Modern portable computers and smart mobile devices in today’s smart world, emphasize portability, lightness, thinness, and power efficiency. ASIX AX88179A USB 3.2 Gen1 to Gigabit Ethernet Controller provides the best wired networking solution to obtain a stable high-speed wired network connection through USB interface.
Since Apple introduced the world’s thinnest notebook, MacBook Air in 2008, most of portable computers and smart mobile devices, such as laptops/tablets/smartphones, emphasize portability, lightness, thinness, and power efficiency. Following the innovation of computer expansion slot technology, USB (Universal Serial Bus) technology supports many convenient functions such as low pin count, hot-swapping, plug-and-play, high-current fast charging, etc., and has been widely used in various computer peripherals, laptops, tablets, smartphones, handheld devices, smart mobile devices, etc. The USB technology has become one of the most important computer peripheral expansion bus technologies in today’s smart world.
In order to achieve thin and light hardware design, modern portable computers and smart mobile devices support standard USB interface for data communication and power charging; they also support Wi-Fi or 4G/5G LTE network interface for network communication, but no longer support built-in wired Ethernet interface. However, due to the influence of surrounding environment, the wireless network connection may become unstable and the network throughput may be low. The USB Ethernet technology is the best wired networking solution for thin and light smart mobile devices to obtain a stable high-speed wired network connection through USB interface.
ASIX AX88179A is a USB 3.2 Gen1 to Gigabit Ethernet Controller with integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet PHY. AX88179A supports Windows 11/10/8.x, Linux/Android/Chrome OS, Nintendo Switch built-in drivers, and macOS/Linux native CDC-NCM driver for driverless and plug & play.
The AX88179A is an easy-to-design, small form factor and cost-efficient USB 3.2 to Gigabit Ethernet solution and is suitable for desktop/industrial computers, laptops, USB Ethernet dongles, docking stations, game consoles, smart mobile devices, POS stations, smart cameras/set-top boxes, 5G/LTE router/gateway, etc. smart home and office applications.
ASIX provides complete AX88179A hardware design materials for customer reference, such as reference schematics, PCB/Gerber layout files and application design notes. Designers can easily implement AX88179A on any target application, which requires support for Gigabit Ethernet wired network connectivity through USB 3.2 interface, and the time schedule of AX88179A hardware design can be greatly shortened.
ASIX supports complete software supporting for ASIX USB Ethernet controllers, including Apple macOS, Windows 11/10/8.x, Linux/Android/Chrome OS, UEFI X64/ARM and other drivers, as well as mass production test tool, etc. Once finishing ASIX USB Ethernet hardware design, designers can install ASIX USB Ethernet drivers directly to verify the network functionality of your own USB Ethernet products without additional software development effort.
ASIX AX88179A USB 3.2 Gen1 to Gigabit Ethernet Controller offers convenient driverless and Plug & Play software support. The AX88179A is software backward compatible with AX88179, can support AX88179 built-in drivers on Windows 11/10/8.x, Linux/Android/Chrome OS and Nintendo Switch platforms; also supports Apple macOS/Linux native CDC-NCM drivers by supporting USB-IF CDC-ECM and CDC-NCM functions. Users only need to plug the AX88179A USB Ethernet adapter into these platforms to get a stable high-speed wired network connection without manually installing any driver.
Some game consoles, such as the Nintendo Switch, only support Wi-Fi wireless networks. In order to provide users with a more stable and high-speed online service experience, Nintendo had implemented ASIX USB Ethernet build-in driver on the Switch operating system. Users only need to plug an AX88179A USB Ethernet adapter onto Switch game console or docking station, and then can access Nintendo online services with a stable high-speed wired network connection directly.
Every network device requires a unique MAC address. Therefore, it is necessary to program a unique MAC address onto AX88179A embedded eFuse or external Flash memory, and then perform basic network tests in factory. ASIX provides AX88179A Windows Mass Production Test Tool, which supports online AX88179A eFuse/Flash programming and basic network function testing, to improve the mass production efficiency in factory.
Users can run a free iPerf3 network throughput test tool (https://iperf.fr/) to measure the network throughput values of AX88179A on various Apple macOS, Windows, Linux/Android/Chrome platforms. In addition to the convenient driverless and plug & play software support; AX88179A also supports excellent network performance with low CPU utilization. According to the iPerf3 network throughput test results, operating at USB 3.2 Gen1 and 1000M full-duplex mode, the Tx and Rx network throughput of AX88179A can reach 940Mbps, and the CPU utilization rate is as low as 4%. Below are examples of iPerf3 network throughput test commands for server and client sites.
iPerf3 Server PC (IP: 192.168.0.100): iperf3 -s
iPerf3 Client PC (IP: 192.168.0.200): iperf3 -c 192.168.0.100 -i 5 -t 100
In response to the global trend of energy efficient products, AX88179A supports advanced power management functions, such as NDIS communication protocol offload (ARP & NS), ECMA-393 ProxZzzy for sleeping hosts, Microsoft Modern Standby, it can greatly reduce the power consumption in sleep mode. The power consumption of AX88179A is about 0.65 watts, operating at USB 3.2 and 1000M Full-duplex mode; it is greatly reduced to about 0.09 watts while enabling Low-power Wake On LAN (WOL) and entering the sleep mode, and is close to 0 watts while disabling WOL and entering the sleep mode.
Usually, traditional Ethernet chips still stays in normal operation mode after the network cable was disconnected, and it will continue to consume more power consumption when the network cable is unplugged. AX88179A supports a unique “AutoDetach” power saving function, which can greatly reduce unnecessary power consumption in this case. After enabling the “AutoDetach” power saving mode, AX88179A will automatically detach from the USB host and enter power saving mode (with about 0.06 watts power consumption) while detecting a network cable disconnect event; when it detects that the network cable is plugged in, AX88179A will automatically return to normal operation mode again. The unique “AutoDetach” power saving function can greatly reduce unnecessary power consumption when the network cable is unplugged during normal operation mode.
Smart home, smart office, smart factory, smart city, smart transportation, etc., everything in the smart world can be connected to the Internet. How can all connected devices synchronize their time accurately? The IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) technology is an excellent solution to this precise time synchronization market need. ASIX AX88179A supports IEEE 1588v2 and 802.1AS Precision Time Protocol (PTP) functions to meet this market demand for precise time synchronization. According to the actual measurement results on the Linux platform, the precise synchronization time between two AX88179A devices can reach 35ns.
All modern portable computers and smart mobile devices in today’s smart world, emphasize portability, lightness, thinness, and power efficiency. ASIX AX88179A provides an easy-to-design, easy-to-use, cost-efficient USB 3.2 Gen1 to Gigabit Ethernet controller solution for stable high-speed wired network connection through USB interface. AX88179A supports Windows 11/10/8.x, Linux/Android/Chrome OS, Nintendo Switch built-in drivers, and Apple macOS/Linux native CDC-NCM driver for convenient driverless and plug & play software support. It also supports advanced power management and precision time protocol functions to meet the market demands of energy efficient and precise time synchronization applications. Through the widely used USB communication interface, which supports many convenient functions, such as hot-swapping, plug-and-play, high-current fast charging, the SuperSpeed USB Ethernet solution becomes the best solution to obtain a stable high-speed wired network connection through USB interface in the smart world.