TSE - some questions for understanding...

[Altera_Forum]

Hello, 

 I'm getting started with the Triple Speed Ethernet component and have some questions I didn't understand yet:  1) Is it right, that the TSE generates the whole MAC stuff, like header and so on, so that I have to give the TSE only the MAC payload as input?  2) I want to use the TSE WITHOUT iniche. But it seems that the TSE API is only for using iniche, or isn't it?  Thanks for your assistance, dbdeset

[Altera_Forum]

Hi 

   --- Quote Start ---   1) Is it right, that the TSE generates the whole MAC stuff, like header and so on, so that I have to give the TSE only the MAC payload as input?   --- Quote End ---     Yes. TSE does all this stuff an usual MAC does. You send to the MAC (or receive from it) the network frame data and the MAC will manage all the coding in order to properly transmitting it on the network.     --- Quote Start ---   2) I want to use the TSE WITHOUT iniche. But it seems that the TSE API is only for using iniche, or isn't it?   --- Quote End ---     You certainly can use it without iniche. Have you searched in the forum for help? Probably you have an Altera sample based on iniche, but this doesn't mean iniche is required. I can't now remember TSE api structure, but I think you can use them without iniche and without an OS. Look into the driver source code: you should find the basic functions for initializing, send and receive.   Cris

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 thanks for your explanation! I'm just trying getting started with the initialization...  I've got two more questions:  3) I haven't understand yet how to specify the destination MAC address. Can you give me a hint?  4) Assumed I have a TSE stand alone design (without Iniche and Nios except for configuration). So I build a component, a Avalon streaming source, which feeds my TSE with transmit data. Will the TSE transmit this data automatically, if new data is available from my Avalon streaming interface?  Thanks for your assistance!  Best regards, dbdeset

[Altera_Forum]

You need to give a full Ethernet packet to the MAC. The destination MAC address is inside the header of that packet. Depending on the configuration, you can have the MAC fill in the source MAC and the CRC for you. 

Yes, the MAC will transmit data as soon as a packet is available on its Avalon Sink.