Honored Contributor
Honored ContributorWhy not use a backup copy of the MAC?
Here's a few locations you could use; 1. If you only have one board, put the MAC in the FPGA image. 2. If you use multiple boards, put it in two places in the flash. 3. The MAX II CPLD has UFM (user flash memory). If you can communicate to the MAX II device, put a copy in UFM. 4. If the board has an I2C EEPROM, put a copy there. Read the data sheet for the flash device on the board. Flash sometimes has options to protect sectors or to write to a One Time Program (OTP) section. Having the software fall back on a single MAC is also ok if you are only using a few boards and expect only one board to be screwed up. If your boards get their IP addresses from DHCP, you could setup the DHCP server to send you an email if the fall-back MAC address is in use. That would allow you to ping the IP associated with the fall-back MAC and find out which one it is, eg., via a serial number ... that is stored in a different place to the MAC :) Cheers, Dave PS. The Marvell PHY does not have a unique serial number, just a part ID code that is the same between parts.
