Infineon's new PHY IC for Gigabit home networking applications

Infineon has introduced the energy efficient Gigabit Ethernet Physical Layer integrated circuit (IC) to the market. The new XWAY PHY11G IC compliant with EEE guidelines for energy efficiency, and is small footprint IC for Gigabit home networking applications such as broadband applications, including xDSL and PON Routers in home gateway solutions, IP phones, PC motherboards, and consumer applications like IP-TVs, IP set-top boxes, game consoles and printers.

The PHY for enabling high-speed data transmission at throughputs of 1 Gbit/s broadband connectivity, compared to 100 Mbit/s networks.

The XWAY PHY11G IC based on the IEEE 802.3az standard and the PHY reduces its energy use by up to 90 percent (50 mW instead of 500 mW) during periods of idle, when there is no data traffic over the Ethernet link. Typical Gigabit PHY ICs do not have this low power mode.

"Support for Energy Efficient Ethernet is the most important feature of the XWAY PHY11G, since it will help our customers deliver value in terms of actual energy savings for purchasers of home network gear. For example, if the 150 million PHYs in home networks today were replaced by our Infineon solution, it would save 500 Gigawatt-Hours a year, which is equivalent to the yearly capacity of a coal-burning power plant," said Christian Wolff, President of the Wireline Communications Division at Infineon Technologies. "With the XWAY PHY11G family, we now provide our customers with a portfolio of solutions to address the burgeoning Gigabit home networking market."

The XWAY PHY11G family includes Single-Port Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) PHY ICs supporting half and full duplex modes at 10base-T, 10base-Te, 100base-TX, 1000base-T and 1000base-X exceeding the IEEE standards performance requirements. The PHY is manufactured in 65nm process technology and available in two small packages, the VQFN-48 and the LQFP-64 package setting new footprint standards with only 7mm x 7mm and 12mm x 12mm respectively. The device operating voltage ranging from 2.5V to 3.3V using its integrated DC/DC switching regulator.

Infineon also offers the XWAY PHY22F, a dual-port Fast Ethernet PHY with the same EEE features.

Availability: From Q4 2009.