Forum Discussion

Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
14 years ago

TSE hardware design

hello,

I am trying to make a Ethernet connection to the pc with a DE2-115. the design should be in hardware I don't want to use the NIOS soft core.

does anyone have any experience about setting up an Ethernet connection using a VHDL design.

ore can someone provide me with a working sample code/project?

kind regards.

JR

5 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    I think there are some examples of UDP offload. But they will still use a nios cpu for network admin (etc).

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    You'll hardly set up the PHY without Nios... The rest stuff can be done only in hardware.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    Hi,

    please have a look on my thread called "TSE by using System Console on DE2-115" ... it could answer your question.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    first of all thanx for the fast response... but is it really that hard to make a Ethernet connection without NIOS :s

    @rickfan: I will look at your post hopeful it works for me.

    but i'm still open for new suggestions...
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    ...is it really that hard to make a Ethernet connection without NIOS :s

    --- Quote End ---

    If you are using a PHY chip such as National's DP83848, you can set up the basic operational modes using pin configurations. The data sheet for the PHY will explain this. When configured for Auto-negotiate mode the PHY will establish an ethernet connection automatically and enable you to transfer raw data in nibble-wide format - all without software intervention. If you want anything more sophisticated than this, such as a TCP/IP stack, your best solution would be using a Nios II rather than VHDL.

    It can be a steep learning curve to implement a Nios II, but when you consider setting up TX/RX buffers, packet processing, and all else required for an IP stack, a VHDL solution would be quite a challenge, too.