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Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

NIOS II design with TSEMAC and Embedded transceivers using Arria II GX/Stratix II GX

Hi, I have to design a gigabit ethernet interface using NIOS II , TSEMAC with the target device Arria II GX/Stratix II GX. But i don't find any reference design which gives an idea of how to integ...
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Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

The FPGA's transceivers are not really intended to drive ethernet cables. You can use the transceivers without a PHY but it would be primarily if you are driving ethernet between devices in a chassis, over board traces, or through a backplane. You might be able to drive some short cable lengths with the transceiver but it certainly wouldn't meet specifications.

What makes more sense for you is to use an external PHY that supports SGMII. Then use the FPGA's transceivers to communicate with the PHY via SGMII. This is definitely supported and there are several development boards available that would allow you to try out this scheme.

Jake