Well, the $6 is per 1 piece (appears to be slightly more). Volume pricing might be different, but I don't believe it will be THAT different - I'd bet they'd expect around $4-$5 at 10k-1k.

But it's still not the final price you pay, as you'd need more parts for a minimal system (except the petty things like decoupling capacitors and supply circuitry) - at least an ethernet PHY chip and a transformer/socket. I have no idea how much are these nowadays - anybody knows that, roughly, just for reference?

Using this, you can replace a microcontroller with a module like the popular Lantronics, or, for that matter, some of the Wiznet ones, too. Again, it would be interesting to know, how much are these nowadays. I know there are users who can shed light to these issues here, mind to share some thoughts?

I also wonder what might be the potential applications.

To promote these chips, Wiznet announced a competition together with Circuit Cellar - they held one 2 years ago to support their modules, and the winner constructions did not make me say wow - remote controlled irrigation and LED panel (but there's nothing wrong with these - there are not many things which make me say wow nowadays :-( ).

If it would be me, I would hold a competition to write the best datasheet, the best appnote, and the best development-aiding application. Maybe it's good that I am not a semiconductor manufacturer... ;-)

Jan Waclawek