SPRUI30H November 2015 – May 2024 DRA745 , DRA746 , DRA750 , DRA756
Next Descriptor Pointer
The next descriptor pointer points to the 32-bit word aligned memory address of the next buffer descriptor in the transmit queue. This pointer is used to create a linked list of buffer descriptors. If the value of this pointer is zero, then the current buffer is the last buffer in the queue. The software application must set this value prior to adding the descriptor to the active transmit list. This pointer is not altered by the EMAC. The value of pNext should never be altered once the descriptor is in an active transmit queue, unless its current value is NULL. If the pNext pointer is initially NULL, and more packets need to be queued for transmit, the software application may alter this pointer to point to a newly appended descriptor. The EMAC will use the new pointer value and proceed to the next descriptor unless the pNext value has already been read. In this latter case, the transmitter will halt on the transmit channel in question, and the software application may restart it at that time. The software can detect this case by checking for an end of queue (EOQ) condition flag on the updated packet descriptor when it is returned by the EMAC