Hi all, I want to implement ethernet but I have no exprience about ethernet. Can you please recommend some thing. I can use precessor (M16C) or FPGA. I haven't got FPGA development board yet and maybe i can't buy because i have money problem. I think if I use FPGA I don't need ethernet controller If I can write it :). I have try some projects like as uart, I2C on the Nuhorizons CR2 Development board. What should i do? Thank to all
ethernet
Started by ●May 24, 2005
Reply by ●May 24, 20052005-05-24
Designing a Eth Mac while have its own challenges it is not "too" difficult, however you need to consider two thing first - Base on how much experience you have it can take from few weeks to few years. What requirement you have for the Mac which can be as very simple or very complicated. For example even a simple question like do you need to support half duplex can add to the complexity not to mention learning etc. (Incase you are not familiar with Eth at all using the I2C you design there are as you now know several I2C controller, a slave only a master only a combination a master that support clock stretching, a master that support multi master, a master/slave that support 10 bit addressing, higher speed like 400K or 3.4M and so on, a simple slave you can probably finish in a day or two again depend on your experience however a complete full blast master with all the feature will take you a longer and of course the more features the more time you also spend on verification and building the verifiers) If this design is just for your own fun than go ahead if not do consider buying of the shelf Eth Mac there are plenty of flavor out there which will probably cost you less money and time than any other solution you can come with FPGA or cpu. Have Fun.
Reply by ●May 25, 20052005-05-25
Hi, take a look at Opencores Ethernet mac (http://www.opencores.com/projects.cgi/web/ethmac/overview) It's easy to use and works very well. I have used this core in several projects with great success. You only need an external Phy connected to the FPGA (e.g. Intels LXT971A). The businterface to external uc is a wishbone bus (defined by opencores).
Reply by ●May 25, 20052005-05-25
Thanks Berty This is not fun If I can do it I'll earn money (I hope). I must make network for up to 100 devices and every device need 2.5Mbit/s so I think this is not simple. I want to run 10 devices together now. Your I2C example is very good. You can recommend Eth Mac (I think this is ethernet controller like as RTL8100). If I you Eth Mac I think I can done for a month.
Reply by ●May 25, 20052005-05-25
Hi AVG, (http://www.opencores.com/proje=ADcts.cgi/web/ethmac/overview) is verilog? I can write VHDL, can I use it as component?
Reply by ●May 25, 20052005-05-25
Hi, yes you can. Mixed languages designs are no problem. You can instanciate a verilog component inside a vhdl unit without any problems.
Reply by ●May 25, 20052005-05-25
Reply by ●May 25, 20052005-05-25
It depends on your synthesis tool. I do my synthesis with Precision + ISE for Xilinx and with Quartus for Altera. There are no special commands required to synthesise verilog files. You only have to add the verilog files to your synthesis project like your vhdl files. It's really very easy.
Reply by ●May 27, 20052005-05-27
icegray wrote:> I want to implement ethernet but I have no exprience about ethernet.First of all: why do you want to implement an Ethernet controller inside an FPGA chip if there are many specialized chips on the market? FPGA-based peripherals are very expensive (compared to their specialized counterparts), so generally it's not a good idea to buy a larger FPGA chip just to insert popular peripherals (Ethernet, USB etc.) into it. FPGAs are good for reconfigurable circuits, high speed datastream signal processing, driving specialized peripherals (LCDs, CODECs, ADCs etc.), but not for reinventing the wheel. :-)> What should i do?Buy RTL8019 or CS8900 and forget about the problem? Best regards Piotr Wyderski
Reply by ●May 27, 20052005-05-27
icegray wrote:> This is not fun If I can do it I'll earn money (I hope). I must make > network for up to 100 devices and every device need 2.5Mbit/s so I > think this is not simple.Are you sure you really need Ethernet? Perhaps the old good RS485 will do -- it is a lot easier and cheaper, but its bandwidth is comparable to Ethernet's (i.e. 10Mbit/s). Best regards Piotr Wyderski