Advanced silicon communications controllers

Communications controllers are increasingly becoming highly sophisticated systems integrated on a single silicon chip. The level of on-chip integration coupled with both creative system support features has provided superb flexibility that allows the transport of multiple distinct protocols and power to connect to and process multiple wide band communication channels emanating from potentially diverse interfaces. Silicon communication controllers have the task to efficiently transfer data to and from memory. However, the selection of a particular communication controller is based upon system architecture considerations. This paper attempts to analyze the main characteristics of representative advanced silicon communications controllers and their suitability in certain system architectures, and hence their impact on system performance