Functional Components
Gigabit Ethernet/82543 PMC Installation and Use 2-3
2
The controller interfaces to the PCI bus directly and supports the Media
Independent Interface (MII) for 10/100 Mb/s operation and the Gigabit
Media Independent Interface (GMII) for 10/100/1000 Mb/s operation.
Other features of the controller include:
❏Integration of the 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s, and 1000 Mb/s physical layer
interfaces, which:
– Reduces the need for external support chips
– Provides full support for auto detection among network ports
– Improves performance
– Consumes less power
❏Enhanced bus mastering capabilities
❏High-speed data transfers over the PCI bus
❏Processing of high-level commands and multiple operations, which
lowers CPU utilization by off-loading communication tasks from
the CPU
❏A 64 KB on-chip FIFO data buffer that helps to prevent data
underruns and overruns while waiting for bus access
❏Operation in full- or half-duplex mode
Table 2-1 lists speed and duplex mode combinations supported by the
controller with auto-negotiation enabled and disabled.
Table 2-1. Supported Mode Settings
Auto-Negotiation Enabled Auto-Negotiation Disabled
1000 Mb/s, full duplex 1000 Mb/s is NOT supported
100 Mb/s, full duplex 100 Mb/s, full duplex
100 Mb/s, half duplex 100 Mb/s, half duplex
10 Mb/s, full duplex 10 Mb/s, full duplex
10 Mb/s, half duplex 10 Mb/s, half duplex