Need help getting TSE + RGMII working somehow. (no SOC)

Altera_Forum · ‎05-14-2012

Sirs,

I am learning transceiver matters and want to play with ethernet packets for starters. My board is Arria II GX (EP2AGX260FF35I3) and it has 10/100/1000 Ethernet out of the box. I figured that it comes with Marvell 88E1111 PHY that provides RGMII interface (took me few ours to get what RGMII is for :-)). So after poking around a little bit I came across Triple Speed Ethernet core that can work with it. Thus far I was able to instantiate it, hook up my sink for TX buffer and hookup wiring of the TSE with RGMII. I don't know how to handle MDIO yet, so it is connected to GND. As you can guess.. nothing works. Nothing is coming down from TX buffer, LINK leds on the boards are off etc. I am pretty much a newbie in this matter and I need your help to figure it out.

I have a feeling that I need to write a PHY controller that will set up PHY by sending control commands to its configuration registers (at least MAC address?). Is that true? Is there a way to bypass that somehow (i.e. use some default PHY configuration)? If not, I would appreciate if you could send me in a right direction (some examples would help a lot indeed).

Also, will a regular WIFI router forward any packets to my PHY so that I can receive it from TSE TX buffer or router does something smart about it, or perhaps MAC will reject/drop those packets? Or should I plug the other end of a cable into my PC and forcefully generate some signals/traffic?

Please note that I am not using Nios and don't have a soft CPU. I am trying to teach myself basics and avoid using high-level stuff where everything is done for you.

If that helps, here is my verilog piece of crap that could as well be a problem:


module top
  (
                     // General I/O.
   input     ref_clk,      // 125.00 MHz LVDS TOP Clock
   input      user_pb,      // 1.8V (TR=0)
   output  user_led,     // 2.5V active low
                     // Ethernet 10/100/1000 RGMII.
   output     enet_gtx_clk, // 2.5V RGMII Transmit Clock
   output  enet_tx_d,    // 2.5V TX to PHY
   input      enet_rx_d,    // 2.5V RX from PHY
   output     enet_tx_en,   // 2.5V RGMII Transmit Control
   input     enet_rx_clk,  // 2.5V Derived Received Clock
   input     enet_rx_dv,   // 2.5V RGMII Receive Control
   output     enet_resetn,  // 2.5V Reset to PHY (TR=0)
   output     enet_mdc,     // 2.5V MDIO Control (TR=0)
   inout     enet_mdio,    // 2.5V MDIO Data (TR=0)
   input     enet_intn     // 2.5V MDIO Interrupt (TR=0)
   );
   wire     reset = ~user_pb;
   wire     tse_set_1G_mode = 1; // Gigabit mode selection.
   wire      rx_data;
   wire     rx_data_valid;
   wire     rx_ready = 1; // Always ready :)
   reg      buffer = 0;
   reg     buffer_state = 0;
   assign enet_gtx_clk = ref_clk;
   tse_eth tse(.rx_clk(enet_rx_clk),
           .tx_clk(ref_clk),
           .reset(reset),
           .rgmii_in(enet_rx_d),
           .rx_control(enet_rx_dv),
           .rgmii_out(enet_tx_d),
           .tx_control(enet_tx_en),
           .set_1000(tse_set_1G_mode),
           .ff_tx_rdy(rx_ready),
           .ff_rx_data(rx_data),
           .ff_rx_dval(rx_data_valid));
   always @ (posedge ref_clk or posedge reset or posedge rx_data_valid)
     begin
    if (reset)
      begin
         buffer <= 0;
         buffer_state <= 0;
      end
    else
      begin
         if (rx_data_valid)
           begin
          buffer <= buffer;
          buffer <= rx_data;
          buffer_state <= buffer_state;
          buffer_state <= 1'b1;
           end
         else
           begin
          buffer <= 0;
          buffer_state <= 0;
           end
      end
     end
   assign user_led = ~buffer_state;
   assign user_led = ~buffer_state;
   assign user_led = ~reset;
   assign user_led = ~reset; // Light up only when reset is asserted.
endmodule

("tse_eth" is a top module of TSE core generated by IP wizard)

Any help is highly appreciated. Thank you!

Altera_Forum · ‎05-14-2012

Problem solved. I found a TSE reference design here (https://www.altera.com/support/software/download/refdesigns/ip/interface/dnl-ref-tse-phy-chip.jsp). It is not using Nios and is targeting Arria II family device. Quartus II opens archive file, everything synthesizes and works out of the box.