Honored ContributorHey everybody.
as a part of my studies i have to build an HW network analyzer, i will use the altera-DE2. at the begin i should get and receive eth packet (the information that i need is till level 4 of OSI). is anyone know or have any clue/idea how should i begin with it? 10x a lot!
Honored ContributorEthernet is not a simple stuff.. why not using an external usb-uart module?
For ethernet you need NIOS, an OS, etc..Honored Contributoryeah unfortunately i know it, i'm looking for kind of opinions about it... is the external usb part module easier? can i connect the altera to 2 servers and sniff the packets over?
Honored ContributorYes, USB-UART module are like using RS232.. just a TX and RX lines. In 1-2 days you can write your UART module to let talk FPGA talk to PC.
If you use NIOS you already have Altera RS232 module ready and tested.Honored Contributorok, good to know!
i'm trying to avoid using the NIOS and i will try write some module by myself as you recommend. 10X a lot for the quick advice!Honored ContributorPS: Throught Avalon you can use RS232 module also without NIOS
Honored ContributorHonored ContributorYes but a network stack on an OS can handle UDP/TCP with less effort..
Honored ContributorThe DE2 might not be the best choice for this. Many but not all of them were built with a Marvell PHY chip. Information on that chip is not available except from a Marvell distributor and probably not available at all to individuals. Check to see if your board is using this chip. In general, make sure you can get a complete data sheet on the PHY chip of any board you want to use with Ethernet.
Honored ContributorYou can learn a lot just by running through an existing example.
Look at http://www.alterawiki.com/wiki/nios_ii_udp_offload_example Get it up and running, then examine the UDP receive processing. Replace it with logic to support your analyzer functions. If nothing else, should give you a very good idea how to process the Ethernet frames in this environment.
