Publication#
16047
Issue Date:
December 1993
Rev.
B
Amendment
/0
This document contains information on a product under development at Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. The information
is intended to help you to evaluate this product. AMD reserves the right to change or discontinue work on this proposed
product without notice.
5-3
Advanced
Micro
Devices
FASTcard 2
FDDI PC/AT-Based SUPERNET
2 Technology Card (FASTcard)
Dual Attachment Concentrator Board Set and Software Package
PRELIMINARY
TM
DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS
I
IBM PC-AT or compatible plug-in board to
implement an FDDI station
I
Highly integrated: single board DAS, four
master ports per MP board
I
AMD’s FORMAC Plus (Am79C830A) and
AmPHY (Am79C864, Am79865 and Am79866)
second generation FDDI devices
I
128K byte SRAM buffer memory with parity
I
Extensive implementation of station manage-
ment (SMT) services in silicon (including
physical connection management (PCM), sta-
tion insertion and removal, station configura-
tion management and fault detection, isolation
and recovery, and duplicate address detection)
I
Protocol independent—operates with all stan-
dard protocols and network operating systems
I
Built-in interface for external address matching
logic (e.g. CAM)
I
LED status indicators for ring operational and
for port A, port B, and master ports physical
connection
I
Station management (SMT) software and
device drivers for on-board resources
I
Software support package
— pDEMO 2 (demonstration software)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The FASTcard 2 is a PC/AT-based, single MAC, dual at-
tachment FDDI concentrator board-set, based on
AMD’s second generation SUPERNET 2 FDDI devices.
The board set consists of two board types: a dual attach-
ment station (DAS) board, and a master ports (MP)
board. The basic 2-board set configures a 4-station dual
attachment concentrator. By adding additional MP
boards, 8-station or 12-station dual attachment concen-
trators can be configured.
The FASTcard 2 evaluation board uses AMD’s proven
SUPERNET 2 hardware solution to operate as an FDDI
compliant node. The kit can be used as a model design
to base new FDDI development on or it can be used to
debug and test your existing system. The hardware and
software have been tested and revised to make them
more robust and interoperable with multiple vendors’
equipment. In fact, you can use the FASTcard 2 tools to
check your own system for interoperability.
The FASTcard 2 provides complete hardware and soft-
ware tools to implement a FDDI Dual Attachment Sta-
tion (DAS) or a concentrator. Along with the board, the
DAS card comes with pDEMO 2 ( a user interface appli-
cation), user manuals, SUPERNET 2 Data Book, ribbon
cable and connectors, and 10 ft fiber optic cables and
connectors. The Master Port board(s) may be pur-
chased separately to configure a 4, 8 or 12 station dual
attachment concentrator.