IP178C integrated a 9-port switch controller, SSRAM, and 8 10/100 Ethernet transceivers. Each of the transceivers complies with the IEEE802.3, IEEE802.3u, and IEEE802.3x specifications. The transceivers are designed in DSP approach in 0.18um technology; they have high noise immunity and robust performance.
IP178C operates in store and forward mode. It supports flow control, auto MDI/MDI-X, CoS, port base VLAN, bandwidth control, DiffServ, SMART MAC and LED functions, etc. Each port can be configured as auto-negotiation or forced 10M/100M, full/half duplexmode. Using an EEPROM or pull up.down resistors on specific pins can configure the desired options.
Besides an 8-port switch application, IP178C supports one MII/RMII ports for router application, which supports 7 LAN ports and one WAN port. The external MAC can monitor or configure IP178C by accessing MII registers through SMI.
MII/RMII port also can be configured to be MAC mode. It is used to interface an external PHY to work as an8+1 switch
