San Jose-based Chips & Technologies Inc claims to have the first dual-protocol local area network chip set. The two-chip ChipsLAN set handles IEEE 802.3 Ethernet and 802.5 Token Ring protocols and is claimed to support high-throughput networking even in a battery-operated environment. For Ethernet, ChipsLAN supports media-rate data transfer between network medium and host memory and for Token Ring it is designed to support data transfer rates of up to 20,000 64-byte frames per second. It supports Ethernet on thick, thin and twisted pair media, Token Ring on shielded and unshielded twisted pair. The two parts are the 82C581 Multi-Protocol LAN Controller and the 82C585 Multi-Protocol LAN Serial Interface. The 82C581 interfaces directly to an 80386 local bus or AT bus, and operates as a bus master, transferring data directly between host memory and the network. The 82C585 is the interface between physical network medium and the 82C581 controller. Sampling at the end of the fourth quarter, the chip set is not yet priced.
