Selecting microcontroller for custom high speed data operation.

[Jaydeep88]

Hi All,

We are currently exploring microcontroller options to meet our system requirements. The system must support Ethernet communication at 1Gbps while simultaneously driving 24 GPIOs (12+12) with a single clock output at a speed of 38 MHz. All GPIOs should be updated on the rising edge of the clock signal and must be refreshed within half of the high duration of the clock signal, approximately 6ns.

Additionally, the system requires high-speed external RAM to process data of approximately 1GB data. We have evaluated the GPIOs driving mechanism on one microcontroller, we encountered a bottleneck with the DMA clock source, as few clock cycles are required for proper DMA processing and updated GPIOs status by timer trigger event.

We are seeking a microcontroller that meets these specifications and provides an efficient solution.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Jaydeep.

[Omar_Anguiano]

For 1G Ethernet, the best option is RT1170, It has HS GPIOs and it is possible to connect external RAM with either SEMC or FlexSPI modules. The only issue is that DMA does not have access to HSGPIO.

Best regards,
Omar

[Jaydeep88]

Hi @Omar_Anguiano ,

Thanks for reply,

The only issue is that DMA does not have access to HSGPIO.

You are saying that DMA cannot be configured to move data to GPIO address? While I don’t have experience with NXP MCUs, I believe there might be an alternative approach to achieve this. If you have any recommendations, please let me know.

As I mentioned earlier, our application requires high-speed data access and transfer, which must be done without CPU intervention. This is critical because the MCU needs to handle other tasks simultaneously, so it must remain free during these operations.

Thanks,

Jaydeep.

[Omar_Anguiano]

DMA cannot be used to acces HSGPIO pads while regular GPIO can be accessed by DMA. 

An alternative approach to this is using the secondary core to handle these operations while CM7 handles other task. 

Best regards,
Omar

[Jaydeep88]

Hi @Omar_Anguiano ,

Sorry for late reply.

So can we use normal GPIO and use it with DMA for the required operation (38 MH clock and 24 GPIO control with setup time of ~6ns)? Or I need HSGPIO compulsory?

Jaydeep