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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

Need help : implement Gigabit Ethernet

Hello,

I'm new on this forum, so I hope that I'll be clear with my question.

I'm currently working on Cyclone III FPGA Development Kit with the EP3C120F780C7N.

For my project I have to etablish a communication between my PC and my board with the Gigabit Ethernet. I have to send to the board datas to configure a camera and then send the pixels to the PC for a display.

My PHY device is Marvell 88E1111 so I try since two weeks to configure it with RGMII interface.

My problem is that I don't know how to use the TripleSpeedEthernet 9.1 either with MegaWizard Plug-In Manager (how to link all the I/O) or with SOPC (where I'm a total beginner).

Can someone help me and explain me how to use these functions or how to begin (maybe a tutorial exists with v9.1sp1) to advance in my project ?

Thanks in advance.

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  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    You can try first to use a 'ping' command to send packets to your board and see if you get any reply. Check also the transmit an receive LEDs on the board to see if any packets are received or transmitted.

    I'd suggest to install Wireshark on your PC to see all the packets that go on the Ethernet interface.

    When you ping your board, you should see the following packets:

    Your PC -> Broadcast : ARP request

    Board -> Your PC: ARP reply

    Your PC -> Board: ICMP echo request

    Board -> Your PC: ICMP echo reply
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    when i tried ping or telnet, Tx led doesn't blink and sometimes Rx led blinks but not necessery with the request from my pc

    i installed wireshark but couldn't see any transaction between my board and the pc

    then i tried o plug the board and my pc both, again without success

    just for you to know, i would like to do this architecture, maybe you can give some advices (and i think i'll use sdram rather than sram)

    thanks in advance
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    You couldn't even see the ARP request on Wireshark? Then the problem must come from your PC. It could be a routing problem. Did you set up your PC IP address on the same subnet than your board?

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    my board and my pc haven't got the same ip that't sure,

    yes both have the same subnet adresses "255.255.255.0"
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    The IP addresses of the PC and your board, ANDed with their network masks must match.

    As an example if the network mask is 255.255.255.0, 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 are on the same subnet, but 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.1.2 aren't.

    subnet on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/subnetwork)
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    i edit my post sorry

    so they are both on 255.255.255.0

    and i know this :

    board : ip 192.168.1.234

    Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0

    Gateway : 192.168.0.1

    PC : IP : 192.168.1.17

    subnet mask : 255.255.255.0

    "passerelle par defaut" : 192.168.1.1

    DHCP 192.168.1.2

    DNS 192.168.1.2

    192.168.1.1

    "serveur principal wins" 192.168.1.2

    i saw that on the cmd window by typing "ipconfig /all" sorry for some expressions but i'm french and don't know the exact translation

    and in fact the ip adress and the subnet mask change when i plus my pc to the board and the new ip is 192.168.20.117 and the subnet mask becomes 255.255.0.0 so maybe that's the problem

    do i have to fix the same subnet on both, i mean

    PC : ip : 198.168.20.117

    subnet mask 255.255.0.0

    and for my board these for example :

    ip 192.168.20.234

    SN mask : 255.255.0.0

    thanks you
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    It may be a good idea to disable the automatic IP addressing through DHCP on your PC and set up both IP addresses manually so that they are on the same subnet. The example you give should work.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    so i'm still having this problem, i set my own ip adress for the pc as follow

    192.168.1.17

    255.255.255.0

    192.168.1.1

    and for my board as follow :

    192.168.1.234

    255.255.255.0

    192.168.1.1

    i launch wireshark before perfoming everything with nios 2 ide, and i see nothing with wireshark although my two leds (Rx and Tx) twinkle

    note : in wireshark, it is written that "who has 192.168.1.234 tells 192.168.1.17" without response but when i look more in details, i can see the mac adress for the destination and the source, it is ok for the source (the mac adress of my pc) but i have only 00:00:00:00:00:00 for the destination but i know that it should be the one the console in nios 2 ide gave me so 00:07:ed:ff:3b:14

    any idea how i can proceed ?

    thanks in advance
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    The message you have in wireshark is the ARP request. The PC doesn't know your board's mac address yet, so it is broadcasting the Ethernet packet (but the destination MAC should be ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, not zeroes...)

    If you don't get any reply, it can be for two reasons:

    [list][*]the TCP/IP stack doesn't receive the ARP request

    [*]it receives it and send a reply, but this reply isn't received by the PC[/list]

    It can have multiple causes, you could start by putting signaltap probes on the MII interface, and between the MAC and SGDMAs, to see if anything is going on over there.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    i continue to try by changing some Ip but unsuccessful, i have a stupid question but about the wire : is it a straight or a crossover one ?