1999-06-14 , S/IC-2068/34
Product News From Philips Semiconductors

Enhanced version guarantees interoperability

Philips Semiconductors, a leading provider of 1394 technologies, today announced availability of the PDI1394P11A, an enhanced 200 Mb/s IEEE 1394-1995, 3 port, physical layer (PHY) interface device. The  PDI1394P11A offers designers the only 200 Mb/s PHY that will interoperate with all existing industry 100/200 Mb/s parts and is the first PHY to be packaged in a 64-pin ball grid array (BGA), which minimizes board area. The Philips Semiconductors 200 Mb/s PHY conforms to the IEEE 1394-1995 specification and provides a subset of the 1394a spec.

Philips Semiconductors' PDI1394P11A is targeted at applications such as Digital TV (DTV), Digital VCR (DVCR), Digital Set-Top Box (DSTB), camcorders, personal video, high-speed printers and scanners and other digital applications requiring a high-speed connection. The Philips Semiconductors' design implements timing adjustments in the PDI1394P11A to compensate for abnormalities in other suppliers' PHYs. The resulting guaranteed interoperability of the P11A simplifies designs and reduces cost, as software modifications are no longer required to compensate for this problem.

"Device interoperability, as well as plug and play hardware, are key 1394 features providing ease of use to system engineers and their end customers," said Dave Sroka, product line manager, 1394, Philips Semiconductors. "Philips Semiconductors' PDI1394P11A device interfaces to any standard 1394 Link Layer controller, and therefore can be used with a variety of non-Philips hardware devices. The reliability and interoperability of the P11A, combined with Philips Semiconductors' level of support and price competitiveness, provides designers with a flexible, low-cost solution."

The PDI1394P11A is part of Philips Semiconductors range of 1394 ICs that include PHYs and Link Layer Controllers (Link). This solution was designed to address interoperability and functionality issues of earlier industry PHY implementations. The P11A is the only 200Mb/s to provide a solution to bus failure due to "Dead PHY." Dead PHY takes place when a bias voltage (TpBias) powers up an un-powered PHY, creating the impression that it is active, which results in bus failure. Philips Semiconductors' PDI1394P11A does not reflect TpBias voltage when un-powered, thereby preventing this problem from occurring. Additionally, the P11A improves the performance and reliability of the 1394 bus by implementing a subset of the 1394a specification:

• Short arbitrated bus reset, which reduces reset times and the risk of isochronous data loss.
• Connection debounce which prevents a storm of connects and disconnects caused by the insertion on a plug into a 1394 connector on the node.
• The PDI1394P11A recognizes PHY ping packets. This allows the bus manager to optimize gap count, which reduces the amount of bus idle time consumed by these gaps.

Samples and production volumes of the PDI1394P11A are available now in a 64-pin LQFP from Philips Semiconductors. Samples of the 64-pin BGA package, which provides a board space saving of almost 50%, are available now and production volume is targeted for end of Q2.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth largest semiconductor supplier 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. Additional information on Philips Semiconductors can be obtained by accessing its home page at http://www.semiconductors.philips.com