Post by thread:[EE]:Novell Ether (Hack)?

Hi, has anybody tot of getting a PIC (or other MCU) interfaced to the PHY's MII? Any advise of links to the MII interface? AMD's got some info on the RMII but i'd like to take a peek at the full blown MII. TIA. Terry -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics

u want to interface a PIC to a NIC. .the only cards u get are ISA /PCI cards. so u ned to intrface them to ur PIC.. i ran that query sometime back.. and thats what i got. there doesnt seem to be asimple way of building up a stack on a simple txcvr.. i wonder where these Router companies pick up their stuff? alok > {Original Message removed}

----- Original Message ----- From: Alok Dubey <spam_OUTadubeyTakeThisOuTWIPRO.CO.IN> To: <.....PICLISTKILLspam@spam@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> Sent: Monday, December 04, 2000 4:24 AM Subject: Re: [EE]:Novell Ether (Hack)? > u want to interface a PIC to a NIC. .the only cards u get are ISA /PCI > cards. so u ned to intrface them to ur PIC.. i ran that query sometime > back.. and thats what i got. > there doesnt seem to be asimple way of building up a stack on a simple > txcvr.. i wonder where these Router companies pick up their stuff? > alok The either spend a lot of money writing a stack, or they spend a lot of money buying a stack. Bob Ammerman RAm Systems (contract development of high performance, high function, low-level software) -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics

Ah no... Actually what i had in mind was replacing the MAC with a microcontroller so it'll be the MCU controlling the PHY. Since a dedicated PHY will have the signal conversion required to drive and receive from the isolation transformer, it'll be neater, smaller and think of all the Cat 5 wiring already in the walls. It doesn't have to be a full blown stack, something less advanced that will still allow a PC to toggle a relay or even read a value from. Of course it could be done with RS485 or LVDS but getting it on the Ethernet would give it more potential me thinks. Terry At 02:54 PM 12/4/00 +0530, you wrote: >u want to interface a PIC to a NIC. .the only cards u get are ISA /PCI >cards. so u ned to intrface them to ur PIC.. i ran that query sometime >back.. and thats what i got. >there doesnt seem to be asimple way of building up a stack on a simple >txcvr.. i wonder where these Router companies pick up their stuff? >alok > > > >> {Original Message removed}

>> i wonder where these Router companies pick up their stuff? Almost all of the current generation of ethernet controllers is "system oriented" - most modern chipsets connect directly to a PCI bus. The previous generation (AMD LANCE, Intel 82586) were DMA based (with rather wimpy DMA controllers onchip.) As far as I know, the only byte-IO-oriented ethernet controllers were the (very old) Seeq 8002/8003 chips - a rather large number of these got used in cisco routers, connected to a bitslice microengine or two to do "fancier, smarter, DMA, when needed." I imagine the switch people do something in an ASIC, and these days chip vendors do include hooks in the controllers to allow router and switch like functionality (ie "side" ports that allow external logic to decide whether to finish reception of a packet.) Ethernet isn't that HARD, after all. The oldest cisco gear used the original 3com multibus ethernet cards, which were all SSI/MSI TTL and some PALs (not that densly packed, either.) I'd be surprised if there isn't an "open hardware" FPGA ethernet controller out there somewhere. (I haven't worked with ethernet controllers directly in many years, so the above may be a bit inaccurate. I don't recognize "MII" or "RMII", for instance.) BillW -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics

no i mean the h/ware.. where do they get their h/ware {Quote hidden}> -----Original Message----- > From: Bob Ammerman [SMTP:RAMMERMANKILLspamPRODIGY.NET] > Sent: Monday, December 04, 2000 5:58 PM > To: .....PICLISTKILLspam.....MITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: Re: [EE]:Novell Ether (Hack)? > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Alok Dubey <EraseMEadubeyspam_OUTTakeThisOuTWIPRO.CO.IN> > To: <PICLISTspam_OUTMITVMA.MIT.EDU> > Sent: Monday, December 04, 2000 4:24 AM > Subject: Re: [EE]:Novell Ether (Hack)? > > > > u want to interface a PIC to a NIC. .the only cards u get are ISA /PCI > > cards. so u ned to intrface them to ur PIC.. i ran that query sometime > > back.. and thats what i got. > > there doesnt seem to be asimple way of building up a stack on a simple > > txcvr.. i wonder where these Router companies pick up their stuff? > > alok > > The either spend a lot of money writing a stack, or they spend a lot of > money buying a stack. > > Bob Ammerman > RAm Systems > (contract development of high performance, high function, low-level > software) > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics > (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.