TK1 Intel Ethernet Controller I210-IT

Hi everybody,

I’m up to use the ethernet controller I210-IT from Intel (Intel Ethernet Controller I210IT Product Specifications), but I’m not sure if this controller is supported by TK1. Does anybody tried to use this ethernet controller? If so, what is the experience you’ve made? Are there any known problems or issues with this hardware combination?

Could you also name any alternative for the I210-IT!?

Thanks,

Roman

Hi

I could not tell if the link was for just the chip/device or for a complete NIC.

I can confirm that the I210 (at least some of them) do work on the TK1. No change is needed for Linux/Ubuntu.
u-boot does not support the I210 as delivered by Nvidia.
The supported NIC needs to be added/changed in the DTB for u-boot. Add the e1000 driver to support the i210. There is a bug in the Nvidia u-boot code which causes the e1000 driver not to work straight away.
Sorry, cannot remember what the fix is.

Hi GE_Chen,

thank you for your answer. You helped me a lot. If I decide to use the I210-IT, I will post the results later in this forum…

Cheers

There is a special i210 issue was related to the Intel Ethernet controller generating upstream “VDM Type 1” (Vendor Defined Message) messages. These cause the PCIe interface to hang, and occurred immediately after boot, no specific test was required to cause the issue.

This need disable VDM Type 1 from intel i210 firmware and can’t use MCTP VDM over PCIe.

We’ve successfully used I210-IS (SGMII instead of twisted pair) in our design so I210-IT should work too.