Implementation of an Ethernet-Based Communication Channel for the Patmos Processor

The Patmos processor, which is used as the intellectual property of the T-CREST platform, is only equipped with a RS-232 serial port for communication with the outside world. The serial port is a minimal input/output device with a limited speed and without native networking features. An Ethernet 10/100BASE-T IEEE 802.3 based communication channel is a reliable and high speed communication interface (10/100 Mbits/s) that also supports networking. This technical report presents an implementation of an Ethernet-based communication channel for the Patmos processor, targeting the Terasic DE2-115 development board. We have designed the hardware to interface the EthMac Ethernet controller from OpenCores to Patmos and to the physical chip of the development board, and we have implemented a software library to drive the controller and to support some essential protocols. The design was implemented on an Altera Cyclone IV FPGA in the aforementioned board, and it was tested with a software application, running on Patmos, that uses the Ethernet communication channel while the system is connected to a small local area network.