LAN9215
1.0
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The LAN9215 is a full-featured, single-chip 10/100 Ethernet controller designed for embedded applications where per-
formance, flexibility, ease of integration and system cost control are required. The LAN9215 has been architected to
provide the best price-performance ratio for any 16-bit application with medium performance requirements. The
LAN9215 is fully IEEE 802.3 10BASE-T and 802.3u 100BASE-TX compliant, and supports HP Auto-MDIX.
The LAN9215 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 microprocessors
and microcontrollers as well as 32-bit microprocessors with a 16-bit external bus. The LAN9215 includes large transmit
and receive data FIFOs to accommodate high latency applications. In addition, the LAN9215 memory buffer architecture
allows highly efficient use of memory resources by optimizing packet granularity.
Applications
The LAN9215 is well suited for many medium-performance embedded applications, including:
• Printers, kiosks, POS terminals and security systems
• Audio distribution systems
• General embedded systems
• Basic cable, satellite and IP set-top boxes
• Voice-over-IP solutions
The LAN9215 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 LAN9215 can automatically generate flow control packets to
the remote node, or assert back-pressure on the remote node by generating network collisions.
The LAN9215 supports numerous power management and wakeup features. The LAN9215 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.
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