RTL8100
2001/12/10
Rev.1.0
1
REALTEK SINGLE CHIP
FAST ETHERNET CONTROLLER
WITH POWER MANAGEMENT
RTL8100
PROGRAMMING GUIDE
1 Packet Transmission ................................................................................................................................................................ 2
1.1 Architecture........................................................................................................................................................................ 2
1.2 Transmit Descriptors .......................................................................................................................................................... 2
1.3 The Transmission Process .................................................................................................................................................. 3
1.4 Registers Involved.............................................................................................................................................................. 4
1.5 Software Issues................................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.7 Sample code ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5
2 Packet Reception ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6
2.1 Architecture........................................................................................................................................................................ 6
2.2 The Packet Header ............................................................................................................................................................. 7
2.3 The Transmission Process .................................................................................................................................................. 7
2.4 Registers Involved.............................................................................................................................................................. 7
2.5 Software Issues................................................................................................................................................................... 8
2.6 Configuration ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8
2.7 Sample Code ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9
3 Initialization............................................................................................................................................................................ 10
Additional Notes........................................................................................................................................................................ 10
This document is intended for use by the software engineer when programming for the Realtek RTL8100 series NIC controller
chips. Information pertaining to the hardware design of products using these chips is contained in a separate document.
Though every effort has been made to assure that this document is current and accurate, more information may have become
available subsequent to the production of this programming guide. In that event, please contact your Realtek representative for
additional information which can help in the development process.