The Realtek RTL8411B-CG/RTL8411BN-CG 10/100/1000M Ethernet controller combines a triple-speed IEEE 802.3 compatible Media Access Controller (MAC) with a triple-speed Ethernet transceiver, PCI Express bus controller, and embedded One-Time-Programmable (OTP) memory. With state-of-the-art DSP technology and mixed-mode signal technology, the RTL8411B/RTL8411BN offers high-speed transmission over CAT 5 UTP cable or CAT 3 UTP (10Mbps only) cable. Functions such as Crossover Detection & Auto-Correction, polarity correction, adaptive equalization, and timing recovery are implemented to provide robust transmission and reception capability at high speeds.
The RTL8411B/RTL8411BN supports the PCI Express 1.1 bus interface for host communications with power management, and is compatible with the IEEE 802.3u specification for 10/100Mbps Ethernet and the IEEE 802.3ab specification for 1000Mbps Ethernet. It also features a built-in PCI Express 1.1 compatible card reader controller; integrating a PCI Express Transceiver, switching regulator, LDO regulator and memory card access units into a single chip.
The RTL8411B/RTL8411BN supports Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo, Secure Digital, Secure Digital eXtended Capacity, and MultiMediaCard, in a 1-LUN (Logical Unit Number) configuration (which means only one of these memory cards can be inserted into the RTL8411B/RTL8411BN system at one time). The device also supports an auxiliary power auto-detect function, and will auto-configure related bits of the PCI power management registers in PCI configuration space. The RTL8411B/RTL8411BN features embedded One-Time-Programmable (OTP) memory.
Advanced Configuration Power management Interface (ACPI)—power management for modern operating systems that are capable of Operating System-directed Power Management (OSPM)—is supported to achieve the most efficient power management possible. PCI MSI (Message Signaled Interrupt) and MSI-X are also supported.
In addition to the ACPI feature, AMD Magic Packet and Microsoft Wake-Up Frame are supported in both ACPI and APM (Advanced Power Management) environments. To support WOL from a deep power down state (e.g., D3cold, i.e., main power is off and only auxiliary exists), the auxiliary power source must be able to provide the needed power for the RTL8411B/RTL8411BN. To further reduce power consumption, the RTL8411B/RTL8411BN also supports PCIe L1.Off and L1.Snooze.
The RTL8411B/RTL8411BN supports Protocol offload. It offloads some of the most common protocols to NIC hardware in order to prevent spurious wake-up and further reduce power consumption. The RTL8411B/RTL8411BN can offload ARP (IPv4) and NS (IPv6) protocols while in the D3 power saving state.
The RTL8411B/RTL8411BN supports the ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) proxy for sleeping hosts standard. The standard specifies maintenance of network connectivity and presence via proxies in order to extend the sleep duration of higher-powered hosts. It handles some network tasks on behalf of the host, allowing the host to remain in sleep mode for longer periods. Required and optional behavior of an operating proxy includes generating reply packets, ignoring packets, and waking the host.
The RTL8411B/RTL8411BN supports IEEE 802.3az-2010, also known as Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE). IEEE 802.3az-2010 operates with the IEEE 802.3 Media Access Control (MAC) Sublayer to support operation in Low Power Idle mode. When the Ethernet network is in low link utilization, EEE allows systems on both sides of the link to save power.
The RTL8411B/RTL8411BN is fully compatible with Microsoft NDIS5, NDIS6 (IPv4, IPv6, TCP, UDP) Checksum and Segmentation Task-offload (Large send and Giant send) features, and supports IEEE 802 IP Layer 2 priority encoding and IEEE 802.1Q Virtual bridged Local Area Network (VLAN). The above features contribute to lowering CPU utilization, especially benefiting performance when in operation on a network server.
The RTL8411B/RTL8411BN supports Receive Side Scaling (RSS) to hash incoming TCP connections and load-balance received data processing across multiple CPUs. RSS improves the number of transactions per second and number of connections per second, for increased network throughput.
The device also features interconnect PCI Express technology. PCI Express is a high-bandwidth, low-pin-count, serial, interconnect technology that offers significant improvements in performance over conventional PCI, and also maintains software compatibility with existing PCI infrastructure. The device embeds an adaptive equalizer in the PCIe PHY for ease of system integration and excellent link quality. The equalizer enables the length of the PCB traces to reach 20 centimeters.
In the RTL8411B/RTL8411BN, the bandwidth of the PCI Express link is shared by the Card Reader and Ethernet Controller. Due to the limited bandwidth on the PCI Express link, a controllable priority selection mechanism is implemented. Board designers can control the system to operate in one of the following modes: Card Reader First mode, Ethernet Controller First mode, or Racing mode.
The RTL8411B/RTL8411BN is suitable for multiple market segments and emerging applications, such as desktop, mobile, workstation, server, communications platforms, and embedded applications.
Hardware
Integrated 10/100/1000M transceiver
Auto-Negotiation with Next Page capability
Supports PCI Express 1.1
Supports 1-Lane 2.5Gbps PCI Express Bus
Supports pair swap/polarity/skew correction
Crossover Detection & Auto-Correction
Wake-On-LAN support
Supports Two-Wire Serial Interface (TWSI) EEPROM (RTL8411BN only)
Embedded OTP memory
Transmit/Receive on-chip buffer support
Supports hardware ECC (Error Correction Code) function
Supports hardware CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) function
Customizable LEDs
Controllable LED Blinking Frequency and Duty Cycle
Built-in switching regulator
Built-in LDO regulator
Supports PCI MSI (Message Signaled Interrupt) and MSI-X
Supports LTR (Latency Tolerance Reporting)
Supports 16-set 128-byte Wake-Up Frame pattern exact matching
Supports Microsoft WPD (Wake Packet Detection)
Supports PCIe L1.Off and L1.Snooze
Embeds an adaptive equalizer in PCI Express PHY (PCB traces to reach up to 20cm)
Supports power down/link down power saving/PHY disable mode/LAN disable mode
Supports memory card interfaces
Secure Digital (SD v3.0, UHS mode), SDHC (up to 32GB), SDXC (up to 2TB), Mini-SD, Micro-SD (T-flash)
MultiMediaCard (MMC v4.2), RS-MMC, Mobile-MMC, MMC-micro, and MMC-plus
Memory Stick (MS v1.43), Memory Stick PRO (MS-PRO v1.03), MS Duo, MS-PRO Duo, Micro-MS (M2), MS PRO-HG Duo v1.01 8-bit mode, and MSXC (up to 2TB)
On-chip MOSFET with 800mA capability for direct power control of all types of memory cards
64-pin QFN (RTL8411BN) and 48-pin QFN (RTL8411B) packages (Green package)
Card Reader First/Ethernet First mechanism to set priority for accessing bandwidth of the PCIe link
Software Offload
Microsoft NDIS5, NDIS6 Checksum Offload (IPv4, IPv6, TCP, UDP) and Segmentation Task-offload (Large send and Giant send) support
Supports jumbo frame to 9K bytes
Supports Quad Core Receive-Side Scaling (RSS)
Supports EMAC-393 ECMA ProxZzzy Standard for sleeping hosts
Supports Protocol Offload (ARP & NS)
IEEE
Fully is compatible with IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.3ab
Supports Full Duplex flow control (IEEE 802.3x)
Supports IEEE 802.1P Layer 2 Priority Encoding
Supports IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging
Supports IEEE 802.3az-2010 (EEE)
PCI Express 10/100/1000M Ethernet on Motherboard, Notebook, or Embedded system