Ethernet SDR Interfacing

[Robert E. Seastrom]

Patrick Strasser OE6PSE <oe6pse at wirklich.priv.at> writes:

> wb4jfi wrote on 2010-09-11 22:16:
>> I'm thinking of adding an Ethernet interface capability to the
>> Charleston SDR receiver. This would also allow me to learn Ethernet
>> interfacing with some of the newer designs. I'm looking at the Wiznet
>> chips and modules, available from Sparkfun. They seem to offload all the
>> Ethernet and PHY stuff into the chip, allowing the FPGA to concentrate
>> on the SDR part.
>
> Have you head a look at the Digilent Pmods, namely the PmodNIC? It is
> a stand alone 10Mbit/sec transceiver with SPI interface and interrupt
> line for receive for 30$.

I don't know when Digilent came out with this device, but it's one of
those things that makes one go "huh?".

I kind of think there's no point in doing 10 mbit/sec ethernet in
2010.  100m is *almost* in the same department, depending on the cost
of gigabit ethernet capable NIC and PHY.

SPI is slow (almost as slow as i2c).  I think if Terry's gonna do this
he should do it "right" and shoot for something that we can move
digitized data over, not just command and control.

-r