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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

Interfacing with 10/100 Ethernet

I'm trying to integrate ethernet into my design, but am having issues. The board I'm using is the Altera DE2 board, and that has a Davicom DM9000A ethernet controller on board. My SOPC builder has 3 different components for ethernet:

1)CS8900 Interface

2)LAN91C111 Interface

3)Triple-Speed Ethernet

I've skimmed over the data sheet and I did notice that it talks about an EEPROM interface for the device. Does this mean that I can use a CFI to control all of the chips function? If not is is possible to use one of the other available modules?

3 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    I don't know the DE2 board, but usually every development board comes with a software package which installs all the required modules. I have a different dev board with a few devices not natively supported by sopc builder: a setup program included with the board added all I needed in the Altera directories.

    The eeprom interface is not necessary if the device is controlled by a host processor (I suppose you want to connect it to a Nios); in these cases all the relevant non volatile data (i.e. mac address) is stored along with the processor code and the processor itself configures the ethernet controller.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    I don't know the DE2 board, but usually every development board comes with a software package which installs all the required modules. I have a different dev board with a few devices not natively supported by sopc builder: a setup program included with the board added all I needed in the Altera directories.

    --- Quote End ---

    I found the binary that installs the modules for the board, however it seems that they stopped supporting/including the Ethernet controller since the modules made for Quartus II 5.x.

    I'm guessing this means that since the interface for this chip is different from the interfaces of what Altera provides, I need to create my own module if I would like to use this chip?
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    15 years ago

    I think the interface of DM9000 is somehow similar to LAN91C111, so this last is a good starting point if you need to create your own module. But I also think this is probably not necessary: if you don't have great performance issues you can simply build the interface to the chip with a tristate bridge and a few pio bits.

    Then you must study the DM9000 handbook in order to build the software driver to operate it. Again, the 91C111 model could be a good starting point.