Ethernet 10/100/1000 with uC

Hello,

i am searching for an Ethernet controller supporting 10 / 100 / 1000 MBit/s. 
Which interfaces are fast enough to use the 1000 MBit/s ? Must i use a PCI 
based system or are there other busses, which can be used ?

Regards,

       Martin 

Martin Maurer wrote:
> i am searching for an Ethernet controller supporting 10 / 100 / 1000 MBit/s. 
> Which interfaces are fast enough to use the 1000 MBit/s ? Must i use a PCI 
> based system or are there other busses, which can be used ?

I think you'll find that Gig-E chips will all require a PCI bus.  You 
can barely find a 10/100 chip that's not PCI.

If the requirement is for Gig-E connectivity but not 1000Mbps 
throughput, others have suggested PCI-to-ISA bridge chipsets.  Or, there 
are a few MCUs with Gig-E integrated now.

What's the goal / requirement / scenario?

Richard

Martin Maurer wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> i am searching for an Ethernet controller supporting 10 / 100 / 1000 MBit/s. 
> Which interfaces are fast enough to use the 1000 MBit/s ? Must i use a PCI 
> based system or are there other busses, which can be used ?

Tell marketing to fuck off and use a 10 or 10/100 chip.

Hello,

many thanks for your answer !

> If the requirement is for Gig-E connectivity but not 1000Mbps throughput, 
> others have suggested PCI-to-ISA bridge chipsets.  Or, there are a few 
> MCUs with Gig-E integrated now.
> What's the goal / requirement / scenario?

High throughput is a strong requirement for this application (sorry can't 
tell more). It is used to transfer a lot of data via crosscable to local PC.

Can you suggest a PCI chip for this ?

Regards,

        Martin 

Hello,

>> i am searching for an Ethernet controller supporting 10 / 100 / 1000 
>> MBit/s. Which interfaces are fast enough to use the 1000 MBit/s ? Must i 
>> use a PCI based system or are there other busses, which can be used ?
> Tell marketing to fuck off and use a 10 or 10/100 chip.

why do you think this is silly ? With the right chip, interface and fast 
microcontroller / board, do you think you can't reach bandwidth worth to use 
1000 MBit/s ? Do you have any statistics, which bandwidth can be reached by 
certain combinations of ethernet chips and microcontrollers ?

Regards,

       Martin

Hello again,

> High throughput is a strong requirement for this application (sorry can't 
> tell more). It is used to transfer a lot of data via crosscable to local 
> PC.

just want to add, that i can't use USB 2.0 ! So only pure Ethernet solution 
is possible.

Regards,

        Martin

One common solution is to use a cheap PHY chip from Marvell or
Broadcomm (or others) this has a GMII or RGMII interface which has a
direct connect to to microcontrollers such as Freescale (and others)
powerPC . These processors also have integrated PCI controllers in
them.

In order to get data from 10/100/1000 link you have to be able to cope
with a theoretical byte rate of 125Mhz maximum, so you normally need
something like PCI if you have to transport that data elswhere in a
system.

Ken

www.claymore-electronic.co.uk

Martin Maurer wrote:
> why do you think this is silly ? With the right chip, interface and fast 
> microcontroller / board, do you think you can't reach bandwidth worth to use 
> 1000 MBit/s ? Do you have any statistics, which bandwidth can be reached by 
> certain combinations of ethernet chips and microcontrollers ?

It's silly because very few microcontrollers can keep up with a 
sustained gigabit datastream, let alone do useful processing on it.  At 
minimum Ethernet packet sizes, you'll have a complete packet coming in 
about every 500 ns.

In my experience, when marketing demands a gigabit interface, most of 
the time what they really want is mere gigabit connectivity - the green 
link light comes on when plugged into a gigabit hub.  The easiest way to 
get the green light is to use a gigabit hub - either a standalone chip 
(crack open a Netgear hub for a part number) or bundle the hub itself in 
your product.

If you positively have to play at gigabit speeds, you might check out 
the various and sundry network processors out there from Intel and Agere 
and the rest of the pack.  Many of them talk to their PHY over a CSIX or 
UTOPIA interface.

Kelly

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 22:00:23 +0200, "Martin Maurer" <Martin.Maurer@clibb.de>
wrote:

>i am searching for an Ethernet controller supporting 10 / 100 / 1000 MBit/s. 
>Which interfaces are fast enough to use the 1000 MBit/s ? Must i use a PCI 
>based system or are there other busses, which can be used ?

Gigabit Ethernet requires 64 Bit PCI-X or PCI Express and enough CPU power
(at least comparable to 1.4GHz P-3 oder G4 PPC) for full throghput. Standard
consumer PCs won't yield more than 200-300 MBit/s throughput unless they
have onboard non-PCI GbE chips like Intel 875-541 combo (CSA connection) or
NVidia nForce 3 250Gb.

So better forget about GbE.

 
Mit freundlichen Gr&#4294967295;&#4294967295;en

Frank-Christian Kr&#4294967295;gel

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 08:52:48 +0200, "Martin Maurer"
<Martin.Maurer@clibb.de> wrote:

>High throughput is a strong requirement for this application (sorry can't 
>tell more). It is used to transfer a lot of data via crosscable to local PC.

How about running multiple 100BaseT connections between the systems ?

Paul