2 transmit and receive descriptor queues – Texas Instruments TMS320TCI6486 User Manual

Page 32

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SOP | EOP

60

0

60

pBuffer

pNext

Packet A

60 bytes

0

SOP

Packet B

Fragment 1

512 bytes

512

1514

pBuffer

pNext

EOP

0

0

−−−

Packet B

Fragment 3

500 bytes

502

pBuffer

−−−

500

pNext

−−−

pBuffer

pNext

Packet B

Fragment 2

502 bytes

SOP | EOP

0

Packet C

1514 bytes

1514

pBuffer

pNext (NULL)

1514

EMAC Functional Architecture

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For example, consider three packets to be transmitted, Packet A is a single fragment (60 bytes), Packet B
is fragmented over three buffers (1514 bytes total), and Packet C is a single fragment (1514 bytes).

Figure 11

shows the linked list of descriptors to describe these three packets.

Figure 11. Typical Descriptor Linked List

2.5.2

Transmit and Receive Descriptor Queues

The EMAC module processes descriptors in linked list chains (

Section 2.5.1

). The lists controlled by the

EMAC are maintained by the application software through the head descriptor pointer (HDP) registers.
Since the EMAC supports eight channels for both transmit and receive, there are eight head descriptor
pointer registers for both.

They are designated as follows:

TXnHDP: Transmit Channel n DMA Head Descriptor Pointer Register

RXnHDP: Receive Channel n DMA Head Descriptor Pointer Register

After an EMAC reset, and before enabling the EMAC for send or receive, you must initialize all 16 head
descriptor pointer registers to zero.

The EMAC uses a simple system to determine ownership of a descriptor (either the EMAC or the
application software). There is a flag in the descriptor flags field called OWNER. When this flag is set, the
EMAC owns the referenced packet.

NOTE:

Ownership is assigned on a packet-based granularity, not on descriptor granularity. Thus,

only SOP descriptors use the OWNER flag. The EMAC patches the SOP descriptor of the
corresponding packet and clears the OWNER flag as packets are processed. This means
that the EMAC is finished processing all descriptors up to and including the first with the
EOP flag set. This indicates that you have reached the end of the packet. This may only be
one descriptor with both the SOP and EOP flags set.

32

C6472/TCI6486 EMAC/MDIO

SPRUEF8F – March 2006 – Revised November 2010

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