Technical information

1-1

▼▼▼▼

Introduction

The Adaptec AIC-6915, PCI 10/100 Ethernet LAN Controller provides advanced Ethernet

adapter features in a single chip optimized for high-performance and cost effective

Ethernet NICs (Network Interface Cards).

The AIC-6915 integrates all the functions necessary for an Ethernet PCI adapter to directly

connect (via a Medium Independent Interface (MII) -based PHY and line transformer) to

Category 5 unshielded twisted pair (UTP) or shielded twisted pair (STP). The AIC-6915

integrates the following main blocks:

■

Full-featured 2.1 PCI compliant, 32/64-bit master and 32-bit slave bus interface

■

Powerful DMA engine

■

802.3 compliant 10/100 MAC (Medium Access Control) module

■

MII Module

■

100BASE-TX compliant PCS (Physical Signaling) and PMA (Physical Medium

Attachment) modules

The PCI Master uses enhanced data transfer commands to transfer data in zero wait state

bursts. It supports 32- or 64-bit addressing for host buffers and transfers data at up to the

maximum burst rate of 133/266 MBytes/sec with a maximum burst size of up to 2

KBytes. The AIC-6915 provides an External Interface port for access to a ROM/EEPROM

(for add-in card local BIOS support, or boot ROM) and general purpose registers. A

separate 4-wire Serial EEPROM port allows for downloading configuration information

such as the Device ID, Vendor ID, Subsystem ID, Subsystem Device ID and Interrupt line.

The AIC-6915 supports VLAN tagging, IEEE 802.1q and Flow Control as defined by the

IEEE 802.3x specification. The AIC-6915 also provides an MII.

Throughout this document data sizes are defined as follows:

■

Byte = 8-bits

■

Halfword = 16-bits

■

Word = 32-bits

■

Doubleword = 64-bits