ethernet MAC and switch

Hello friends,

I Have just started going through ethernet.my doubt is what is the main functionality of Ethernet MAC??? In switch controller implementation on FPGA does 4 tranceivers require 4 Ethernet MAC's???if so why??Because the source and the destination systems will have ethernet controller and MAC built in???please answer these questions.It's haunting me.

Thanks. Regards, Hema.

In my university project i had a little touch with ethernet mac. can
you rephrase your question?... i didn't understand the problem..
perhaps i could help..

Guy


hema wrote:
> Hello friends,
>
> I Have just started going through ethernet.my doubt is what is the main functionality of Ethernet MAC??? In switch controller implementation on FPGA does 4 tranceivers require 4 Ethernet MAC's???if so why??Because the source and the destination systems will have ethernet controller and MAC built in???please answer these questions.It's haunting me.
> 
> Thanks. Regards, Hema.

A switch receive, store and then re-send the packet. (Well, in a store
and forward architecture ... it could resen don the fly some packet but
that's beside the point).

So essentially it has a "network card" at each of it's port and
therefore requires a MAC, that will talk to the PHY and ensure the
"on-wire" protocol is respected, check checksum, interpacket gap, send
pause frames, ... As a switch needs some "intelligence" to do it's job,
it needs this. You can probably use simplified MAC in some aspect but
that stills statys a MAC ... (Medium Access Controller -> control
what's going on on the wire).

Sylvain


On Jan 24, 10:35 am, hema <ashu_19_1...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello friends,
>
> I Have just started going through ethernet.my doubt is what is the main functionality of Ethernet MAC??? In switch controller implementation on FPGA does 4 tranceivers require 4 Ethernet MAC's???if so why??Because the source and the destination systems will have ethernet controller and MAC built in???please answer these questions.It's haunting me.
> 
> Thanks. Regards, Hema.