Specifications

PL 3120/PL 3150/PL 3170 Power Line Smart Transceiver Data Book 3
The PL Smart Transceivers integrate a Neuron processor core with an ANSI/EIA-709.2 compliant power line
transceiver within a single IC, eliminating the need for an external transceiver. Three variants of PL Smart
Transceivers are available:
• The PL 3120 chip includes self-contained application program memory, RTOS, and application library pre-
programmed in ROM.
• The PL 3150 chip includes both internal memory and an external memory bus.
• The PL 3170 chip includes self-contained application program memory, Interoperable Self Installation (ISI)
protocol, RTOS, and application library pre-programmed in ROM. With the ISI protocol, L
ONWORKS devices
can interoperate automatically or at the push of a button, without requiring the use of an installation tool.
Three Product Families
The following table describes the three PL Smart Transceivers.
Product Name
Model
Number
Maximum
Input
Clock
EEPROM RAM ROM
External
Memory
Interface
IC Package
PL 3120- E4T10 15311R-1000 10 MHz 4 Kbytes 2 Kbytes 24 Kbytes No 38 TSSOP
PL 3170- E4T10 15331R-1000 10 MHz 4 Kbytes 2 Kbytes 24 Kbytes No 38 TSSOP
PL 3150-L10 15321R-960 10 MHz 0.5 Kbytes 2 Kbytes N/A Yes 64 LQFP
The PL 3120 Smart Transceivers are targeted at small form factor designs that require up to 4KB of application code.
The PL 3120 operates at either 6.5536MHz (A-band) or 10.0MHz (C-band), and includes 4KB of EEPROM and 2KB of
RAM. Neuron system firmware (RTOS) along with application libraries is contained in on-chip ROM. The PL 3170
Smart Transceiver is targeted for the home control and automation market. The PL 3170 operates at 10.0MHz (C-band)
only because this is the only band available for this market.
For applications that require more memory, the PL 3150 Smart Transceivers operate at either 6.5536MHz (A-band) or
10.0MHz (C-band), provide 0.5KB of EEPROM and 2KB of RAM, and use a 64 LQFP package. Through an external
memory bus, the PL 3150 Smart Transceiver can address up to 58KB of external memory, of which 16KB is dedicated
to Neuron system firmware.
The embedded EEPROM in both the PL Smart Transceivers can be written up to 10,000 times with no data loss. Data
stored in the EEPROM will be retained for at least 10 years.
All three PL Smart Transceivers have 12 I/O pins which can be configured to operate in one or more of 38 predefined
standard input/output modes. Combining a wide range of I/O models with two on-board timer/counters and hardware
SCI/SPI UART enables the PL Smart Transceivers to interface to application circuits with minimal external logic or
software development.
Power Line Signaling
The underlying signaling technology used in the PL Smart Transceivers was developed and optimized through more
than ten years of field-testing. Over 30 million of the Echelon narrow-band transceivers have been deployed in a wide
range of consumer, utility, building, industrial, and transportation applications worldwide. Features such as narrow-band
BPSK signaling, dual-carrier frequency operation, adaptive carrier and data correlation, impulse noise cancellation, tone
rejection and low-overhead error correction provide superior reliability in the face of interfering noise sources.