Specifications

CompuLab Ltd. IPC2 – Hardware Specification Page 41 of 83
4.2 Network
The following section provides information about IPC2 main network components and features.
4.2.1 LAN1 – Intel MAC/PHY GbE Controller
The PCH integrates a Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) controller. The integrated GbE controller is
compatible with the Intel I218 Platform LAN PHY device. The integrated GbE controller provides
two interfaces for 10/100/1000 Mbps and manageability operation:
 Based on PCI Express – A high-speed SerDes interface using PCI Express electrical signaling
at half speed while keeping the custom logical protocol for active state operation mode.
 System Management Bus (SMBus) – A very low speed connection for low power state
mode for manageability communication only. The frequency of this connection can be
configured to one of three different speeds (100 KHz, 400 KHz or 1 MHz). At this low
power state mode the Ethernet link speed is reduced to 10MB/s.
The Intel I218 Platform LAN PHY Connect Device can be connected to any non-multiplexed (fixed)
PCI Express port on the PCH. The I218 only runs at a speed of 1250 Mbps, which is 1/2 of the 2.5
Gbps PCI Express frequency. Each of the PCI Express root ports in the PCH have the ability to run
at the 1250 Mbps rate. There is no need to implement a mechanism to detect that the I218 LAN
device is connected. The port configuration (if any), attached to the LAN PHY I218 device, is
preloaded from the NVM. The selected port adjusts the transmitter to run at the 1250 Mbps rate
and does not need to be PCI Express compliant.
The integrated GbE controller operates at full-duplex at all supported speeds or half duplex at
10/100 Mbps. It also adheres to the IEEE 802.3x Flow Control Specification. GbE operation (1000
Mbps) is only supported in S0 mode. In Sx modes, SMBus is the only active bus and is used to
support manageability/remote wake-up functionality. The integrated GbE controller provides a
system interface using a PCI Express function. A full memory-mapped or I/O-mapped interface is
provided to the software, along with DMA mechanisms for high performance data transfer.
The integrated GbE controller features are:
 Network Features
— Compliant with the 1 Gbps Ethernet 802.3 802.3u, 802.3z and 802.3ab specifications
— Multi-speed operation: 10/100/1000 Mbps
— Full-duplex operation at 10/100/1000 Mbps: Half-duplex at 10/100 Mbps
— Flow control support compliant with the 802.3X specification, as well as the specific
operation of asymmetrical flow control defined by 802.3z
— VLAN support compliant with the 802.3q specification
— MAC address filters: perfect match unicast filters; multicast hash filtering, broadcast
filter and promiscuous mode
— PCI Express/SMBus interface to GbE PHYs