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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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10 years ago

Gigabit Ethernet on Cyclone IV / Cyclone V boards

I'm looking for an inexpensive Cyclone IV or Cyclone V board that has (non-DDR) SDRAM and (FPGA-connected) Gigabit Ethernet. Unforunately, 'inexpensive' means less than the $555 for a Terasic DE2-115.

Several other boards come close : the Terasic DE0-Nano and DE0-CV (SDRAM, no Ethernet); the BeMicro CV A9 (1G Ethernet but DDR3 SDRAM); the ORSoC OpenRISC Cyclone IV board (nearly ideal, but has been out-of-stock for years, I think).

I've also ruled out boards such as the Terasic DE0-Nano-SoC and DE1-SoC which have 1G Ethernet connected to the HPS, not FPGA, of Cyclone V 'SE' parts.

Can anyone suggest any alternatives that I've missed ?

Failing that, I've seen this 1G Ethernet add-on board which provides an RGMII interface to a Micrel PHY and RJ-45 :

www.enterpoint.co.uk/products/modules/gigabit-ethernet-phy (http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/products/modules/gigabit-ethernet-phy)

In theory, I believe this could be connected to the 2x20 pin I/O headers on (say) a DE0-Nano, emulating the RGMII connections found on both the DE2-115 and the Altera Cyclone III Development board. What I don't know is what kind of physical connection would be required, given that RGMII is essentially a pair of 4-way 125 MHz DDR signals, and the 2x20 pin headers on the add-on board are not pin compatible with the DE0 headers ? For instance, I'm assuming that some IDC connectors and twisted ribbon cable might not work too well ? What would I need to reasonably expect decent signal integrity ?

22 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    DE1-SOC has gigabit ethernet that you can use from Linux on ARM processor. I get 300+ MB/s. What do you want to do?

    --- Quote End ---

    Did you base your design on some reference design project ? Do you mind sharing it if you did ?

    I looked at the design files for this DE1-SoC board and there are no examples using the gigabit ethernet.