The Intersil HFA3842 Wireless LAN Medium Access Controller is part of the PRISM® 2.4GHz radio chip set. The HFA3842 directly interfaces with the Intersil HFA386x family of Baseband Processors, offering a complete end-to-end chip set solution for wireless LAN products. Protocol and PHY support are implemented in firmware to allow custom protocol and different PHY transceivers.

Features

• New start up modes allow the PCMCIA Card Information Structure to be initialized from a serial EEPROM. This allows firmware to be downloaded from the host, eliminating the parallel Flash memory device.

• Firmware can be loaded from serial Flash memory.

• Direct attachment to a typical x16 SRAM using five control signals (RAMCS_, MOE_, MWEL_, MLBE_, and MUBE_).

• Low frequency crystal oscillator to maintain time and allow baseband clock source to power off during sleep mode.

• Improved performance of internal WEP engine.

• On-chip execution can now be viewed while in debug mode.

• Independent programmable cycle timing for external chip selects allows attachment of slow memory devices without compromising higher speed instruction execution.

• Pinout is backward compatible with HFA3841.

• IEEE802.11 Standard Data Rates: 1, 2, 5.5 and 11Mbps

• Part of the Intersil PRISM Wireless LAN Chip Set

• Full Implementation of the MAC Protocol Specified in IEEE Standards 802.11-1999 and 802.11b

• PCMCIA Host Interface Supports Full 16-Bit Implementation of PC Card 16 (1995), also ISA PNP with Additional Chip

• Host Interface Provides Dual Buffer Access Paths

• External Memory Interface Supports up to 4M bytes RAM

• Internal Encryption Engine Executes IEEE802.11 WEP

• Low Power Operation; 25mA Active, 8mA Doze, <1mA Sleep

• Operation at 2.7V to 3.6V Supply

• 5V Tolerant Host Interface Input/Outputs

• 128 Pin LQFP Package Targeted for Type II PC Cards

• IEEE802.11 Wireless LAN MAC Protocol Firmware and Microsoft® Windows® Software Drivers

• Pin for Pin Replacement for the HFA3841 Supporting all Functions and operations of the HFA3841

Applications

• High Data Rate Wireless LAN

• PC Card Wireless LAN Adapters

• PCI Wireless LAN Cards (Using Ext. Bridge Chip)

• Wireless LAN Modules

• Wireless LAN Access Points

• Wireless Bridge Products

• Wireless Point-to-Multipoint Systems

• ISA, ISA PNP WLAN Cards