High-Performance Single-Chip 10/100 Ethernet Controller with HP Auto-MDIX
Datasheet
Chapter 1 General Description
The LAN9218 is a full-featured, single-chip 10/100 Ethernet controller designed for embedded
applications where performance, flexibility, ease of integration and system cost control are required.
The LAN9218 has been specifically architected to provide the highest performance possible for any
given architecture. The LAN9218 is fully IEEE 802.3 10BASE-T and 802.3u 100BASE-TX compliant,
and supports HP Auto-MDIX.
The LAN9218 includes an integrated Ethernet MAC and PHY with a high-performance SRAM-like
slave interface. The simple, yet highly functional host bus interface provides a glue-less connection to
most common 16-bit and 32-bit microprocessors and microcontrollers . The LAN9218 includes large
transmit and receive data FIFOs with a high-speed host bus interface to accommodate high bandwidth,
high latency applications. In addition, the LAN9218 memory buffer architecture allows the most efficient
use of memory resources by optimizing packet granularity.
Applications
The LAN9218 is well suited for many high performance embedded applications, including:
High-end cable, satellite and IP set-top boxes
Video distribution systems
Multi-room PVR (Personal Video Recorder)
Digital video recorders
High-definition televisions
Digital media clients/servers
Home gateways
The LAN9218 also supports features which reduce or eliminate packet loss. Its internal 16-KByte
SRAM can hold over 200 received packets. If the receive FIFO gets too full, the LAN9218 can
automatically generate flow control packets to the remote node, or assert back-pressure on the remote
node by generating network collisions.
The LAN9218 supports numerous power management and wakeup features. The LAN9218 can be
placed in a reduced power mode and can be programmed to issue an external wake signal via several
methods, including “Magic Packet”, “Wake on LAN” and “Link Status Change”. This signal is ideal for
triggering system power-up using remote Ethernet wakeup events. The device can be removed from
the low power state via a host processor command.
SMSC LAN9218
DATASHEET
9
Revision 1.5 (07-18-06)
SMSC [ SMSC CORPORATION ]
