NEW DIGITAL PCI/CardBus FAST ETHERNET CHIP FEATURES HIGHEST INTEGRATION FOR
LOWEST-COST 10/100Mbps SOLUTIONS

MAYNARD, Mass., April 2, 1996 -- A new PCI Fast Ethernet controller that
enables a lower-cost, more fully integrated computer network solution for
network interface card (NIC) and CardBus markets was announced today by
Digital Equipment Corporation. The 21143 PCI/CardBus Fast Ethernet chip
contains an integrated 10 megabit-per-second (Mbps) transceiver, with the
capability to connect to a 5-bit symbol interface using new, lower-cost TX
physical layer devices; and a media-independent interface (MII) for
connection to 100Mbps MII physical layer devices.

"The 21143 chip raises the bar for single-chip integration in Fast Ethernet
networking," said Deborah Vogt, marketing manager for Digital
Semiconductor's Network Products Group. "By offering a lower total
solution cost with a full 10Mbps implementation and a higher level of
integration for 100BaseTX, we are moving closer to a complete single-chip
solution and driving the price of 10/100Mbps capability down, closer to
that of today's 10Mbps solutions."

Network Solution Savings

The 21143 PCI Fast Ethernet controller contains an integrated 10BaseT
transceiver and full auto-negotiation in addition to a standard
media-independent interface (MII) port. The 21143 chip has integrated the
physical coding sublayer (PCS) and scrambler for 100BaseTX (Category 5)
support with a 5-bit symbol interface. The 21143 can interface to a
variety of lower-cost physical layer chips such as those from Silicon
Systems, Quality Semiconductor, GEC-Plessey, and Micro Linear
Corporation.

The combination of the 21143 controller and a physical layer chip can
reduce the cost of a Fast Ethernet solution for mobile and desktop system
manufacturers as much as $16.

The 21143 controller is pin-compatible with the recently announced 21142
chip, which is optimized for 100Mbps-ready CardBus and motherboard
applications. Like the 21142, the 21143 controller will be available in
TQFP (Thin Quad Flat Pack) and PQFP (Plastic Quad Flat Pack) form
factors.

Broad Feature Support

The 3.3-volt 21143 chip is a dual-port, full-duplex, direct-memory-access
(DMA) controller that supports both 3.3-volt and 5-volt signaling. Deeper,
on-chip FIFO buffers support increased network traffic and avoid the need
for external buffering. The new chip complies with PCI Specification V2.1
for subvendor ID and features dynamic power-saving snooze and sleep modes.
It also provides boot ROM support as well as support for speed
autodetection and JTAG testing. A unified set of software drivers,
supporting Digital Semiconductor's entire family of PCI Ethernet and Fast
Ethernet products, is available for all major operating system
environments.

Pricing, Availability

The 21143 PCI Fast Ethernet controller is priced beginning at $22.70 in
quantities of 5,000. Samples will be available in May, and volume
production is scheduled to begin in July. Evaluation kits, including an
evaluation board, sample drivers, schematics, and documentation, will be
available in May.

Digital Semiconductor, a Digital Equipment Corporation business
headquartered in Hudson, Massachusetts, designs, manufactures and markets
industry-leading semiconductor products including Alpha microprocessors
and PCI chips for networking, bridging, and multimedia, as well as
low-power StrongARM microprocessors under license from Advanced RISC
Machines Ltd. Mitsubishi Electric Company is a second source for Alpha
microprocessors. World Wide Web site:
http://www.digital.com/info/semiconductor/

Digital Equipment Corporation is the world's leader in open client/server
solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide information
systems. Digital's Intel and Alpha platforms, storage, networking,
software and services, together with industry-focused solutions from
business partners, help organizations compete and win in today's global
marketplace.

All Digital press releases, fact sheets and backgrounders are archived on
ftp.digital.com in the /pub/Digital/info/pr-news directory. They are also
available at http://www.digital.com/info/pr-news/ on the World Wide Web .
 
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