Designers Corner with Prof. Mike Smith  Part 1

Collecting information

I started collecting information on the Ethernet interface. I searched the Web for every 10/100 Ethernet interface chip datasheet I could find. There were basically two ways to proceed: use a physical (PHY) layer chip (with just the A/D and D/A and some basic logic) or a combined PHY and media access controller (MAC) chip. If we used a PHY chip we would have to borrow, buy, or build the MAC. If we used a PHY/MAC chip we would have to put up with the PCI interface. This was starting to get messy. I had run into the problem currently faced by most system designers. We would like to use existing blocks, intellectual property (IP), but where and how were we going to get the IP?

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