
MB86965
55
Figure 21. Collision Detection Function
POLARITY REVERSE FUNCTION
The Transceiver
polarity reverse function uses link
pulses and end-of-frame data to determine the polarity of
received signals. A reversed polarity condition is detected
when eight opposite receive link pulses are detected,
without receiving of a link pulse of the expected polarity.
Reversed polarity is also detected if four frames are
received with a reversed start-of-idle. Whenever polarity
is reversed, these two counters are reset to zero. If the
Transceiver enters the link fail state and no valid data or
link pulses are received within 96 to 128 milliseconds,
polarity resets to the default uninverted condition. If Link
Integrity Testing is disabled, polarity detection is based
only on received data. Polarity correction is always
enabled.
COLLISION DETECTION FUNCTION
The collision detection function operates on the
twisted-pair side of the interface. A collision is defined as
the simultaneous presence of valid signals on both the
TPI circuit and the TPO circuit. The Transceiver reports
collisions to the back-end via the COL pin. If the TPI
circuit is active while there is activity on the TPO circuit,
the TPI data passes to the back-end as received data,
disabling normal loopback. Figure 21 is a state diagram
of the collision detection function.
TWISTED-PAIR LOOPBACK FUNCTION
EtherCoupler provides the normal loopback function
specified by the 10BASE-T standard for the twisted-pair
port. The loopback function operates in conjunction with
the transmit function. Data transmitted by the Transmit
State Machine is internally looped back within
EtherCoupler before the TPO drivers to the Manchester
decoder and returned to the Receive State Machine. The
normal loopback function is disabled when a data
collision occurs, clearing the received data circuit in the
Transceiver for the twisted-pair input data. The normal
loopback is also disabled during the link fail and jabber
states.
EtherCoupler provides additional loopback functions
controlled by LBC bit, DLCR4<1>. When the
twisted-pair port is selected and LBC is set high, the
twisted-pair loopback is forced to override collisions on
the twisted-pair circuit. Normal loopback is in effect
when LBC is set low. When the AUI port is selected and
LBC is set high, data transmitted by the back-end
internally loops back from the Transmit Data pin through
the Manchester encoder/decoder to the Receive Data pin.
When LBC is set low, no AUI loopback occurs.
AUTOMATIC PULSE-STRETCHING FUNCTION
EtherCoupler incorporates open-drain drivers to provide
signals to each LED that indicates packet reception,
transmission, collision, and linking. The chip provides
automatic stretching of pulses to allow perception by the
human eye of the presence of packets — as they are being
processed for each function — despite true rates which
would be too fast to visibly indicate state changes.