SLUUDO2 September   2026 AM2611 , AM2612 , AM2612-Q1 , AM2631 , AM2631-Q1 , AM2632 , AM2632-Q1 , AM2634 , AM2634-Q1 , AM263P2 , AM263P2-Q1 , AM263P4 , AM263P4-Q1

 

  1.   1
  2.   Abstract
  3.   Trademarks
  4. 1Acronyms
  5. 2Introduction
  6. 3Introduction to CPSWSS and ENET-LLD
    1. 3.1 Hardware
    2. 3.2 Software
    3. 3.3 Application Software
      1. 3.3.1 Board and Peripherals Initialization (SYSCFG)
      2. 3.3.2 CPSW Configuration (ENET-LLD)
      3. 3.3.3 Operating System (FreeRTOS or NoRTOS)
      4. 3.3.4 Middleware Stack (LwIP, Arm® Mbed™ Platform TLS, TSN)
      5. 3.3.5 Application Layer
  7. 4Debugging Hardware and Software
    1. 4.1 Hardware Debugging
      1. 4.1.1 Schematic Review Checklist
        1. 4.1.1.1 Management Data Input/Output (MDIO and MDC)
        2. 4.1.1.2 RGMII Interface
      2. 4.1.2 PHY Debug
        1. 4.1.2.1 PHY Bootstrap Settings
        2. 4.1.2.2 Trace Length
        3. 4.1.2.3 Clock Configuration
        4. 4.1.2.4 Mode Settings
        5. 4.1.2.5 IO MUX and SW Switch Settings
        6. 4.1.2.6 PHY Troubleshooting Guides
        7. 4.1.2.7 Custom Pin MUX Settings
      3. 4.1.3 Test Setup
      4. 4.1.4 Software Debugging
        1. 4.1.4.1 Using GEL Scripts in CCS
          1. 4.1.4.1.1 Statistics Using GEL Scripts
          2. 4.1.4.1.2 Statistics Using Expressions
      5. 4.1.5 Debugging Custom Ethernet Software
        1. 4.1.5.1 Debugging Initialization Sequence
        2. 4.1.5.2 PHY Debugging
        3. 4.1.5.3 MAC Port Debugging
        4. 4.1.5.4 TX Path Debugging
        5. 4.1.5.5 Systematic Debugging Checklist
          1. 4.1.5.5.1 RX Path Debugging
          2. 4.1.5.5.2 Multicast or Broadcast Does Not Work, But Unicast Works
    2. 4.2 Custom Hardware Bring-Up Process
      1. 4.2.1 Example 1: CPSW PHY Loopback
        1. 4.2.1.1 Failure: PHY Not Detected or MDIO Bus Not Alive
        2. 4.2.1.2 Failure: TX Packets Transmitted But RX Count = 0
      2. 4.2.2 Example 2: CPSW MAC Loopback Example
        1. 4.2.2.1 Failure: MAC Loopback Initialization Fails
        2. 4.2.2.2 Failure: TX Packets Increase But RX = 0
        3. 4.2.2.3 Failure: Nonzero Error Counters
      3. 4.2.3 Example 3: Enet_Layer2_CPSW and Enet_Layer2_cpsw_switch
        1. 4.2.3.1 Hardware Setup
        2. 4.2.3.2 Failure: Link Never Comes UP
        3. 4.2.3.3 Failure: Link is Up But No Frames Are Received or Transmitted
        4. 4.2.3.4 Failure: RX and TX Counters Increase But Error Rates Are High
      4. 4.2.4 Example 4: Enet_lwip_cpsw_example
        1. 4.2.4.1 Failure: Link Never Comes Up
        2. 4.2.4.2 Failure: Links Up But No IP Address Is Assigned
        3. 4.2.4.3 Failure: Ping Fails Despite Link and IP Address
    3. 4.3 Debugging Packet Forwarding Issues (ALE and Statistics)
      1. 4.3.1 CPSW Statistics Architecture
        1. 4.3.1.1 What Each Block Measures
        2. 4.3.1.2 Counter Reference Tables
          1. 4.3.1.2.1 MAC Port – RX Counters
          2. 4.3.1.2.2 MAC Port – TX Counters
          3. 4.3.1.2.3 MAC Port and Host Port – ALE and FIFO Drop Counters
          4. 4.3.1.2.4 Host Port – ALE Flood and Overrun Counters
          5. 4.3.1.2.5 MAC Port RX Issues
          6. 4.3.1.2.6 MAC Port TX Issues
          7. 4.3.1.2.7 Host Port RX Issues
          8. 4.3.1.2.8 Host Port TX Issues
    4. 4.4 Custom Board Enablement in SYSCFG
    5. 4.5 LwIP Debug Guide
      1. 4.5.1 LwIP Stack Configuration
      2. 4.5.2 lwip_stats
  8. 5Conclusion
  9. 6References

2 Introduction

The CPSW is an integrated Ethernet switching peripheral that provides hardware-accelerated packet switching, routing, and filtering capabilities across multiple Ethernet ports. On the AM26x devices, the CPSW3G variant integrates a three-port switch fabric with dual external gigabit ports and a host port interface to the CPU subsystem. The peripheral handles Layer 2 switching operations through hardware sub-blocks, including the address look-up engine (ALE) for MAC address management, port controllers for physical interface management, and DMA engines for efficient packet transfer.

The ENET-LLD (unified Ethernet low-level driver) within the MCU+ SDK (microcontroller unit software development kit) abstracts the CPSW3G hardware complexity through a modular software architecture. The driver manages peripheral initialization, PHY (physical layer) configuration, packet buffer allocation, interrupt handling, and provides APIs (application programming interfaces) for frame transmission and reception. The driver architecture separates hardware-specific implementations from application-level interfaces, enabling portable code across TI's devices (AM2x and AM6x families) enabled by the CPSW.

This document focuses on systematic debugging approaches for CPSW3G, demonstrated on the AM261x devices. The debugging practices discussed in this document can also be applied to other CPSW variants and TI devices.