Method and apparatus for controlling data transfer between EEPROM and a physical layer device

摘要

An IEEE 802.3 compliant physical layer device provides efficient loading of configuration information of the physical layer device. The configuration information is written into a volatile memory in the physical layer device, and then uploaded to at least one EEPROM. The configuration information is downloaded to the volatile memory during startup of the physical layer device. The system controller can also directly access the EEPROMs, bypassing the volatile memory. By providing a bridge between the system controller and the EEPROMs and providing additional bits in the volatile memory of the physical layer device, the system controller can read and write the EEPROMs one byte at a time. During reset time, the content of the EEPROMs is written to registers in the physical layer device to configure the physical layer device.

主权项

1. A physical layer device, comprising:
a volatile memory for storing data and data transfer status information; a first data bridge between a system controller and at least one non-volatile memory; a second data bridge between the at least one non-volatile memory and the volatile memory; a third data bridge between the system controller and the volatile memory; wherein the system controller transfers data via the first data bridge to the at least one non-volatile memory bypassing the volatile memory for updating a few bytes in the at least one non-volatile memory, and the system controller updates the volatile memory via the third data bridge and uploads the updates in the volatile memory via the second data bridge to the at least one non-volatile memory for updating an entire content of the at least one non-volatile memory; the second data bridge for communicating a configuration information for the physical layer device between the volatile memory and the at least one non-volatile memory; an access controller that is configured to receive requests to access the at least one non-volatile memory from both the first data bridge and the second data bridge, and give priority to the earlier request; and the third data bridge connecting the volatile memory and the system controller to communicate the configuration information for the physical layer device to the volatile memory; wherein the first data bridge and the third data bridge are utilized when the data transfer status information indicates that an error occurred during a data transfer from the at least one non-volatile memory to the volatile memory.