managed small form factor Ethernet switches.
According to Gartner Dataquest, the worldwide LAN semiconductor market will grow from US$1.73 billion in 2000 to US$2.2 billion in 2003. The worldwide market for MTU hardware, is expected to grow in the same period from US$274 million to US$2.1 billion.
Infineons PLB2224 switch is fabricated in 0.18 micron logic process with embedded memory, and is housed in a 272-pin plastic BGA package. The embedded DRAM replaces up to eight memory devices, reduces power consumption by up to 80 percent and device footprint by 50 percent, resulting in a significantly lower system bill of materials.
Features
The PLB2224 is a 24+2G single chip switch with 12 MB of embedded memory for a packet buffer. The device supports 8K MAC addresses with auto-learning and aging. PLB2224 also offers VLAN and QoS features compliant with the IEEE 802.1p and 802.1Q standard, and includes support for management (EtherStat II, SNMP, RMON). Possible system configurations include fixed; either 24+2G, 48+2G, or stacked (controlled with an I2C interface) with up to 7 devices per stack 168+2G.
Availability
The PLB2224 devices and reference boards are available now. Production quantities will be available in Q4 2001 at a price of US$80 per chip in 10K quantities.