
Functional Description
Copyright 1997-2002 by LSI Logic Corporation. All rights reserved.
29 of 128
April, 2002
3.4.5 Interpacket Gap
The interval between packets is called the interpacket gap, also referred
to as IPG. The minimum IPG is controlled by the defer mechanism. The
defer mechanism is an internal algorithm which computes a defer time.
If packets from the transmit FIFO arrive at the transmit MAC sooner than
the defer time, the defer mechanism will add enough IPG time between
packets to equal the defer time value.
In Half Duplex mode, the defer time is defined as the time from the falling
edge of CRS to the next rising edge of TXEN (CRS is normally asserted
during half duplex mode transmission due to PHY loopback behavior). In
Full Duplex mode, the defer time is defined as the time from the falling
edge of TXEN to the next rising edge of TXEN.
The defer time is split into two separate periods. The first period is
programmable using the bits in the Transmit Defer register. The second
period is fixed. The total defer time, also referred to as minimum IPG is
determined by the following equations:
100 & 10 Mbps MII Mode:
t
DEFER
= INT((INT(t
D
/40)+5+DEFER)2)+2
10 Mbps Serial Mode:
t
DEFER
= INT((INT(t
D
/100)+17+DEFER/8)+2
t
DEFER
= Defer time in bytes
INT(x) = Use whole number portion of x
t
D
= Delay from falling edge of TXEN to falling edge of CRS
(Half Duplex)
= 0 (Full Duplex)
DEFER = Decimal value of Transmit Defer register bits DEFER[7:0]
The computed defer time (minimum IPG) values for each setting of the
transmit defer register bits are also shown in
Appendix A: L84302 IPG
Table
.
3.4.6 Transmit Control
Packet transmission by the MAC is initiated once the packet data has
exceeded the programmable Transmit Control threshold or an entire