PRELIMINARY
This document contains information on a product under development at Advanced Micro Devices. The
information is intended to help you evaluate this product. AMD reserves the right to change or discontinue
work on this proposed product without notice.
Publication# 20183 Rev: BAmendment/0
Issue Date: April 1997 1
Am79C930
PCnet™-Mobile
Single-Chip Wireless LAN Media Access Controller
DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS
■
Capable of supporting the IEEE 802.11 standard
(draft)
■
Supports the Xircom Netwave™ media access
control (MAC) protocols
■
Supports MAC layer functions
■
Individual 8-byte transmit and 15-byte receive
FIFOs
■
Integrated intelligent 80188 processor for MAC
layer functions
■
Glueless PCMCIA bus interface conforming to
PC Card standard—Feb. 1995
■
Full PCMCIA software interface support for PC
Card standard—Feb. 1995
■
Glueless ISA (IEEE P996) bus interface with full
support for Plug and Play release 1.0a
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Glueless SRAM interface for MAC operations,
supporting up to 128 Kbytes of memory
■
Glueless Flash memory interface, supporting
up to 128 Kbytes of non-volatile memory for
MAC control code, PCMCIA configuration
parameters, and ISA Plug and Play
configuration parameters
■
Provides integrated Transceiver Attachment
Interface (TAI), supporting Frequency-Hopping
Spread Spectrum, Direct Sequence Spread
Spectrum, and infrared physical-layer
interfaces
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Antenna diversity selection support
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Fabricated with submicron CMOS technology
with low operating current
■
Supports dual 3 V and 5 V supply applications
■
Low-power mode allows reduced power
consumption for critical battery-powered
applications
■
144-pin Thin Quad Flat Pack (TQFP) package
available for space-critical applications, such as
PCMCIA
■
JTAG Boundary Scan (IEEE 1149.1) test access
port for board-level production test
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
PCnet-Mobile (Am79C930) is the first in a series of mo-
bile networking products in AMD’s PCnet family. The
Am79C930 device is the first single-chip wireless LAN
media access controller (MAC) supporting the IEEE
802.11 (draft) standard and the Xircom Netwave™
MAC protocols. The Am79C930 device is designed to
have a flexible protocol engine to allow for industry
standard and proprietary protocols. Protocol firmware
for Xircom Netwave and IEEE 802.11 (draft) MAC pro-
tocols are supplied by AMD. It is pin-compatible with
the PCMCIA bus or the ISA (Plug and Play) bus
through a pin-strapping option.
The Am79C930 device contains a PCMCIA/ISA bus
interface unit (BIU), a MAC control unit, and a
transceiver attachment interface (TAI). The TAI sup-
ports frequency-hopping spread spectrum, direct
sequence spread spectrum, and infrared physical layer
interfaces. In addition, a power down function has been
incorporated to provide low standby current for power-
sensitive applications.
The Am79C930 device provides users with a media ac-
cess controller that has flexibility (i.e., bus interface,
protocol, and physical layer support) to allow the
design of multiple products using a single device. By
having all the necessary MAC functions on a single
chip, users only need to add memory and the physical
layer in order to deliver a fully functional wireless LAN
connection.