September 23, 2002 - Providing communication access equipment designers with a complete hardware and software development tool, National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) today announced the availability of a new reference design kit for its high-performance, low-power DS92UT16 Utopia Bridge device. National designed the Utopia Bridge to increase port density and performance while reducing the per-port cost in the communication system architecture. With National’s new system development platform, designers will be able to optimize their equipment design. Using this design kit shortens the design cycle in broadband access equipment, 3G base stations, ATM switches, and xDSL access-concentrator applications.
“Communication system designers expect their silicon vendors to provide reference designs with design-in tips to accelerate time-to-market,” said Stephen Kempainen, technical marketing manager for integrated LVDS products at National Semiconductor. “National’s new Utopia-LVDS Bridge Reference Design Kit delivers just what designers need to get their job done easily and quickly.”
National’s multi-purpose Utopia-LVDS (low-voltage differential signaling) Bridge Reference Design Kit demonstrates the DS92UT16 features in all of their operating modes. In these modes, system designers can experiment with variable clock rates to maximize the access system data throughput. The kit has flexible operating control through a PC control panel or directly through a microprocessor port. Additionally, the software drivers can be ordered from National with VxWorks as the operating system environment. These drivers enable a quick start to control the development platform directly from a processor.
National’s Utopia Bridge development platform includes everything necessary to demonstrate and evaluate the DS92UT16 device and is extremely easy to use. The ease-to-use features are, among others, control hardware and software that converts PC LPT port to the DS92UT16’s microprocessor port timing, and two on-board clock oscillators, 33 MHz for the Utopia clocks and 52 MHz for the LVDS clocks. These features allow designers to simply apply power to the platform and immediately start working with the reference design kit.
The evaluation kit includes: One UTOPIA16EVK evaluation board, and a CD-ROM with the user manual, the software, the DS92UT16 datasheet, and the printed circuit board schematic. The one 1-meter cable also comes with the kit. All documentation and schematics are available at: http://lvds.national.com.
Pricing and Availability
The UTOPIA16EVK Reference Design kit from National Semiconductor is priced at $2,499 each and is available now through National Semiconductor’s authorized distributors.
About National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor is the premier analog company driving the information age. Combining real-world analog and state-of-the-art digital technology, the company is focused on the fast growing markets for wireless handsets; displays; information infrastructure, and information appliances. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, National reported sales of $1.5 billion for its most recent fiscal year and has about 10,000 employees worldwide. Additional company and product information is available on the World Wide Web at www.national.com.
###
