Datasheet

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DP83849C
3.2 Reduced MII Interface
The DP83849C incorporates the Reduced Media Indepen-
dent Interface (RMII) as specified in the RMII specification
(rev1.2) from the RMII Consortium. This interface may be
used to connect PHY devices to a MAC in 10/100 Mb/s
systems using a reduced number of pins. In this mode,
data is transferred 2-bits at a time using the 50 MHz
RMII_REF clock for both transmit and receive. The follow
-
ing pins are used in RMII mode:
—TX_EN
—TXD[1:0]
— RX_ER (optional for Mac)
— CRS_DV
— RXD[1:0]
— X1 (RMII Reference clock is 50 MHz)
In addition, the RMII mode supplies an RX_DV signal
which allows for a simpler method of recovering receive
data without having to separate RX_DV from the CRS_DV
indication. This is especially useful for diagnostic testing
where it may be desirable to externally loop Receive MII
data directly to the transmitter.
The RX_ER output may be used by the MAC to detect
error conditions. It is asserted for symbol errors received
during a packet, False Carrier events, and also for FIFO
underrun or overrun conditions. Since the Phy is required
to corrupt receive data on an error, a MAC is not required
to use RX_ER.
It is important to note that since both digital channels in the
DP83849C share the X1/RMII_REF input, both channels
must have RMII mode enabled or both channels must have
RMII mode disabled. Either channel may be in 10Mb or
100Mb mode in RMII or non-RMII mode.
Since the reference clock operates at 10 times the data
rate for 10 Mb/s operation, transmit data is sampled every
10 clocks. Likewise, receive data will be generated every
10th clock so that an attached device can sample the data
every 10 clocks.
RMII mode requires a 50 MHz oscillator be connected to
the device X1 pin. A 50 MHz crystal is not supported.
To tolerate potential frequency differences between the 50
MHz reference clock and the recovered receive clock, the
receive RMII function includes a programmable elasticity
buffer. The elasticity buffer is programmable to minimize
propagation delay based on expected packet size and
clock accuracy. This allows for supporting a range of
packet sizes including jumbo frames.
The elasticity buffer will force Frame Check Sequence
errors for packets which overrun or underrun the FIFO.
Underrun and Overrun conditions can be reported in the
RMII and Bypass Register (RBR). The following table indi
-
cates how to program the elasticity buffer fifo (in 4-bit incre-
ments) based on expected max packet size and clock
accuracy. It assumes both clocks (RMII Reference clock
and far-end Transmitter clock) have the same accuracy.
Packet lengths can be scaled linearly based on accuracy
(+/- 25ppm would allows packets twice as large). If the
threshold setting must support both 10Mb and 100Mb
operation, the setting should be made to support both
speeds.
Table 4. Supported packet sizes at +/-50ppm frequency accuracy
Start Threshold
RBR[1:0]
Latency Tolerance Recommended Packet Size
at +/- 50ppm
100Mb 10Mb 100Mb 10Mb
01 (default) 2 bits 8 bits 2,400 bytes 9,600 bytes
10 6 bits 4 bits 7,200 bytes 4,800 bytes
11 10 bits 8 bits 12,000 bytes 9,600 bytes
00 14 bits 12 bits 16,800 bytes 14,400 bytes