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IC Decap: Motorola XPC860PZP50D4 Communications Controller

XPC860PZP50D4 Package
XPC860PZP50D4 Package

This is a System On Chip from Motorola, designed for network routing applications. This chip contains a hell of a feature set, so I’ll just include an excerpt from the datasheet:

XPC860PZP50D4 Die
XPC860PZP50D4 Die

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PCMCIA Ethernet Card

Front
Front

An old Xircom Ethernet card for a laptop. This uses the old 50 pin PCMCIA interface.

Rear
Rear

Rear of the card with the MAC address & card spec details.

PCB
PCB

PCB removed from the outer shield. Xircom ethernet chipset centre. Special socket on the right fits a RJ-45 adaptor lead.

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Belkin PCMCIA Wi-Fi Card

Top label
Top label

Here is an old Belkin Wireless G network card. This is a PCMCIA version.

Bottom Label
Bottom Label

Here is the bottom of the device, with all the details.

Antenna
Antenna

Plastic antenna cover removed, showing the pair of 2.4GHz etched antennae. There is a pair of LEDs on the upper left of the PCB showing activity & link status.

PCB
PCB

Overall view of the PCB, antennae on the left, RF chipset in centre, WiFi controller IC on right, and PCMCIA socket on far right. Can below wireless controller is a quartz crystal for the clock.

Chipset
Chipset

Closeup of the chipset, a Ralink RT2560F wireless controller on the right & a RT2525L transceiver on the left.