[En-Nut-Discussion] Ideas from an outsider

[Harald Kipp]

Louis,

Let me first tell you that I stumbled over your website
recently and was impressed by the amazing microVNC.

Thank you for the time you spend on these most valuable
comments about a CPLD doped Ethernut. I do not have any
experience with CPLD design. But from your suggestions
and other messages posted to this list it becomes obvious,
that the hardware flexibility such a design would offer
makes it very attractive.

Your mail certainly requires some time to think about.
Anyway, a few comments in advance:

- The AVR JTAG doesn't support daisy chaining.
- It is possible to run Nut/OS routines without
   external RAM access. I use it for an IDE interface,
   where Ports A and C are used as I/O Ports _and_
   Address/Data Bus.
- Ethernut 1.3d offers some kind of PoE and we use it
   in one of our products. But it's not following the
   IEEE standard, which requires some additional
   "intelligence". I'll check the Bothhand part.

Beside that, it looks to me right now, that a CPLD
doped Ethernut design would require at least a few
weeks to be done. Not to mention all the required
documentation.

That's OK somehow, but my company really needs two
enhancements as soon as possible (additional RAM and
100BaseT). Both requirements could be easily done
with discrete logic. I'm now thinking about doing
such an intermediate layout first and give us all
some extra time for a really good CPLD design.

Harald