Re: [ethmac] status

[Maik Boden <maik.boden@gmx.net>]

> Could you please tell me what is the status of the
> EtherMAC?
We discuss about the standard and it's implementation. The first revision of the
block diagrams is available and two people are working (coding & testing) on the
MAC:

 - RxMAC  Mahmud Galela <mailto:mgalela@vlsi.itb.ac.id>
 - TxMAC  Novan Hartadi <mailto:novan@ee.itb.ac.id>

Competent people are waiting "backstage" or helping us with usefull advices
(first of all Illan Glasner <mailto:iglasner@zumanetworks.com>). But all in all
we do "multi-threading with no parent task" ;-)

> Can I help you with any thing?
Yes, help is welcome!

First we need a global design strategy, means defining top-level block and all
sub-blocks including I/Os and functions ...

# Interface to host system :
 - special DMA interface
   (contact Damjan Lampret <mailto:lampret@opencores.org>)
 - connect to embedded Sparc Core "Leon" via OnChip-Bus AMBA 
   (look at http://www.estec.esa.nl/wsmwww/leon/)
 - Virtual Component Interface by VSI Alliance http://www.vsi.org
   (see MAC Core description at http://www.insilicon.com/10100-mac.html)
 - free defined interface
   (visit my homepage http://www.inf.tu-dresden.de/~mb25/ethmac)
 - .. ?!?

# Functions of the MAC:
 - simple Receive/Transmit including CRC check & generation
 - MAC control (flow control)
 - MII management (software controlled or auto-configuration ???)
 - address recognition (including multicast/hashing ???)
 - check & remove VLAN-tag
 - .. ?!?

# Designing, Coding & Testing:
 - draw schematics to check if ideas will work properbly
 - write block models without body
 - divide task of implementation into sub-task
   (like TxMAC: Cols & BackOff, IFG & Crs, CRC, Data & Framing, ...)
 - involve several people to code block functionality
   (maybe parallel in VHDL & Verilog by two groups of people)
 - test blocks "stand-alone"
 - think about test for all relevant cases (independent from language)
 - build MAC out of modules
 - write testbenches and verify implemented design
 - .. ?!?

If you want to help, please contact me or other peoples mentioned in this mail
for further information! 


Best regards
Maik Boden