24.6.6.2 Transmitter Checksum Offload

The transmitter checksum offload is only available if the full store and forward mode is enabled. This is because the complete frame to be transmitted must be read into the packet buffer memory before the checksum can be calculated and written back into the headers at the beginning of the frame.

Transmitter checksum offload is enabled by setting bit [11] in the DMA Configuration register. When enabled, it will monitor the frame as it is written into the transmitter packet buffer memory to automatically detect the protocol of the frame. Protocol support is identical to the receiver checksum offload.

For transmit checksum generation and substitution to occur, the protocol of the frame must be recognized and the frame must be provided without the FCS field, by making sure that bit [16] of the transmit descriptor word 1 is clear. If the frame data already had the FCS field, this would be corrupted by the substitution of the new checksum fields.

If these conditions are met, the transmit checksum offload engine will calculate the IP, TCP and UDP checksums as appropriate. Once the full packet is completely written into packet buffer memory, the checksums will be valid and the relevant DPRAM locations will be updated for the new checksum fields as per standard IP/TCP and UDP packet structures.

If the transmitter checksum engine is prevented from generating the relevant checksums, bits [22:20] of the transmitter DMA writeback status will be updated to identify the reason for the error. Note that the frame will still be transmitted but without the checksum substitution, as typically the reason that the substitution did not occur was that the protocol was not recognized.