VLSI Introduces Ruby II PCMCIA Controller

PCMCIA has come a long way since its humble beginnings as a memory add-on standard. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to find diverse functions ranging from multimedia sound to SCSI adapters forged together on a single card, with increased complexity coming soon.

To meet the additional performance requirements of these new adapters, VLSI has introduced a general-purpose PCMCIA controller that integrates communication peripherals and power management with a 32-bit ARM RISC processor. The controller, dubbed the Ruby II, is ideal for a range of high-performance PCMCIA applications including GSM data cards (for wide-area wireless), wireless local area networks, and secure communication systems.

Ruby II, which is also suitable for the desktop standards of ISA, EISA, and MCA, can be used with imaging, sound, and other communication systems. The new controller represents an enhancement to the Ruby I controller which was introduced in April, 1994.

Ruby II, operating at 32 MHz, integrates two UARTs, an SCC, a PIO, and a two/three wire serial controller together with internal high-speed SRAM, an interrupt controller, and communications controller. The ARM RISC processor relies on a simplified instruction set to provide single-cycle instruction execution, achieving 0.33 MIPS/mA and giving it one of the best MIPS/dollar ratio.

The Ruby II also features four power management modes that tend to reduce the battery requirements for a device built around it. The controller has a suite of development tools including a compiler, assembler, graphical debugger and development cards.

VLSI Technology, Inc.
Wireless Products Division
Tom Wiley
1109 MacKay Drive
San Jose, CA 95131
(408) 434-7969