Ethernet QoS v4.0 Controller for 802.1 Compliant Networks
By John Swanson, Senior Marketing Manager, Synopsys, Inc.
As designers look to their next-generation network designs, they are faced with new challenges for products that incorporate the common Ethernet interface. Not only is the Ethernet standard moving into faster network communications, as seen by the move to 40G and 100G, but it is also being updated to support streaming audio and video applications over Local Area Networks (LANs).
In 2008 and 2009, we saw several IEEE specification updates either ratified or advanced to solid draft versions that are targeted at improving networking systems’ Quality of Service (QoS). Incorporating these updates into new consumer products is critical to satisfying consumers’ growing throughput demands. The work being done by the 802.1 Audio Video Bridging (AVB) work groups enables designers to more easily incorporate Ethernet QoS into not only Ethernet networks, but into all 802-compliant networks, and which gives consumers a wider range of options that support streaming audio and video in their home and automotive systems.
Synopsys released the first generation DesignWare® Ethernet QoS controller IP in 2010. Designers have used this core in both consumer and automotive applications for several years. The new Ethernet QoS v4.0 controller IP enhances Ethernet performance by significantly increasing the number of transmit and receive channels as well as adding support for new features in TCP/IP offloading and data center bridging.
Designers can select between four different architectures to integrate the Ethernet QoS v4.0 controller IP into their system-on-chip (SoC) designs, just as they could with the previous version of the IP. These are simple configuration options invoked from coreConsultant, providing designers with a flexible system design and optimized RTL for their specific designs. Each configuration can support 10/100/1G Ethernet speeds. The four base configurations are:
- Media access controller (MAC)
- MAC with memory controller
- MAC direct memory access (DMA)
- MAC with an AMBA system side interface