When the RGMII interface is operating in the 100Mbps mode, the Ethernet Media Independent Interface (MII) is implemented by reducing the clock rate to 25MHz. For 10Mbps operation, the clock is further reduced to 2.5MHz. In the RGMII 10/100 mode, the transmit clock RGMII TX_CLK is generated by the MAC and the receive clock RGMII RX_CLK is generated by the PHY. During the packet receiving operation, the RGMII RX_CLK may be stretched on either the positive or negative pulse to accommodate the transition from the free-running clock to a data synchronous clock domain. When the speed of the PHY changes, a similar stretching of the positive or negative pulses is allowed. No glitch is allowed on the clock signals during clock speed transitions.

This interface operates at 10- and 100Mbps speeds the same way it does at 1000Mbps mode with the exception that the data may be duplicated on the falling edge of the appropriate clock.

The MAC holds the RGMII TX_CLK low until it has ensured that it is operating at the same speed as the PHY.

Figure 7-6 RGMII Connections