triple speed ethernet without external memory

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

I have custom board, it consist of no memory devices on board, and need to communicate with host through ethernet port only. Can somebody help me in how to configure TSE without external memory (DDR) in SOPC Builder? Thanking you KMK

[Altera_Forum]

What FPGA do you have? Can you use its on-chip memory blocks as memory for your system? 

Do you need a full software TCI/IP stack too? If you just use hardware to receive and transmit Ethernet packet then you don't need too much memory. But if you need a CPU with a network stack it will be more difficult.

[Altera_Forum]

Thank you very much for response, board consists of EP4SE230k (Stratix iv), I am using onchip memory (M9K) as memory for Nios processor. I am a beginer to this environment, I am explaning here, what is the task to be done through ethernet port, I am running some DSP algorithms (filtering, FFT, decision logics) using IP cores and some custom logic. I need to send control information from host PC to FPGA, as well as need to receive the processed results from FPGA to host PC. Now, can you suggest me best or better approach? 

Thanking you  Sincerely KMK

[Altera_Forum]

Since you have the Nios processor you can try and use an operating system such as uc/OS with the Interniche TCP/IP stack and see how much memory it needs. You can compile the sockets server example and check that the on-chip memory you used is enough.

[Altera_Forum]

Yes, I built simple socket server example, it requires 376 KBytes of memory (size found out using nios-stackreport) for code. So memory is not a problem, I can use onchip memory of size 512 KBytes (ofcourse more also possible with M9K). Can you explain, what are all the components required and their interconnection in SOPC builder? If possible, can you send me printscreen shot of SOPC window? 

Thanking you. Sincerely KMK

[Altera_Forum]

Have a look here (http://www.altera.com/support/examples/nios2/exm-net-std-de.html)

[Altera_Forum]

Thank you very much for support, with ref. to Nios II Ethernet Standard Design Example, I removed CFI controller and Tristate bridge and inserted onchip ram in place of DDRx, compiled in Quartus II. Created simple socket server project in NIOS II eclipse (with above sopcinfo file), when I was building the project, got some errors (related to Flash memory), then editted and commented Flash related code lines. Now, it is working (with telnet commands able to toggle leds). I will modify this code for my application, if, I find any difficult, get back to you. 

Thanking you again. Sincerely KMK

[Altera_Forum]

the errors you got are probably in the functions that define the Ethernet MAC address. There is a function that reads a specific part of flash to determine the board MAC address, and this is of course dependant on the flash memory you use. You can use a fixed MAC for now, but you will eventually have to write your own MAC address reader. 

Good luck!