CHAPTER 5 ETHERNET CONTROLLER
302 Preliminary User’s Manual S15543EJ1V0UM
Table 5-7. Attribute for Receive Descriptor
Attribute & Size Bit Name Status
31 L Last Descriptor
30 D/L Data Buffer / Link Pointer
29 OWN Owner bit 1:Ethernet Controller 0: VR4120A
Ethernet Controller sets this bit after it began to transfer
data into each descriptor.
28 DBWE Data Buffer Write Error
27:25 FTYP Frame Type[2:0]:
000 Broadcast Frame
001 Multicast Frame
010 Unicast Frame
011 VLAN Frame
100 PAUSE control frame
101 Control Frame (except pause)
11x Reserved for future use
24 OVRN Overrun Error
23 0 Reserved for future use.
22 0 Reserved for future use.
21 RCV Detects RXER
20 FC False Carrier
19 CRCE CRC Error
18 FAE Frame Alignment Error
17 RFLE Receive Frame Length Error
16 RXOK Receive OK
15:0 SIZE Receive Byte Count
Remark RUNT packet: less than 64 bytes packet with a good FCS
FRAGMENT packet:less than 64 bytes packet with either a bad FCS or a bad FCS with an
alignment error
Dribble Error: When a dribble error is occurred, both of RXOK and FAD will be set.
5.3.4 Frame transmission
The transmitter is designed to work with almost no intervention from the VR4120A. Once the VR4120A enables the
transmitter by setting the Transmit Descriptor Pointer Register (En_TXDPR) and the Transmit Enable (TXE), Ethernet
Controller fetches the first Transmit Data Buffer from Buffer Descriptor.
When the drain threshold level of the transmit FIFO was over, the MAC Controller Block transmit logic will start
transmitting the preamble sequence, the start frame delimiter, and then the frame information. However, the controller
defers the transmission if the line is busy (carrier sense is active). Before transmitting, the controller has to wait for
carrier sense to become inactive. Once carrier sense is inactive, the controller determines if carrier sense stays
inactive for IPGR1 bit time in En_IPGR register. If so, then the transmission begins after waiting an additional IPGR2 –
IPGR1 bit times (i.e., IPG is generally 96 bit times).
If a collision occurs during the transmit frame, Ethernet Controller follows the specified back-off procedures and
attempts to re-transmit the frame until the retry limit threshold is reached (RETRY in En_CLRT register). Ethernet
Controller holds the first 64 bytes of the transmit frame in the transmit FIFO, so that Ethernet Controller does not have
to be retrieved from system memory in case of a collision. This improves bus utilization and latency.
When Ethernet Controller reads the Transmit Buffer Descriptor, and it shows the end of data buffer “L bit is set to a
‘1’, Ethernet Controller adds the FCS after the end of data if CRCEN in En_MACC1 register is enable.