Ethernet & FPGA

S

Stefan Kopetsch

Guest
Hi...

i'll write my bachelor thesis about the implementation of ethernet and
possible tcp/ip layers in an fpga. does someone have experience doing
it? especially using open source ip cores like the ethernet MAC core
from opencores.org? would be nice if someone could share their
experience. another point is the implementation of tcp/ip. does it make
sense to do it all in hardware or is it simpler to run a processor core
on the fpga and then implement the tcp/ip layers using a highlevel
language like C? i gotta stress that the aim is initially to build an
runnable ethernet core and then implement the data transfer step by step

TIA

Stefan
 
i'll write my bachelor thesis about the implementation of ethernet and
possible tcp/ip layers in an fpga. does someone have experience doing
it? especially using open source ip cores like the ethernet MAC core
from opencores.org? would be nice if someone could share their
experience. another point is the implementation of tcp/ip. does it make
sense to do it all in hardware or is it simpler to run a processor core
on the fpga and then implement the tcp/ip layers using a highlevel
language like C? i gotta stress that the aim is initially to build an
runnable ethernet core and then implement the data transfer step by step
You can do very simple protocols without much software, but it's
still simpler to think of it as software.

Consider something like a data recording setup. You send it a UDP packet
and it returns the answer. You don't need a routing layer since you
send it back where it came from - just swap a few header fields.
(But watch out for the broadcase case.)

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Hi Stefan,

Stefan Kopetsch wrote:

Hi...

i'll write my bachelor thesis about the implementation of ethernet and
possible tcp/ip layers in an fpga. does someone have experience doing
it? especially using open source ip cores like the ethernet MAC core
from opencores.org? would be nice if someone could share their
experience. another point is the implementation of tcp/ip. does it make
sense to do it all in hardware or is it simpler to run a processor core
on the fpga and then implement the tcp/ip layers using a highlevel
language like C? i gotta stress that the aim is initially to build an
runnable ethernet core and then implement the data transfer step by step

TIA

Stefan
I have been looking into hardware implemented tcp/ip chips a year or two
ago for an embedded project. I was intrigued by the idea not to have to
bother the processor with the tcp/ip stack. I found only two vendors at
that time and one of them phased their chip already out. One issue I
found in the other chip was, that it only could handle four tcp
connections. Granted it still provided access to the ethernet layer,
which would allow a connected processor to implement a tcp/ip stack, but
that defeats the purpose of the hardware stacks in the first place.

If you don't have any requirements concerning the tcp/ip layer I guess
the question will be what do you like to do better, implement a
processor core in hardware and the tcp/ip stack in software or do the
tcp/ip stack in hardware. Which brings up the questions what are you
allowed to take as available ip and what do you have to do by yourself?

With the uClinux running on the OpenRisc and the ethernet core you will
find, I believe (haven't tested it), a running system with ethernet and
tcp/ip stack in software on open cores.

Guenter
 

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