Serial media independent interface
First Claim
1. A multi-port Ethernet device, comprising:
- a MAC chip having one or more ports;
a PHY chip having one or more ports; and
a 10/100Base-T interface connecting said MAC and PHY chips, said interface comprising, two time-division multiplexed wires per port on each chip, each time-division multiplexed wire configured for conveying time-division multiplexed signals having different definitions, and two global wires configured for conveying clock and synchronization pulse signals for up to all of the ports on each chip.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A 10/100Base-T MAC to PHY interface requiring only two wires (pins) per port, with two additional global wires: a clock wire (pin), and a synchronization wire (pin) represents a reduction in the number of pins associated with each port and is achieved by time-division multiplexing wherein each time-division multiplexed wire combines a plurality of definitions from the conventional 100Base-T interface specified by IEEE 802.3u (clause 22). As a result, each port has its own pair of associated time-division multiplexed wires (pins) and the addition of each port simply requires two additional wires. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, information normally transferred on sixteen wires in a conventional 100Base-T interface at 25 MHz is time-division multiplexed onto two wires (corresponding to two pins) that transfer data at 125 MHz, five times the speed of conventional interfaces. Importantly, this multiplexing is done on a port by port basis. Therefore, the number of pins required for a MAC to transceiver interface is two times the number of ports plus two instead of sixteen times the number of ports, and the addition of each additional port requires only two more wires (pins).
58 Citations
52 Claims
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1. A multi-port Ethernet device, comprising:
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a MAC chip having one or more ports;
a PHY chip having one or more ports; and
a 10/100Base-T interface connecting said MAC and PHY chips, said interface comprising, two time-division multiplexed wires per port on each chip, each time-division multiplexed wire configured for conveying time-division multiplexed signals having different definitions, and two global wires configured for conveying clock and synchronization pulse signals for up to all of the ports on each chip. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A 10/100Base-T interface connecting MAC and PHY chips each having one or more ports, said interface comprising:
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two time-division multiplexed wires per port on each chip, each time-division multiplexed wire configured for conveying time-division multiplexed signals having different definitions, and two global wires configured for conveying clock and synchronization pulse signals for up to all of the ports on each chip. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of interfacing a MAC chip to a PHY chip in an Ethernet device, comprising:
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conveying a first plurality of time-division multiplexed signals having different definitions from a MAC chip to a PHY chip over a 10/100Base-T transmit wire;
conveying a second plurality of time-division multiplexed signals having different definitions from the PHY chip to the MAC chip over a 10/100Base-T receive wire;
conveying a clock signal to said MAC chip and said PHY chip over a global clock wire; and
conveying a synchronization pulse signal to said MAC chip and said PHY chip over a global synchronization pulse wire. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method of interfacing a plurality of MAC chips in a 10/100Base-T Ethernet device, comprising:
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conveying a first plurality of time-division multiplexed signals having different definitions from a first MAC chip to a second MAC chip over a first 10/100Base-T wire;
conveying a second plurality of time-division multiplexed signals having different definitions from the second MAC chip to the first MAC chip over a second 10/100Base-T wire;
conveying a clock signal to said first and second MAC chips over a global clock wire; and
conveying a synchronization pulse signal to said first and second MAC chips over a global synchronization pulse wire.
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32. A multi-port Ethernet device, comprising:
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a MAC chip having one or more ports;
a PHY chip having one or more ports; and
means for conveying all signals required for a 10/100Base-T interface between said MAC chip and said PHY chip with 2n+2 wires, where n is the number of ports on each chip connected by the interface.
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33. A multi-port Ethernet media access control layer chip, comprising:
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a 10/100Base-T interface for connecting said media access control layer chip with a physical layer chip, said interface comprising, two time-division multiplexed pins per port on said media access control layer chip, each time-division multiplexed pin configured for conveying time-division multiplexed signals having different definitions, and two global pins configured for conveying clock and synchronization pulse signals for up to all of the ports on said media access control layer chip. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A multi-port Ethernet physical layer chip, comprising:
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a 10/100 Base-T interface for connecting said physical layer chip with a media access control layer chip, said interface comprising, two time-division multiplexed pins per port on said physical layer chip, each time-division multiplexed pin configured for conveying time-division multiplexed signals having different definitions, and two global pins configured for conveying clock and synchronization pulse signals for up to all of the ports on said physical layer chip. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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Specification