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Single-Chip NIC Solutions?

Posted by Cliff on from the invoking-the0renaissance-of-hardware dept.

scdeimos asks: "I started out working life as an electrical engineer, but subsequently moved into software development due to the lack of 'interesting' design jobs in the EE industry...one manufactory/power plant control system is much like another. Nowadays I find myself heading back to electronics as the field becomes more and more interesting with PIC?s and STAMP?s that are more powerful than many desktop systems were just a few years ago. Companies like Future Technology Devices International make useful single-chip USB solutions that allow your hack to appear as a serial port (FT232BM) or a parallel port (FT245BM) connected to your favourite CPU for device intelligence. This lets you build useful test equipment like computer-controlled voltmeters, logic analyzers and CRO?s for not much outlay.Which brings me to my question, which centers around NIC solutions. What are people using out there today for providing single-chip NIC connectivity? What benefits do you feel your chip preference has over the competition? Do any have a sockets (TCP/UDP) implementation built-in, or do you still have to write your own protocol libraries in the support CPU?"

5 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. TINI from Dallas Semi by TwoStep · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have been playing with TINI from Dallas Semiconductor. It runs java code, and supports a pretty good subset of the full Java 1.4 spec. It costs around $100 to get started with it.

    Twostep

    --
    There are 10 different types of people in this world... those who understand binary, and those who don't.
    1. Re:TINI from Dallas Semi by ummcdou4 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah the TINI is really neat. My Engineering Thesis (all Java and VHDL code included) used it interfaced (via parallel) with an EPLD (20k gates plus memory cells) from Altera.

      I used it to simulate and control a home automation system over the net. It is a really interesting piece of software but as a sibling piece has mentioned it has pretty severe loading issues. In one case, making a ring with your thumb and middle finger around a wire tied to one of the address pins and moving your hand was enough to cause the TINI to reboot. (replicatable).

      As well, they are exremely sesitive to static electricity. Our Prof fried 2 that he was using to do a lab with and I fried one during R&D for my thesis. On the plus side, Dallas Semiconductor is really helpful and actually shipped me a replacement before I sent them my fried one (you don't see that too often)

      At the end of the day I just find it really cool that you can run a web server on a SIMM form factor.

      G

  2. Single chip is harder... by morcheeba · · Score: 4, Informative

    I haven't seen any single-chip solutions yet... that's probably because the magnetics already add some parts, and probably also because the high-speed digital processor and the relatively noisy ethernet connection process technologies don't coexist.

    You may want to check out Rabbit Semiconductor's core modules. There's also the xport, that, while small, has got limited I/O.

    --
    HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
  3. Im not sure if this is what you want by jjshoe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But i looked at this solution before

    --
    -- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount} /dev/girl -t {wet;fsck;fsck;yes;yes;yes;umount} {/de
  4. XPort by GoRK · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have been very eager to try some projects with the XPort from Lantronix. It's technically not single chip but really it's about as close as you can get for what it does. It fits in an ethernet hood, so it's small enough to put into most anything that needs ethernet. Very cool little gadget...

    ~GoRK