Re: [RFC] Patch to Abstract Ethernet PHY support (using driver model)

[Eugene Surovegin <ebs@ebshome.net>]

On Thu, Jan 13, 2005 at 10:58:08PM +0100, J?rn Engel wrote:
> On Thu, 13 January 2005 13:21:52 -0800, Eugene Surovegin wrote:
> > 
> > It's a standard, period. If there is a PHY which isn't compliant I
> > guess it will not work anyway, but in this case, yes, we can use
> > PHY-specific link detection, but only in this case. I suspect you'll
> > have a hard time finding such PHY :)
> 
> http://www.broadcom.com/collateral/pb/5325-PB05-R.pdf
> 
> With some thinking and very little code, you can use this neat chip
> almost like a normal phy.

Yeah, but why would I want to? If you connect your MAC to any 5 PHYs 
my statement still stands, if directly to MII you don't need any PHY 
stuff at all, because link is always ON and speed/duplex is fixed.

In fact, we use different switch chips connected to PPC4xx directly. 
In this situation, in my NAPI IBM EMAC driver I just have special 
"PHY-less" case which is trivial "fixed settings" one. And all this 
PHY lib is completely unneeded bloat.

--
Eugene