There are three variants of the family planned and it is the high-end products that will support Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, as it requires a bonding modification in order to get the required bandwidth from the chip to the external PHY.
The performance improvements come in the form of double-issue execution with can be sustained under the right conditions, along with a four-fold increase in the on-chip memory. Those wishing to evaluate the new devices can order the xCORE-200 eXplorerKIT evaluation board now. Volume pricing for the new devices is expected to be below $5 in high volumes.
X2 for XMOS
In a significant performance upgrade to its multicore MCU platform technology, XMOS has announced it can now support a Gigabit Ethernet MAC in firmware. It will be accessible through its latest generation of devices; the xCORE-200 family.