DP83849C: Control 2 Ports with 1 MII interface?

Brian Wang

Part Number: DP83849C

The customer is using an MCU that has one MAC built in, but their application requires the use of 2 Ethernet RJ45 connectors at 10/100 Mbps. Can the DP83849 dual ports both be controlled with one MAC interface?

over 1 year ago

0 Rahul over 1 year ago

TI__Expert 8640 points

Hi Brian,

Customer needs to have two MAC interfaces in the MCU to use both the RJ-45 connectors using this device:

Regards,

Rahul

0 Brian Wang over 1 year ago in reply to Rahul

TI__Expert 7915 points

In this case, is there any workaround that I can suggest to the customer?

If not, are there competitor parts that we recommend for this use case?

0 Rahul over 1 year ago in reply to Brian Wang

TI__Expert 8640 points

Hi Brian,

For customers use case a switch will work and TI does not have any standalone Ethernet switch products.

Regards,

Rahul

0 Brian Wang 12 months ago in reply to Rahul

TI__Expert 7915 points

Hey Rahul,

Thanks for the responses!

Taking a look at this appnote, referencing section 2.2 (Port SWAP), it seems to imply that the customer would be able to dynamically change which port would interface with the MAC. Hopefully I am not missing something, but it sounds like I should be able to recommend this as an alternative to an ethernet switch as long as the customer is willing to handle the port swap in their application software. Could you verify this?

+1 Rahul 11 months ago in reply to Brian Wang

TI__Expert 8640 points

Hi Brian,

Thank you for reopening this thread.

Yes, this part supports the modes requested by customer and that appnote is a very useful resource.

Also, please note that this is a very old component and we have limited support, resources and expertise on this part.

Regards,
Rahul

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DP83849C: Control 2 Ports with 1 MII interface?