Toshiba Expands Line-up of Ethernet Bridge ICs for Automotive Information Communications Systems and Industrial Equipment

– Equipped with two 10Gbps Ethernet AVB/TSN ports and three PCIe® Gen 3 switch ports –

January 12, 2022

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation

Toshiba Expands Line-up of Ethernet Bridge ICs for Automotive Information Communications Systems and Industrial Equipment

KAWASAKI, Japan—Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation ("Toshiba") has added “TC9563XBG” to its line-up of Ethernet bridge ICs, to provide support for 10Gbps communications in automotive information communications systems and industrial equipment. Sample shipments have started and volume production will start in August 2022.

Automotive networks are evolving toward zone architecture[1], where communications between zones use real-time, multi-gig[2] transmission via Ethernet at a rate of 1Gbps or higher. The new bridge IC has Toshiba’s first 2-port 10Gbps Ethernet, and the interface can be selected from USXGMII, XFI, SGMII, and RGMII[3]. The two ports support Ethernet AVB[4] and TSN[5], which facilitate real-time processing and synchronous processing, respectively. They also support “simplified” SR-IOV (virtual functions)[6]. The combination of these features in the new product delivers solutions suited to next-generation automotive networks.

As the speeds of communications devices continue to increase, the new IC can be used not only for zone architecture but also for various automotive applications such as IVI and telematics, and also in industrial equipment. It is also positioned to be a successor to current TC9560 and TC9562 series products supporting 1Gbps Ethernet.

In recent years, more and more devices have been equipped with PCIe interfaces for device-to-device communications, such as Wi-Fi®, and the host SoC tends to run short of PCIe interfaces. TC9563XBG has three PCIe Gen 3 switch ports for communications with the host SoC and connection to devices equipped with PCIe interfaces. The PCIe switch part is configured with one 4-lane upstream port for connection with the host SoC and two 1-lane downstream ports for connection to devices with a PCIe interface. Using the 3-port PCIe switch function for connections to such devices can help mitigate PCIe interface shortages.

TC9563XBG will be AEC-Q100 Grade 3[7] qualified.

Notes:
[1] Zone architecture: A network configuration expected to be used for next generation automotive networks, in which a vehicle is divided into multiple zones that communicate with each other at high speeds for collaborative operation.
[2] Multi-gig: Multi-Gigabit Ethernet (2.5Gbps to 10Gbps). Recent automotive networks require a bandwidth larger than 1Gbps.
[3] USXGMII, XFI, SGMII, RGMII: Standards for Ethernet interfaces. USXGMII = Universal Serial 10 Gigabit Media Independent Interface; XFI = 10 Gigabit serial Interface; SGMII = Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface; RGMII = Reduced Gigabit Media Independent Interface.
[4] Ethernet AVB: IEEE802.1 Audio/Video Bridging. A standard for handling audio and video data using Ethernet standard technology.
[5] Ethernet TSN: IEEE802.1 Time-Sensitive Networking. A standard for data transmission with lower latency than AVB.
[6] SR-IOV: Single Root I/O Virtualization. A standard that supports virtualization on PCI devices.
[7] AEC-Q100 Grade 3: Test standards formulated by the automotive industry for certifying reliability of ICs.

Applications

  • Automotive infotainment
  • Automotive telematics
  • Automotive gateways
  • Industrial equipment

Features

  • 2 10Gbps Ethernet ports (selectable from USXGMII, XFI, SGMII or RGMII)
  • 3 PCIe Gen3 switch ports
  • To be AEC-Q100 Grade 3 qualified.

Main Specifications

Part number

TC9563XBG

CPU Core

Arm® Cortex®-M3

HOST (external application)

Interfaces

  • PCIe® I/F: Gen3.0(8GT/s)  3 ports switch
    Upstream: 1 port × 4 lanes
    Downstream: 2 ports each x1 lane

    Supports low power states of L0s, L1 and L1 PM substate as power management

    Simplified SR-IOV (virtual function) available

Automotive interfaces

  • Ethernet AVB, built-in MAC with TSN support (2 ports)

    Supported interfaces are:
    PortA: Selectable from USXGMII, XFI, and SGMII
    PortB: Selectable from USXGMII, XFI, SGMII, and RGMII

    Communication speed is:
    If USXGMII is selected: 2.5G/5G/10Gbps
    If XFI is selected: 10M/100M/1000M/2.5G/5G/10Gbps
    If SGMII is selected: 10M/100M/1000M/2.5Gbps
    If RGMII is selected: 10M/100M/1000Mbps

Peripheral interfaces

  • Selectable from I2C or SPI
  • UART 1ch
  • Interrupt port
  • GPIO

Supply voltage

Selectable from 1.8V/3.3V (IO)
1.8V (USXGMII/XFI/SGMII/RGMII)
1.8V (PCIe, PLL, OSC)
0.9V (Core)

Package

P-FBGA 220 balls, 10mmx10mm, 0.65mm pitch

See the URL below for further details on the new product.
TC9563XBG

See the URL below for more on Toshiba’s Automotive Ethernet Bridge ICs.
Automotive Ethernet Bridge ICs

* Arm and Cortex are registered trademarks of Arm limited (or its subsidiaries) in the US and/or elsewhere.
* Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of Wi-Fi Alliance.
* PCIe® and PCI Express® are registered trademarks of PCI-SIG.
* Other Company names, product names, and service names may be trademarks of their respective companies.

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