My customer is moving an Ethernet I/F design over from an Intel LXT971A PHY to a TI DP83848I PHY. They used App Report SNLA092B as reference which was very helpful. Their legacy design strapped the LXT971A PHY ADDR[4:0] to '00000'. However, per DP83848I datasheet, a PHY ADDR of '00000' puts the device into MII Isolate Mode. If I use the default PHY ADDR value of '00001' on the DP83848I device, will this cause any Ethernet driver compatibility issues since my legacy design had PHY ADDR strapped to '00000'?
1) Specifically, does the driver care what the PHY address really is? Or, does it use whatever it reads back from the strapping on the PHY?
2) Also, their design only has a single MAC/PHY connection; no other PHYs are hanging off of MDIO I/F. They think they are alright but looking for confirmation. Thanks!
Additional information from customer.
“One of the key requirements on my respin effort is that I cannot change any Ethernet driver-related FW and/or SW related to using the new DP83848I Ethernet PHY (i.e., it is a HW only obsolescence respin). Obviously, the DP83848I is not a ‘pin-for-pin’ drop in replacement for the LXT971A, however it appears to be a very good functional equivalent. We use a generic Ethernet driver and don’t access any vendor-specific PHY info in our legacy design so I’m assuming I should be OK but also just wanted to throw this out there for any additional feedback/comments you may have on this.”
