The MB86960 Network Interface Controller with Encoder/Decoder (NICETM) is a high-performance, highly integrated monolithic device which incorporates both network controller, complete with buffer management, and Manchester encoder/decoder. It allows implementation of a 7-chip solution for an Ethernet interface when used with either of Fujitsu's bus interface chips, the MB86953 for PC/XT/AT or the MB86954 for Micro ChannelTM, and either of Fujitsu's transceiver chips, the MBL8392A coaxial transceiver or MB86962 10BASE-T twisted-pair transceiver. The unique buffer management architecture of the MB86960 allows packet data to access a buffer memory area from the host and from the network media simultaneously, with virtually no interaction. The network controller updates all receive and transmit pointers internally, thus reducing the software overhead required to control these operations, resulting in superior benchmark speed and application performance. The NICE device has a partitionable 2, 4, 8, or 16 kilobyte,