Interfacing Fast Ethernet to Processors

Ethernet has dominated due to the ease-of-use and open standard approach providing true interoperability between equipment in the field. By itself, Ethernet is not strictly a protocol yet it provides the lower ‘hardware’ layers for the higher layer software stacks such as TCP/IP or UDP. So, it would seem the task to network a device should be as simple as ‘bolting on’ an Ethernet transceiver and modifying the software. Indeed, this is basically true, however, the many different interfaces offered by today’s vast number of Processors and FPGAs often adds uncertainty.