With the all-new high performing, small-footprint, 3- to 52-port SparX-5i Ethernet Switches from Microchip Technology, users can now get increased connectivity and network optimization while lowering the costs and speeding up the development process for industrial automation networks. With a range of innovative features and robust, high-temperature operation, these new devices can support a wide variety of applications viz. Internet of Things (IoT), consumer electronics, computing, Industry 4.0 factory automation, and automotive designs.
The new single-chip IEEE standards-based SparX-5i Ethernet Switches support the key TSN IEEE standards needed for a complete real-time communication solution. These include:
- IEEE 1588v2 and IEEE 802.1AS-REV profile for Time Synchronization
- IEEE 802.1Qbv for Traffic Shaping
- IEEE 802.1Qbu/802.3br for Delay Reduction
- IEEE 802.1Qci for Stream Policing
- IEEE 802.1CB for Seamless Redundancy
With these standards in a single chip, users can be sure of end-to-end transmission of high-priority traffic with extremely low latency. In addition to the SparX-5i family, the company also provides the SparX-5 family of enterprise Ethernet switches supporting standard L2/L3 Ethernet with up to 200G of bandwidth, incorporating 100M, 1G, 2.5G, 5G, 10G, and 25 GbE interfaces.
Key Features of SparX-5i Ethernet Switches
- High-performance, full-featured 3- to 52-port 1/2.5/10 Gbps Ethernet switches
- Full VLAN and Quality of Service (QoS) support
- Layer 2 and layer 3 forwarding
- Operations, Administration, Maintenance (OAM), performance monitoring, Service Activation Testing (SAT)
- MEF CE 2.0 Ethernet Virtual Connections (EVCs)
- IEEE 1588v2 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) support
- Audio Video Bridging (AVB) and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) support
- Access Control List (ACL) layer 2, 3, and 4 packet processing
- Fault tolerance redundancy engine
- Enhanced link diagnostics
- Low-power, energy-efficient, enhanced power management
- Flexible management via SPI, I2C, SMI, or In-Band management
Microchip also offers an Ethernet Switch and PHY Application Programming Interface (VSC6803API) – MESA – providing a comprehensive, user-friendly function library that is operating-system independent. Evaluation boards and reference designs are also available upon request. These new SparX-5i and SparX-5 switches are available in volume production from the company website.
