Data Sheet

Introduction—Ethernet Controller I210

1.3.1 Audio/Video Bridging Support

The I210 supports IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging (AVB) specifications. The draft AVB standards are

designed to work over widely-used IEEE 802 layer 2 networks. These new standards provide

networking features for tightly controlled media stream synchronization, buffering and reservation. The

IEEE 802.1AVB task group is working on an interoperability standards for systems based on the AVB

document set. This provides a complete list of parameters to plug into the various standards that are

needed to build an AVB system. A simple grid of features versus market has been created as a first cut

to describe four proposed interoperability profiles. Those profiles include Consumer Electronics,

Professional A/V, Industrial, and Automotive. Use of AVB enables higher layer protocols and

applications to realize professional-quality A/V even if there are various lower-layer network links in the

path between endpoint devices.

The I210 implements 4 receive queues and 4 transmit queues, where up to two queues are dedicated

for stream reservation or priority, and up to three queues for strict priority. In Qav mode, the MAC flow

control is disabled. Note that Qav mode is supported only in 100 Mb/s and 1000 Mb/s. Furthermore,

Qav is supported only in full-duplex mode with no option for Jumbo packets transmission.

1.4 External Interface

1.4.1 PCIe Interface

The PCIe v2.1 (2.5GT/s) Interface is used by the I210 as a host interface. The interface only supports

the PCIe v2.1 (2.5GT/s) rate and is configured to x1. The maximum aggregated raw bandwidth for a

typical PCIe v2.1 (2.5GT/s) configuration is 4 Gb/s in each direction. Refer to Section 2.3.1 for a full pin

description. The timing characteristics of this interface are defined in the PCI Express Card

Electromechanical Specification rev 2.0 and in the PCIe v2.1 (2.5GT/s) specification.

1.4.2 Network Interfaces

Three independent interfaces are used to connect the I210 port to external devices. The following

protocols are supported:

• MDI (copper) support for standard IEEE 802.3 Ethernet interface for 1000BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, and

10BASE-T applications (802.3, 802.3u, and 802.3ab)

• SerDes interface to connect over a backplane to another SerDes compliant device or to an optical

module. The I210 supports both 1000BASE-BX and 1000BASE-KX (Without IEEE802.3ap backplane

auto-negotiation)

• SGMII interface to attach to an external PHY, either on board or via an SFP module. The SGMII

interface shares the same pins as the SerDes interface.

Refer to Section 2.3.6 for a full pin description. For additional interface details, refer to Section 11.6.3

and Section 11.6.4.

1.4.3 Internal Non-Volatile Memory (iNVM)

The I210 stores product configuration information in an Internal Non-Volatile Memory (iNVM) and in

Flash memory. The I210 does not support an external EEPROM. The I210 supports a Flash-less mode

where all the setup found normally in Flash memory are either set to their default, configured by

software, or stored into memory.