NAT-MCH BASE-Module– Technical Reference Manual
Version 2.10
© N.A.T. GmbH
13
3.3
Backplane Interfaces
The
NAT-MCH BASE-Module
is equipped with various backplane interfaces, described in
the following sections.
3.3.1
IPMB
The
NAT-MCH BASE-Module
implements IPMB interfaces which conform to the
MicroTCA specification.
IPMB-L interfaces are available for communication with up to 12 AMCs and a
second
NAT-MCH
. An IPMB-0 interface is available for communication with CUs
and PMs.
3.3.2
I²C
The
NAT-MCH BASE-Module
provides an I²C interface to access the dedicated
FRU information device (resided on the backplane).
3.3.3
Ethernet
The
NAT-MCH BASE-Module
provides 1000BaseX interfaces for fabric A of 12
AMCs and the Update channel of fabric A. These interfaces are connected to a
Broadcom BCM5396 Gigabit Ethernet Switch.
3.4
Front Panel Interfaces
The
NAT-MCH BASE-Module
is equipped with various interfaces at the front panel,
described in the following sections.
3.4.1
Ethernet Uplink Ports
Two ports of the BCM5396 Gigabit Ethernet Switch are wired to connector GbE1
and GbE2 via a Broadcom BCM5482 1000BaseT physical layer chip. By this
external device the user may access fabric A also from the front panel.
GbE1:
The switch interfaces the network to fabric A and to the ColdFire CPU.
Therefore this port can be used to update the ColdFire Software and to permit
communication with external shelf or system managers.
GbE2:
Together with GbE1 this port can be used to increase the bandwidth of the
uplink. Instead of the second GbE-Interface the
NAT-MCH BASE-Module
can be
equipped with a RJ45 clock interface (see chapter 3.4.3.2 for details).
Configuration settings of the BCM5482 are done by CPU ports. It has to be set up
in GBIC mode (1000BaseT to 1000BaseX translation). Like all other I/O devices,
the PHY is resettable via software by programming an FPGA register.