[ethmac] Cheap Ethernet PHY???

[Jeff Hanoch <jeff@lowrance.com>]

Hi all,

I am quite new to ethernet hardware.  My next ASIC design may need to support ethernet 10baseT, so I was looking at your Ethernet MAC.  The problem I am seeing is that the cheapest PHYs I am seeing have only 1 bit data busses.  Being an ethernet newbie, I have not yet found out if this is a problem.  Will it work with your MAC which has 4 bit data busses?  The only PHYs I have seen that have 4 data bits are very expensive.  We do high volume consumer electronics, so I call anything over $5 expensive.  Intel has a part listed for $3.74/1K in Digi-Key.  But it has the 1 bit data pins.

If a 1 bit data bus will not work, does anyone know of an inexpensive PHY that I may have missed which will work with your core?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff