Unified Gigabit Ethernet LAN switch cuts net costs

A Pericom Semiconductor Corp product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Jun 10, 2003

Pericom Semiconductor reckons the PI3L301D is the first unified 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN switch in the world.

Pericom Semiconductor reckons the PI3L301D is the first unified 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN switch in the world.

Pericom's PI3L301D switch is bidirectional and beats the IEEE802.3-Gigabit Ethernet return loss specification with a minimum of 2dB of margin over the entire frequency band.

The device multiplexes eight pairs of differential outputs from a Gigabit Ethernet transceiver into one of two corresponding 8bit outputs.

This 16 to 8bit mux/demux functionality and performance enables notebook PC design engineers to eliminate an entire Gigabit Ethernet transceiver, thus resulting in a platform cost savings of $5 to $7 in every notebook PC and docking station solution.

Although ideally suited for Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel applications, the revolutionary PI3L301D LAN switch technology is useful wherever a design engineer needs to switch differential pairs of LVDS or LVPECL signals to support signalling line rates of Sonet OC-12 (622Mbit/s).

The low-voltage, low-on-resistance device provides customers with minimum distortion, low output skew and high-speed signal routing.

Pericom's new PI3L301D multiplexer/demultiplexer switch is a passive switching element implemented in low-power CMOS.

"Pericom's new Gigabit LAN switch aligns the differential signals from the Gigabit Ethernet transceiver in such a way as to reduce the crossing over of traces, which can make the Ethernet signals susceptible to crosstalk and other noise", explained Paul Bryant, Product Marketing Manager.

"Our new LAN offerings can be deployed anywhere there is a need for high-speed Gigabit Ethernet routing for such end products as high-end notebook computers, PCMCIA cards, switching-routers, servers, and SAN", Bryant added.

PI3L301D samples, datasheets and application note are available now from the company website.

The devices are housed in standard 48-pin TSSOP, and reduced pin pitch TVSOP packaging.

Pricing is set at $1.66 per 500-unit quantities.