1998-09-23 , E/IC-1037/65
Product News From Philips Semiconductors

Announces agreement with TI for future interoperability

Philips Semiconductors today made two announcements that will strengthen still further its position in the fast growing IEEE 1394 market. The company has recently announced an interoperability agreement with Texas Instruments (TI) for the next generation of 1394 physical layer controllers (PHY) devices, and today released the PDI1394P11, a 200 megabit-per-second (Mbits/sec) (PHY).

IEEE1394 is fast becoming the accepted standard for high-speed peripheral interfacing for PCs, and is becoming established in other consumer and multimedia applications, including digital TV. The physical layer controller (PHY), which sits between the 1394 cable environment and the link layer controller, provides the electrical and mechanical interface for receiving and transmitting data packets across the serial bus.

Interoperability agreement
Philips Semiconductors and TI have signed an interoperability agreement for the next generation of PHYs, which will support up to 400 Mbits/sec operation. Both companies will share technical information to produce devices that are truly pin-compatible and interoperable, for two-, three-, four- and six-port operation at 400 Mbits/sec. This will allow designers to use high speed in their products, confident that they have multiple sources for their devices.

"The explosion of 1394 designs means designers are looking for the comfort of pin-compatibility in their devices," said Allen Light, marketing and applications manager, Philips Semiconductors. "With TI's high visibility in this market, it is sensible to work with them."

"We each benefit from this relationship," said Larry Blackledge, TI's worldwide business manager for Bus solutions. "Both companies will be sharing technical information, and customers can rest assured that they will have several sources for compatible 1394 PHY devices."

PDI1394P11, 200 Mbits/sec IEEE1394 physical layer controller
The PDI1394P11 provides the designer with a 200 Mbits/sec physical layer controller which will interface to any 3 V or 5 V link layer, including Philips Semiconductors own PDI1394L11 link layer controller, and support up to three ports, each running at 100 or 200 Mbits/sec.

It implements the 1394A short arbitrated bus reset, lowering bus rest time to 1.3 µsecs, as against the 167 µsecs of IEEE1394 and reducing the loss of isochronous data caused by extended reset time. With power consumption, in both active and power down modes, less than half of other industry-standard PHY devices, it is very suitable for portable and battery-powered applications. Typical active power is 60 mA and power-down Typical is 2 mA.

The Philips Semiconductors physical layer controller and the link layer controller combine to form a high performance, low cost, proven 1394 system solution. This can be further combined with the wide range of other, related devices, such as MPEG2 decoders and digital video decoders, to provide system solutions for audio-visual and other applications.

"Philips' breadth of experience in a wide range of consumer and audio-visual products provide a strong basis for Philips Semiconductors to develop system solutions," said Allen Light.

Customer qualification samples of the PDI1394P11 are available now. Projected pricing for 100+ is US$ 7.00, while 25,000 pricing is US$ 4.00.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the ninth largest semiconductor supplier in the world and the third largest supplier of discretes in the world. Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by systems labs.