SLUUDO2 September 2026 AM2611 , AM2612 , AM2612-Q1 , AM2631 , AM2631-Q1 , AM2632 , AM2632-Q1 , AM2634 , AM2634-Q1 , AM263P2 , AM263P2-Q1 , AM263P4 , AM263P4-Q1
Master and slave mode determines which device provides the master clock for the physical layer connection.
In gigabit Ethernet, one end of the link must act as master (transmits the clock) and the other as slave (receives and locks to the clock). This configuration can be established through different means.
From a SW perspective, this configuration can be done through a SYSCFG extended PHY configuration. For example, the DP83TG721 PHY has this feature of configuring master or slave mode using an extended configuration. The same PHY also has the provision to configure the master or slave mode using HW strapping. More details on these configurations are available in the specific datasheet for the PHYs. The configuration made using the extended configuration is used to set the PMA_CTRL register.
In case you are using a media convertor, the media convertor EVM also has a master or slave jumper which must be set correctly. An example is shown in Figure 4-5 for the DP83TG720/TG721 evaluation module for a 1Gbps media convertor.
Figure 4-5 PHY Jumper ConfigurationFigure 4-6 shows an example for configuring an MDI master or slave configuration using SYSCFG.
Figure 4-6 SYSCFG Setting for MDI
Master