PARIS , France — Motorola is working with Power over Ethernet silicon and system specialist PowerDsine Ltd on an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for the emerging PoE market. The companies revealed the joint effort at Motorola's European Smart Networks Developers Conference, which takes place here this week.

The companies have assembled a joint team of about 30 engineers to design 802.3af-compliant chips that will based on Motorola's SMARTMOS8 process and PowerDsine's Power over LAN technology, according to Igal Rotem, co-founder and CEO of PowerDsine (Hod Hasharon, Israel).

The first chip will integrate power, analog and logic functions into one device. Its use in Ethernet switches and midspans-an alternative for power sourcing equipment-will allow next generation network devices to share power and data over the same cable.

"It's a significant project, but clearly the team we have assembled is not starting from scratch, so we hope to have samples of the device to our OEMs making LAN switches by the end of the year, with volume production soon after that," said Rotem.

He added switch makers are now beginning to design the next generation of LAN switches using the PoE technology since the IEEE802.3af working group has fixed the specification. "There are no planned reviews and the standard should be ratified in a few weeks, so the industry is now pushing ahead and we see a big market developing for power oven LAN. Eventually, we see all new LAN ports being PoE capable."

The first product from the collaboration will address the needs for 12, 24 and 48-output equipment. Using the ASIC, networking equipment manufacturers can expect to be able to directly integrate power sourcing equipment functionality. Rotem said unlike other semiconductors offered for PoE, the ASIC being designed is expected to provide power to 12 Ethernet ports (15W power per port) through one chip, minimizing the number of external components and reducing overall system costs.

"There is a big cost issue with PoE, and this part will be so integrated and have such functionality that it will help overcome a big element of this," said Rotem.

He said PowerDsine had looked at possible collaboration with other companies that have the process technology needed for such complex and integrated ASICs, such as National Semiocnductor, ST Microelectronics and Supertex, "but we chose Motorola since their SMARTMOS8 had the best high voltage mixed signal technology."

Other companies looking to or already providing devices for the PoE market, and readying parts compliant with the 802.3af specification, include Texas Instruments, Linear Technology and Maxim.

Though PoE is essentially a technology for wired Ethernet, Rotem said it also has the potential to reduces the cost of installing a Wireless LAN access points by up to 50 percent. Because the network's switches also can deliver power through the standard Ethernet infrastructure, the need to connect each access point to a separate electrical circuit and install additional AC power outlets is eliminated.