The BCM5721 is a fully integrated 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet media access control and physical layer transceiver solution for high-performance network applications. The BCM5721 combines a triple-speed, IEEE 802.3 compliant media access controller (MAC), PCI Express bus interface, on-chip buffer memory, and integrated physical layer transceiver in a single device. The BCM5721 is fabricated in a low-voltage silicon process, providing an ultra-low power solution. By itself,the BCM5721 provides a complete single-chip Gigabit Ethernet NIC or LOM solution.

The BCM5721 includes a 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet MAC with full-duplex and half-duplex capability at all speeds. Support for the following 802.3 functions is featured in the MAC:

• VLAN tagging

• Layer 2 priority encoding

• Full-duplex flow control

The transceiver is fully compatible with the IEEE 802.3 standard for auto-negotiation of speed. Additionally, several Plug-and-Play enhancements are included to make the device even more user-friendly. A unique integrated cable analyzer feature allows a user to self-diagnose any issues with the network cabling that could affect the host machine. A link quality indicator LED and a GUI application give installers an instant visual indication of problems. This includes physical wiring defects or channel conditions, such as excessive cable length, return loss, crosstalk, echo, and noise.

Broadcom’s remote cable management and diagnostics software can be used with the device to provide remote management of the cable and a first level of diagnostics and fault isolation.

Target applications of the BCM5721:

• Server PC NIC

• Server PC LOM

Software drivers available:

• Windows NT®, 2000, XP, and 2003

• Linux® 2.2 and 2.4

• NetWare®

• Solaris™ x86

• UNIX®