PRELIMINARY
Advanced
Micro
Am79C850
SUPERNET 3
Devices
DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS
■ Compliant with the ANSI X3T9.5/ISO 9314
■ ANSI-compliant TP-PMD Stream Cipher
specification
Scrambling/Descrambling
— 100 Mbps data rate
— Timed token-passing protocol
— Ring topology
■ Full duplex operation: 200 Mbps continuous
data rate
■ Supports both fiber optic and copper twisted-
pair media
■ Complete memory management
■ Diagnostic features
— Supports 256K bytes of local frame buffer
memory
— Built in Self Test (BIST) in Address Filter,
Physical Layer Controller with Scrambler
— Supports buffer memory bandwidths of
200 Mbps and 400 Mbps
■ Hardware Physical Connection Management
support
— Tag-Mode: minimum latency/highest
performance buffer memory management, ideal
for adapter card designs
■ Low power consumption—reduction of more
than 25% from SUPERNET 2 solution
FUNCTIONAL OVERVIEW
SUPERNET 3 FEATURES UPDATE
SUPERNET 3 is a 208-pin CMOS integration of FDDI
MAC, PHY, Address Filter, and clock generation and
recovery functions. It is the third generation FDDI
offering from AMD which integrates the SUPERNET 2
family of chips into a single-chip solution. Refer to the
SUPERNET 2 data book (PID 15502C) for basic
feature descriptions.
The basic feature description for SUPERNET 3 is
provided in the SUPERNET 2 data book. The enhanced
features are as listed below:
■ This is a CMOS integration of the redesigned
FORMAC Plus, an enhanced PLC, a 32-entry
address filter (AF, which is based on a Content
Addressable Memory, or CAM, core), and a CMOS
PDX core for clock and data recovery.
The SUPERNET 3 is backward compatible to the
SUPERNET 2 Tag Mode of operation in which the
SUPERNET 3 buffer memory interface logic maintains
the buffer memory as multiple FIFOs.
■ A 32-entry, extensible and fully maskable AF
allows additional individual and group addresses to
be supported.
The SUPERNET 3 provides DMA channels, arbitrates
access to the network buffer memory, and controls the
data path between the buffer memory and the medium.
The MAC also implements the timed-token protocol and
receive/transmit control as specified for the Media
Access Control (MAC) sublayer of the ISO standard
9314-2 for FDDI. The Physical Layer functions defined
by the ISO 9314-1 are performed by the SUPERNET 3.
■ The physical data transmitter and receiver (PDX)
circuits are also embedded on-chip using
proprietary digital clock-recovery technology.
■ For the purposes of implementing copper PMD,
the scrambler/descrambler functions are
embedded within the chip.
■ The Buffer Memory interface has been modified to
support slower SRAM’s (35 ns) without affecting
backward compatibility with SUPERNET 2.
SUPERNET
3 implements on-chip digital clock
recovery and transmit functions for fiber. To support
copper media, the PHY-PMD interface is maintained
and an external module can be implemented in
the same footprint as the fiber optic transceiver to
perform the MLT-3 encoding/decoding and equaliza-
tion. SUPERNET 3 integrates the scrambler and
descrambler functions for transmissions over
copper media.
■ SUPERNET 3 supports the FDDI single
attachment station (SAS) but is capable of
supporting a dual attachment station (DAS)
Publication# 19574 Rev. A Amendment/0
Issue Date: April 1995
This document contains information on a product under development at Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. The information is intended
to help you to evaluate this product. AMD reserves the right to change or discontinue work on this proposed product without notice.