National Semiconductor Introduces Complete Gigabit Switch Solution For Enterprise Networking Systems

Industry's Highest Performance, Most Cost-Effective 16-port Gigabit Ethernet Switch Leverages National's Innovation, Technology Breadth and Analog Expertise

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- National Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE: NSM - news) entered the Gigabit Ethernet switch market today by unveiling the industry's highest performance and most cost-effective 16-port switch to bring improved productivity to enterprises and profitability to service providers. This latest networking innovation from National is a complete local area network (LAN) Gigabit switch solution with all the building blocks from the company's analog portfolio, offering the lowest cost per port and lowest power consumption with highest Gigabit performance over existing CAT-5 copper cabling. This is the first in a family of National's Ethernet switch solutions that will include higher port densities and innovations such as in-line power and remote environmental monitoring.

"Within Enterprise the fastest growing segment is LAN switching," said Steve Rago, Principal Analyst of Networking and Optical Practice at iSuppli Corp., a market research firm. "National Semiconductor's entry into the Gigabit Ethernet switch market is definitely the right product at the right time. This entry should enable National to gain market share in this high growth segment." iSuppli in its latest Networking report estimated that worldwide revenue for the enterprise LAN switch and hub market is expected to reach $14 billion this year, and increase to $20 billion in 2006.

Gigabit Switch Made More Affordable

Targeting desktop and workgroup switch applications, National's new 16-port Gigabit Ethernet switch, the DP83016, is a single-chip, full-featured Layer-2 switch-on-a-chip with integrated management interfaces. Optimized for cost-effective 16-port Gigabit Ethernet switch systems, the new device requires only five additional integrated circuits (ICs) for a complete 16-port Gigabit switch reference design developed on six layers of PCB board, which translates to dramatic cost savings. The DP83016 switch enables an easy upgrade to a 24-port switch system with only one additional switch IC.

"National Semiconductor is a leader in Ethernet innovation. Our entry into the Gigabit switch market draws upon all of our technologies to deliver the most cost-effective and complete solution to our customers," said Michael Noonen, vice president of Wired Communication Division at National Semiconductor.

True Gigabit Performance at Lower Power

Featuring 32 Gigabit per second (Gbps) internal switching bandwidth and 24 million packets per second (Mpps) forwarding rate, the DP83016 provides non-blocking wire-speed Gigabit performance on all ports and supports both managed and unmanaged operations. Typical power dissipation of the DP83016 switch is only 0.4 watts per port, less than half of competing solutions on the marketplace.

The DP83016's 256Kbytes on-chip frame buffer and memory allocation algorithm provides the most optimum solution without the need for any external memory. Additionally, the DP83016 supports programmable higher layer classification and prioritization to enable enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) support for real-time applications such as voice-over-IP (VoIP).

National's DP83016 interfaces directly to the National's PHY solutions (the DP83864 Quad GigPHYTER(TM)) layer through the IEEE 802.3 Standard Media Independent Interface (MII), the IEEE 802.3ab Gigabit Media Independent Interface (GMII), reduced Gigabit GMII (RGMII) interface, ten bit interface (TBI) as well as Reduced Ten Bit Interface (RTBI).

National Leads Ethernet Innovations

In addition to the standard 16-port Gigabit switch reference design that is available today, National is developing other reference designs that build on National's core competencies to enhance this design. Upcoming designs will leverage National's expertise in power management to provide support for 802.3af (CAT5 in-line power) as well as National's baseboard management controller (uBMC) to enhance and increase the reliability of the switch system by providing real-time feedback on environmental conditions within the switch box. These are just some of the ways National is innovating new and enhanced features that provide reliable and cost-effective total system solutions.

More information about National's complete Gigabit Ethernet solutions is located at: http://networks.national.com .

To Download a high resolution photo visit National's photo gallery at http://www.national.com/company/pressroom/gallery/network.html .

Availability

National Semiconductor's new DP83016 16-port Gigabit Ethernet switch is sampling today. Reference platforms are also available now. Volume production is planned for June 2002.

About National Semiconductor

National Semiconductor is the premier analog company driving the information age. Combining real-world analog and state-of-the-art digital technology, the company is focused on the fast growing markets for wireless handsets; information appliances; information infrastructure; and display, imaging and human interface technologies. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, National reported sales of $2.1 billion for the last fiscal year and employs about 9,800 people worldwide. Additional company and product information is available on the World Wide Web at www.national.com.

NOTE: National Semiconductor is a registered trademark and GigPHYTER is a trademark of National Semiconductor Corporation. All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.