topic Re: Programming WGI210IS S LJXX for 1000BASE-BX interface in Embedded Connectivity

Programming WGI210IS S LJXX for 1000BASE-BX interface

rhoffmann477 — Tue, 27 May 2025 14:27:58 GMT

Hello,

We have designed an PICMG AMC.0 board with two i210IS devices. Each device as a SST25VF040B flash device attached to it. Each is connected on the PCIe side to a Raptor Lake CPU, and on the Ethernet side to an Ethernet switch though the backplane using 1000BASE-BX.

The devices are initially reported as "unprogrammed". I downloaded a whole set of tools from Intel web site to program the devices, and the process is rather confusing. Which tool do I need to program the devices from a Linux 6.11 system, and which firmware and configuration file do I need?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Programming WGI210IS S LJXX for 1000BASE-BX interface

Diego_INTEL — Sat, 31 May 2025 00:24:47 GMT

Hello @rhoffmann477,

Thank you for contacting Intel Embedded Community.

i210 can be used with an NVM image, you can use EEUpdate and one image from the document #513655 according to your design. Please check the Handbook and FAQ documents too.

Please look for the following documents in RDC:

-EEUpdate and Lanconf tools. #348742 - Intel® Network Connections Tools 30.1 PV LAN Software Tools

-#572162 - EEPROM Access Tool [EAT].

-#513655 - Intel® Ethernet Controller I210 and I211- AT Production NVM Images.

-#602853 - Intel Ethernet Network Controller Handbook

-#335346 - Intel® Ethernet Controller I210/I211 - Frequently Asked Questions

2.25 Why does the I210 not work after EEUPDATE successfully programs the image?
When EEUPDATE stores the new image in an un-programmed flash, it is not active until a power cycle
forces the new image to be loaded into shadow RAM in the controller. Until a power cycle occurs,
EEUPDATE functions like /verify, and /mac_dump will not work correctly. Once an I210 is programmed
and running with a valid image, updates can be performed with only a system reboot with some
exceptions

You will need a Premier account in order to get access to these documents.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000058073/programs/resource-and-documentation-center.html

Best regards,

@Diego_INTEL

Re: Programming WGI210IS S LJXX for 1000BASE-BX interface

rhoffmann477 — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 06:24:42 GMT

Hello Diego,

Thank you for kind and detailed explanations. I now have functional i210-IS devices! A few important notes, IMHO, I would like to share:

1) In my design, the i210 devices were connected to 4Mbit SPI flash devices. This is obviously not large enough to upload a 8Mbit binary image. But an external flash device is actually not required, so I removed them.

2) To be able to write into the iNVM internal memory of the i210-IS, the pin NVM_SI shall be pulled low.

3) The configuration file I used is I210_Invm_SerDesKX_NoAPM_v0.6.txt available in #513655. I used the eeupdate64e utility from document #348742 to first list the devices which are present

NIC Bus Dev Fun Vendor-Device Branding string
=== === === === ============= =================================================
1 45 00 00 8086-125D Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-IT
2 46 00 00 8086-125D Intel(R) Ethernet Controller I226-IT
3 48 00 00 8086-1531 Intel(R) I210 Blank NVM Device
4 49 00 00 8086-1571 Intel(R) I210 Blank NVM Device

Then upload the configuration file and configure the MAC address

> ./eeupdate64e /NIC=3 /FILE=./I210_Invm_SerDesKX_NoAPM_v0.6.txt /MAC=7cd120003001 /INVMUPDATE

4) The devices are now listed by lspci as a "backplane connection" controllers

30:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I210 Gigabit Backplane Connection (rev 03)

31:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I210 Gigabit Backplane Connection (rev 03)

Kind regards,

Ralph

Re: Programming WGI210IS S LJXX for 1000BASE-BX interface

Diego_INTEL — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 23:18:05 GMT

Hello Ralph,

You are very welcome, also, thank you very much for your notes, this may be very useful to have in the community.

Best regards,

@Diego_INTEL