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EMACs & PHYs

Martin1980
Intellectual 540 points

Hi,


In the TRM for the RM46F SoC I read the following statement:

"The MDIO module implements the 802.3 serial management interface to interrogate and control up to 32 Ethernet PHYs connected to the device by using a shared two-wire bus." RM46x 16/32-Bit RISC Flash Microcontroller - Technical Reference Manual - Page 1601

Does this mean I could connect 32 Ethernet PHYs and ports to this microcontroller?

The reason I ask, is that I'd like to have 2 separate Ethernet networks connected to the microcontroller...

  • 0
    TI__Guru 68920 points

    Hi Martin,

    Martin Beynon said:
    Does this mean I could connect 32 Ethernet PHYs and ports to this microcontroller?

    Not really.   While you could talk to 32 phys with this microcontroller over the MDIO port,  this is just so you could configure them or otherwise manage them.

    But there is only a single MAC on the device.   To get additional MAC's you would need to add them externally; and interface through the EMIF or some other port as an off chip peripheral.   Probably not what you had in mind.  But if you did have this in mind... for example adding an FPGA with 4 additional MACs so you had 5 MACs and 5 phys total, the MDIO on the RM46 could manage all the phys.

    Anyway that's the difference - the MDIO is just for phy management -  you need the MAC to actually transmit & receive data over an ethernet connection.

    Best Regards,

    -Anthony

  • 0 in reply to Anthony F. Seely
    Intellectual 540 points
    Thanks Anthony, feels like a stupid question now.. Anyway,, do you know of any Arm Socs with two MACs? I've seen the Sitara AM355..
  • 0 in reply to Martin1980
    TI__Guru 68920 points

    Hi Martin,

    I'm not aware of any of our ARM MCUs with more than one MAC.

    But there should be Sitara SOCs  (Or perhaps Keystone) like you said either with: 

        1) more than one MAC

        2) a 3+ port switch and mac

        3) PRUSS that can act as a MAC

    I don't know the best option for you though.  I would post your question to the processors forum.