Update: 01 October, 2023
SONIC-16 network interface controller is the second-generation Ethernet controller, specially designed to meet the demands of today's high-end 16-bit systems. Its system interface works with a high-speed DMA that typically consumes less than 8% of the bus bandwidth. Selectable bus modes provide both big-endian and little-endian byte ordering and a clean interface to standard microprocessors. SONIC-16's linked list buffer management system offers maximum flexibility in a variety of environments from PC-oriented adapters to high-speed motherboard designs. Furthermore, SONIC-16 integrates a fully compatible IEEE 802.3 Encoder-Decoder (ENDEC) allowing for a simple 2-chip solution for Ethernet when the SONIC-16 is paired with the DP8392 Coaxial Transceiver Interface. For increased performance, SONIC-16 implements a unique buffer management scheme to efficiently process receive and transmit packets in system memory. No intermediate packet copy is necessary. Receive buffer management uses three areas in memory for (1) allocating additional resources, (2) indicating status information, and (3) buffering packet data. During reception, SONIC-16 stores packets in the buffer area, then indicates receive status and control information in the descriptor area.
File format: PDF
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MD5 Checksum: 1979DD78C855CBFD7DCFFCE3066AF8B4
Publication date: 11 June, 2012
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PDF Link: National Semiconductor DP83916 SONIC -16 handbook PDF