O V ERVI EW

®

Phone: 949-926-5000

Fax: 949-926-5203

E-mail: info@broadcom.com

Web: www.broadcom.com

BROADCOM CORPORATION

5300 California Avenue,

Irvine, California 92617

© 2007 by BROADCOM CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

5481-PB00-R

04/03/07

the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries

and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective

owners.

BCM5481 Reference Design

The BCM5481 is optimized for low power and small footprint size to

enable uplink and general Gigabit Ethernet connectivity applications. By

lowering system cost and reducing power dissipation, the BCM5481

enables a new class of cost-effective Gigabit Ethernet equipment,

driving the delivery of Gigabit bandwidth to the desktop.

The BCM5481 digital signal processor-based architecture and advanced

power management techniques combine to achieve robust and low

power operation over the existing CAT-5 twisted-pair wiring. The

BCM5481 architecture also meets the requirements of 802.3, 802.3u,

and 802.3ab, but maintains the industry’s highest level of margin over

IEEE requirements for Echo, NEXT, and FEXT. Low power is a key

factor in implementing Gigabit small form factor NICs and uplinks and,

at less than 700 mW per port, the BCM5481 has the industry's lowest

power. Also, the BCM5481 has extremely low EMI emissions, which

reduces the design constraints required to meet EMI emissions

specifications.

In addition to supporting the IEEE 802.3™ standard Gigabit Media

Independent Interface (GMII), the BCM5481 also supports the reduced

gigabit media independent interface (RGMII). RGMII is a reduced pin-

count (12 versus 25) version of the GMII. The small package, multiple

MAC interfaces, and streamlined power supply lowers system cost and

simplifies the system and board level design.

This device is another member of Broadcom's 0.13µ Gigabit copper

PHY family, joining the BCM5461, BCM5461S, BCM5464,

BCM5464S, BCM5482, BCM5482S, BCM5488, and BCM5488S. The

0.13 µm process is the optimal process that offers the best performance,

lowest cost, and lowest power for Gigabit copper solutions. Further,

devices based on the 0.13µ process offer an excellent long-term cost

curve, enabling better cost reduction over time, compared to older

technologies, without having to redesign or requalify a new part.

The BCM5481 incorporates a number of advanced features. The link

quality indicator LED provides installers with immediate visual

notification of any problems with the wiring plant supporting operation

at the desired speed. This includes physical wiring defects that the

BCM5481 cannot automatically correct and channel conditions such as

excessive cable length and return loss, crosstalk, echo, and noise.

Broadcom’s cable analyzer software can be used with the device to

provide remote management of the cable and first-level diagnostics and

fault isolation.

The BCM5481 also has ESD tolerance that exceeds typical industry

standards. This prevents ESD damage not only during manufacturing but

also during cable-sourced electrostatic discharge (CESD) events in the

field. CESD is an ESD event that occurs when an electrically charged

network cable is plugged into a network port, an issue becoming more

prevalent with contemporary cable installations.

BASELINE

WANDER

CORRECTION

TXDAC

PGA

ADC

TIMING &

PHASE

RECOVERY

DFE/

TRELLIS

DECODER

FFE

XTALK

CANCELLER

x3

ECHO

CANCELLER

AUTO-

NEGOTIATION

CLOCK

GENERATOR

BIAS

GENERATOR

VOLTAGE

REGULATOR

MII

REGISTERS

MII

MGMT

CONTROL

LED

DRIVERS

SYMBOL

DECODER/

ALIGNER

SYMBOL

ENCODER

8

TXD[7:0]

TX_EN

TX_ER

GTX_CLK

TXC

CLK125

COL

CRS

RXC

RX_DV

RX_ER

RXD[7:0]

8

FDX (LED2)

ANEN (LED1)

SPD0 (LED3)

MDC

MDIO

F1000(LED4)

TRD[0:3]±

XTALI

XTALO

RDAC

REGSUP[1:2]

REGSENSE[2]

REGBIAS

REG_OUT[1:2]