National Semiconductor Corp, Santa Clara, California has formed two development agreements, with Cabletron Systems Inc and with Hewlett-Packard Co, for the design of IEEE 802.3 Ethernetworking products. Attempting to capitalise on the growth of Ethernet networks over unshielded twisted pair wiring, NatSemi’s agreement with Cabletron Systems, East Rochester, New Hampshire, covers the joint development of Ethernet IEEE 802.3 local area network repeaters; within a year, the companies are aiming to produce VLSI parts with network management and control capabilities. The device will support the IEEE 802.3 standard for multi-port repeaters and the 10 BASET standard for 10Mbits-per-second transmission over unshielded twisted pair wiring. National Semiconductor is also to work with Hewlett-Packard for joint development of integrated semiconductor and system network products that conform to the IEEE 802.3 10Base-T network standard, which attempts to extend the capabilities of twisted pair telephone wiring to send information at 10Mbps among multi vendor personal and minicomputers. The development will include work on a 10Base-T compliant local net chip set, which will be integrated into Hewlett-Packard’s StarLAN 10 transceiver and multiport repeater products. NatSemi has also introduced a local area networking chip, the CMOS DP83910 Serial Network Interface, that it claims is the first to meet the attenuated power consumption requirements of add-in boards for laptop computers; the adaptor boards allow the machines to be integrated into all IEEE 802.3 Ethernet networks. The DP83910 replaces the bipolar DP8391 Serial Network Interface, but the company claims it consumes less than one third of the power. The new chip is part of NatSemi’s integration plans for its three-piece Ethernet chip set, which includes the DP8390, the DP8391 and the bipolar DP8392 Coaxial Transceiver Interface. Toshiba Corp has already said it will be using the DP83910 in one of its future laptops.
