Tse Mac, Niosii

one more question

On my PHY (DP83848C) the MDIO (pin 30) is bi directional. When I build my system in SOPC builder, the symbol does not show any bi directional pin for the MDIO, I have three separate MDIO pins (mdio_in, mdio_out and mdio_oen) . How do I connect my mdio(bidir) pin?

You should have more than just the Interniche version in the terminal.

But if you didn't connect the MDIO, it could explain why the system doesn't start properly.

You need to add a bidirectional buffer between the SOPC subsystem and the MDIO pin.

mdio_oen is a direction control for the MDIO output. When it's 0, then the MDIO pin is an output and should be connected to mdio_out, and when it's 1, then the MDIO pin is an input and should be connected to mdio_in.

If you use the graphical tool for the top level design, you'll need a NOT gate and a ALT_IOBUF gate.

Connect the NOT gate input to mdio_oen. Connect its output to the direction control of the ALT_IOBUF (pin on the top).

Connect mdio_out to the ALT_IOBUF input (left, blue), mido_in to the ALT_IOBUF output (left, purple) and finally the external bidirectional MDIO pin to the bidirectional ALT_IOBUF pin (right).

If you use vhdl or verilog a simple line of code should do the trick.

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You should have more than just the Interniche version in the terminal.

But if you didn't connect the MDIO, it could explain why the system doesn't start properly.

You need to add a bidirectional buffer between the SOPC subsystem and the MDIO pin.

mdio_oen is a direction control for the MDIO output. When it's 0, then the MDIO pin is an output and should be connected to mdio_out, and when it's 1, then the MDIO pin is an input and should be connected to mdio_in.

If you use the graphical tool for the top level design, you'll need a NOT gate and a ALT_IOBUF gate.

Connect the NOT gate input to mdio_oen. Connect its output to the direction control of the ALT_IOBUF (pin on the top).

Connect mdio_out to the ALT_IOBUF input (left, blue), mido_in to the ALT_IOBUF output (left, purple) and finally the external bidirectional MDIO pin to the bidirectional ALT_IOBUF pin (right).

If you use vhdl or verilog a simple line of code should do the trick.

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this was it, MDIO Connection Fixed the problem, I can DHCP and stuff , but I get the following message "No free buffers for rx"

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This is because your system is receiving more packets than it can handle. If you need your system to accept all the traffic you are sending it, you'll need to speed it up. Have a look at this article (http://www.altera.com/support/examples/nios2/exm-ethernet-acceleration.html?gsa_pos=6&wt.oss_r=1&wt.oss=nichestack%20speed).

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thanks a lot

Be aware that if you get this error message right on startup it may be that the TSE MAC driver was not able to initialize its initial descriptors. You need to verify that its really giving the message because of excess traffic.

If it is a traffic problem. You can modify the number of large buffers that the InterNiche stack uses in the ipconfig.h file and see if that helps. Also, you should make sure that you are enabling the MAC address filtering within the TSE MAC so that unwanted packets aren't being passed up to the software layer.

Jake