Am79C960

The PCnet-ISA controller, a single-chip Ethernet controller, is a highly integrated system solution for the PC-AT Industry Standard Architecture (ISA ) architecture. It is designed to provide flexibility and compatibility with any existing PC application. This highly integrated 120-pin VLSI Am79C960  is specifically designed to reduce parts count and cost, and addresses applications where higher system throughput is desired. The PCnet-ISA controller is fabricated with AMD's advanced low-power CMOS process to provide low stand by current for power sensitive applications.

The Am79C960 is a DMA-based device with a dual architecture that can be configured in two different operating modes to suit a particular PC application. In the Bus Master Mode all transfers are performed using
the integrated DMA controller. This configuration enhances system performance by allowing the Am79C960 to bypass the platform DMA controller and directly address the full 24-bit memory space. The implementation of Bus Master Mode allows minimum parts count for the majority of PC applications. The PCnet-ISA controller can be  onfigured to perform Shared Memory operations for compatibility with lowend machines, such as PC/XTs that do not support Bus Master and high-end machines that require local packet buffering for increased system latency.