General Hardware Design Considerations—Intel®IXP45X and Intel® IXP46X Product Line of Network Processors

3.0General Hardware Design Considerations

 

This chapter contains information for implementing and interfacing to major hardware

 

blocks of the Intel® IXP45X and Intel® IXP46X Product Line of Network Processors.

 

Such blocks include DDR SDRAM, Flash, SRAM, Ethernet PHYs, UART and most other

 

peripherals interfaces. Signal definition tables list resistor recommendations for pull-

 

ups and pull-downs.

 

Features disabled by a specific part number, do not require pull-ups or pull-downs.

 

Therefore, all pins can be left unconnected. Features enabled by a specific part number

 

and required to be Soft Fuse-disabled, only require pull-ups or pull-downs in the clock-

 

input signals. Other conditions may require pull-up or pull-down resistors for

 

configuration purposes at power on or reset. Likewise, open-collector outputs must be

 

pulled-high.

 

 

Warning:

The IXP45X/IXP46X network processors’ I/O pins are 3.3 V only, except for DDR

 

SDRAM which is 2.5 V. None of the I/Os are 5-V tolerant.

 

Table 2 gives the legend for interpreting the Type field used in this chapter’s signal-

 

definition tables.

Table 2.

Signal Type Definitions

 

 

 

 

 

 

Symbol

 

Description

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I

 

Input pin only

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

O

 

Output pin only

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I/O

 

Pin can be either an input or output

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OD

 

Open-drain pin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRI

 

Tri-State pin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PWR

 

Power pin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GND

 

Ground pin

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.1Soft Fusible Features

Soft Fuse Enable/Disable is a method to enable or disable features in hardware, virtually disconnecting the hardware modules from the processor.

Some of the features offered in the IXP45X/IXP46X product line can be Soft Fuse Enabled/Disabled during boot. It is recommended that if a feature is not used in the design, the feature be Soft disabled. This helps reduce power and maintain the part running at a cooler temperature. When Soft Fuse Disabled, a pull-up resistor must be connected to each clock input pins of the disabled feature interface. All other signals can be left unconnected.

Soft Fuse Enable/Disable can be done by writing to EXP_UNIT_FUSE_RESET register, for more information refer to the Intel® IXP45X and Intel® IXP46X Product Line of Network Processors Developer’s Manual and review the register description.

 

Intel® IXP45X and Intel® IXP46X Product Line of Network Processors

February 2007

HDD

Document Number: 305261; Revision: 004

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Intel IXP45X, IXP46X manual Soft Fusible Features, Signal Type Definitions, Symbol Description