
31
P/N:PM0723
REV. 1.0, JUL. 13, 2000
MX98728EC
During the process of filling up packet(s) in the transmit
buffer ring, the current write address to the TX buffer
ring is controlled by GMAC using TWP and TWPBC to
form packet memory's address lines. TWP is updated
by the driver only and TWP checked against
TRP,BP,TLBP by both GMAC and the driver to maintain
TX buffer ring's integrity. TWP serves as the start page
of non-ready packet(s) which is still being prepared by
the driver. The following flow chart shows the typical way
of preparing a packet in the packet buffer. (for systems
without the SRDY pin support).
Conditions required to begin transmission
1. Register 00h.ST1=0 and Reg00h.ST0=1 in the TX lo-
cal DMA mode or register 00h.ST1=1 and ST0=0 in
the direct FIFO mode
2. The interframe gap timer has timed out.
3. The TX FIFO is filled with a complete packet or is full.
4. If a collision has been detected and the backoff timer
has expired.
After the packet starts to go out to the network, TTHD[1:0]
will begin to affect the packet memory's arbitration if the
FIFO needs more data from the packet memory( TTHD
is not used in the direct FIFO mode ). In the TX local
DMA mode, the advantage of the smaller threshold is to
reduce the risk of a potential transmit FIFO underrun
error for large packets beyond 1518 bytes. Such underrun
error occurs when all the data in the FIFO is transmitted
while the local DMA still has not filled in more data to be
transmitted. Since the TX FIFO is large enough for the
largest normal packet ( 1518 bytes ), the TTHD and FIFO
underrun applies to packets larger than 1518 bytes in
the TX local DMA mode. The larger the TTHD, the less
aggressive the TX DMA is in the packet memory arbitra-
tion. Therefore the host and the RX DMA may have
more bandwidth in the packet memory.
When this underrun occurs, the packet will be aborted
and an interrupt will be asserted to get the host's atten-
tion. The FIFOEI ( register 09h bit 5 ) interrupt bit will be
set when the underrun occurs and an interrupt to the
host is asserted if the FIFOEIM bit (register 08h bit 5 )
is also set.
bit ) of the descriptor needs to be set to 1 to indicate that
the device driver has finished preparing the current
packet. Then the packet can be transferred to GMAC for
transmission. At this point, the TX DMA poll command
can be issued by setting Reg00h.ST1=0, ST0=1 to ac-
tivate the transmit operation. ST1 and ST0 bits will be
cleared to 0 and TXDMA[3:0]=1h when the transmission
is done.
START
Yes
Next data write
Exit Write
Processing
Yes
Write starting page address to TWP
(0E/0F)
Read
WRDYB
(3A.0)==0
First data write to TX Registers
(34-37)
Next data write to TX Register
(34-37)
No
No