Re: [microblaze-uclinux] USB and Ethernet support

["Hasjim Williams" <microblaze@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ivan,

I am currently looking at designing a small USB host board for the
Microblaze (in conjuction with John Williams), as part of my Masters
project.

At the moment, the only USB host chip that is in the uClinux 2.4.x
kernel, is the Cypress SL811 (drivers/usb/host/hc_sl811.c).  There are
plenty of other embedded USB host chips out there at the moment, ie
Phillips ISP1161, Transdimension UHC124 to name but a few.  Some work
will need to be done to whatever driver you use, though, in order for the
driver to work with the microblaze architecture.

At the moment we are still evaluating suitable ICs, etc.  I should have a
draft document sometime next week, regarding possible suitable USB host
devices for the Microblaze.  

Regarding Ethernet PHYs, AFAIK, it would only be a matter of adding
support to the "xilinx_enet" driver, if the PHY wasn't already supported.
 John could probably provide some more information about this though... 
The CS8900 IC is an ISA Ethernet controller that can be fairly easily
interfaced to any 8-bit or 16-bit bus.  I heard there was an earlier
Masters student that did some work with interfacing the CS8900 to the
Microblaze, but I think that work is incomplete.

I assume you have heard that John is currently in the process of
designing a custom board, the egret?  Is there any particular reason why
you wish to create another custom board?

If you are looking for interesting peripherals, I am sure there are
plenty of others out there.  There was some talk regarding interfacing
Firewire to the FPGA, or perhaps PCI, but these are definitely more
complicated.  If you decide you want to add a USB host chip, then perhaps
we can collaborate.  

Hasjim

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 23:30:11 +0100, "Ivan" <salorankatu@yahoo.es> said:
> Hi John and everyone,
> 
> i have two questions:
> 
> - I am interested in use a USB chip to manage USB Peripherals like USB
> memories, USB Bluetooth adapters, etc. Are there support for any
> specific USB chip support???
> 
> - The same question for Ethernet Chip. I have selected the LXT970A
> Ethernet PHY chip. I think this chip is supported because is similar to
> the Insight v2mb1000 board. However in the mailing-list there are
> references to the CS8900 10Mb Ethernet chip. I have this chip, but i
> don't know it is currently supported.
> 
> I ask these questions because we are thinking to build a custom board
> for MicroBlaze projects and I am looking for interesting peripherals for
> the board. Any suggestion will be accepted.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 	Ivan
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