ASIX ELECTRONICS CORPORATION Released Date: 4/16/2004
2F, NO.13, Industry East Rd. II, Science-based Industrial Park, Hsin-Chu City, Taiwan, R.O.C.
TEL: 886-3-579-9500 FAX: 886-3-579-9558 http://www.asix.com.tw

AX88178 L
USB to 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet/HomePNA Controller

Features
• Single chip USB to 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
and HomePNA and HomePlug Network Controller
• USB specification 1.0 and 1.1 and 2.0 compliant
• Supports USB Full and High Speed modes with
Bus power capability
• Supports 4 endpoints on USB interface
• High performance packet transfer rate over USB
bus using proprietary burst transfer mechanism
(submitted for US patent application)
• IEEE 802.3, 802.3u, and 802.3ab (10BASE-T,
100BASE-TX, and 1000BASE-T) compatible
• Embedded 20KB SRAM for RX packet buffering
and 20KB SRAM for TX packet buffering
• Supports both full-duplex and half-duplex
operation in Fast Ethernet
• Provides MII/GMII/RGMII interfaces for Ethernet
PHY interface and MII interface for HomePNA/
HomePlug PHY interface
• Supports Jumbo packet of up to 9KB
• Supports Suspend mode and Remote Wakeup via
Link-up, Magic packet, or external pin
• Optional PHY power down during Suspend mode
• Supports 256/512 bytes (93c56/93c66) of serial
EEPROM (for storing USB Descriptors)
• Supports automatic loading of Ethernet ID, USB
Descriptors and Adapter Configuration from
EEPROM after power-on initialization
• External PHY loop-back diagnostic capability
• Integrates on-chip 3.3V to 2.5V voltage regulator
and requires only single power supply: 3.3V
• Small form factor with 128-pin LQFP package
• 12MHz clock input from either crystal or oscillator
source
*IEEE is a registered trademark of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers, Inc.
*All other trademarks and registered trademark are the property of their
respective holders.

Product Description

The AX88178 USB to 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet/HomePNA/HomePlug controller is a high performance and highly
integrated ASIC with embedded 40KB SRAM for packet buffering. It enables low cost and affordable Gigabit Ethernet
network connection to desktop and notebook PC using popular USB ports that are built-in to many PC today. It has an
USB interface to communicate with USB host controller and is compliant with USB specification V1.0, V1.1 and V2.0. It
implements 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet LAN function based on IEEE802.3, IEEE802.3u, IEEE802.3ab standards or
HomePNA standard. It supports media-independent interface (MII) to simplify the design on implementing Fast Ethernet
and HomePNA functions. It also provides gigabit media-independent (GMII) and reduced gigabit media-independent
(RGMII) interface for interfacing with Gigabit Ethernet PHY.


System Block Diagram

















Always contact ASIX for possible updates before starting a design.
This data sheet contains new products information. ASIX ELECTRONICS reserves the rights to modify product specification without notice. No
liability is assumed as a result of the use of this product. No rights under any patent accompany the sale of the product.
AX88178
10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet PHY
Magnetic
RJ45
USB I/F
EEPROM
1/10 Mbps Home LAN PHY
Magnetic
RJ11
Document No: AX88178-02/4/20/2004