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Using Sockets to Interface to Ethernet

Every OS supports Ethernet and Sockets, except for Windows XP SP2. This makes
interfacing to FPGAs with ChipEnet MAC cores from a PC or server extremely easy.
No driver or special programming techniques are required. No special libraries or
compilers are needed.

Simply open a socket, bind it to the local Ethernet NIC, and start sending and
receiving blocks of data to/from the FPGA. This may be done directly or via a
Ethernet switch. Registers and memory in the FPGA may be easily interrogated from
code running on the PC host. This allows the FPGA to be controlled and configured
from the PC host. Streaming data, video or audio, may also be transferred between
the FPGA and the PC host. A 100Mb/s or 1000Mb/s link can support multiple audio
and video streams.

No TCP/IP Processing Needed

It is a common misconception that TCP/IP is always required. For an enclosed
network, TCP/IP is overkill. IP is not needed for a local area network and reliable
connections can be made using simpler protocols than TCP.

Not having to handle TCP/IP means the FPGA does not have to have a processor
or if a processor already exists, the workload of the embedded processor is reduced
and memory usage reduced.

Ethernet simply delivers blocks of data from one point to another. What is in the
blocks of data is up to you. The interpretation or decoding of the data blocks can be
anyway you want. So direct control of registers, memories and or state machines in
the FPGA is easy to accomplish from a program running on a PC or server.