TLK106: Access to the extended registers not possible, bad ethernet connection

Hello,

Thank you for your query. I am looking into this information with the team.

Sincerely,

Gerome

Hi Thomas,

Can you clarify if you get link up, and with which devices?

From your post, I am understanding that you are getting linkup with TP-Link devices as long auto-neg is turned off?

Do you manage to link up with other TI PHY's just not Intel PHYs?

Best,

Alon

The connection to Mikrotik (should be a Qualcomm PHY), Realtek and Netgear routers works like a charm. There the link works directly after connecting it, with auto-negotiation turned on. In this config, the link can't be established neither on TP-Link nor on Intel Hardware.

When auto-neg is turned off, the connection is also established on Intel and TP-Link hardware.

Is there an explanation of the register values I am reading?

Hi Thomas,

This is a old part that TI does not recommend using on new designs anymore. 

Is this a new design that you are creating, or an old one you are trying to get to work?

Best,

Alon

We are using FPGA modules from Trenz Elektronik which use this PHY. 

Hi Thomas,. 

I am sorry I cannot help further with this part, it is an old part we do not recommend.

All I can do here is point you towards a replacement PHY that we can provide better support for. Please see attached. 

Best,

Alon

TLK to DP83822 Rollover Guide.pdf 

What about the register readings?

As we purchse the module with the PHYs already installed, I don't want to resolder them with another part myself.

I was also unsuccessful finding this chip available anywhere. Do you have samples available?

Hi Thomas,

Looks like you should still be able to read and write registers by connecting to MDIO/MDC of the PHY. I am finding information on TI.com on how do to it, 

Please refer to this EVM user-guide as it relates to reading and writing registers using MDIO/MDC connection. 

sllu200.pdf

As far as samples, that is handled by a different team at TI, I can't help you further with that, however I do see that transitioning to a DP8382x would be straight forward if you were willing to resolder your board. 

Best,

Alon

I have questions but these are not answered. 

How can I read out the registers? The device is connected via MDIO/MDC, normal registers can be accessed reliably, the extended registers are the problem. Is there anything that could lead to the extended registers being returned as zero?

I double checked to read the registers properly, still they are all ZERO

Hi Thomas,

If you are reading all 0's, then either you are not communicating the registers properly, or the PHY is not awake.

Best,

Alon

As the PHY must be awake because I am reading the other registers corrctly, there must be some problem with the process of the reading. 

Here is my way of reading the extended registers: 

Write 0x001F into REGCR

Write the extended register address into ADDAR

Write 0x401F into REGCR

Read ADDAR

Is that correct?

This is actually exactly what I am doing. With the last read being always zero, the normal (not extended) registers can be read successfully

Thank you for your support. Reviewing the functions I am using, I found that the write function expects the value to be written as a real value while the read function writes the result into a pointer. This was confusing and I was using pointers in both situations.

Now I will proceed to interpret the extended registers' information.