[formerly_proven]

10BASE-T = 10 Mbit/s Ethernet. 10G/2.5G/1G/100 Ethernet are all backwards compatible so 10BASE-T is the slowest/simplest Ethernet standard that you can implement today and just plug into just about anything.

This is transmit only, so it's pretty much limited to broadcasts (can't do ARP). That's good enough for e.g. sensors.

[pezezin]

> 10G/2.5G/1G/100 Ethernet are all backwards compatible

Not always. The physical layers are incredibly different, and while it is true that most 1G devices also support 10M/100M, we found the hard way that some 10G switches and NICs don't.

[willis936]

10G no, but all 1000BASE-T NICs require autonegotiation for 10/100/1000 to be compliant.

[Jaruzel]

NICs maybe, but there's a whole heap of cheap home switches and hubs that don't support 10BaseT. I know this from experience.

[Sebb767]

I've also experienced some quite expensive Juniper DC switches not supporting anything below 1Gbit. Fun times.

[dicknuckle]

Some ISP core stuff too.

[salmo]

I don’t think the other specs are necessarily backwards compatible. The NICs on each end negotiate the fastest commonly supported spec.

I’ve had 10G cards that would only negotiate down to 1G or only do 10G. But those were over Twinax. I’ve never use 10G on twisted pair.

Back in my day we were excited about 100Base-T and called it Fast Ethernet :).

Oooh! Now do 10Base2!

[thrtythreeforty]

Can confirm, we have a bunch of $10 switches lying around our million dollar lab because nobody thought to check if the 40Gbit switches can do 100Mbit to talk to Raspberry Pis. Not sure if we're ever pushing 40Gbit but I know we use the hell out of the RPis. Go figure...

[LAC-Tech]

I need more context.

Is a micro-controller able to broadcast through an ethernet port something remarkable?

Obviously this upvoted enough that it's causing a buzz, but I'm not an embedded guy and don't really understand why.

[magicalhippo]

> Is a micro-controller able to broadcast through an ethernet port something remarkable?

Many microcontrollers, especially higher-end ones, have built-in dedicated hardware, called peripherals[1], to handle complex and/or high-speed interfaces like Ethernet.

The Pico does not have an Ethernet peripheral, so this project relies on bit-banging[2], a brute-force approach to IO. However, the Pico does have the PIO[3], which is a general-purpose IO peripheral, so it's not pure bit-banging in the traditional sense.

While it's cute, it's not super remarkable. People have done bit-banged HDMI[4] on the Pico for example. However, Ethernet access can be very useful in a Pico project.

[1]: https://electronicguidebook.com/what-are-microcontroller-per...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_banging

[3]: https://hackspace.raspberrypi.com/articles/what-is-programma...

[4]: https://github.com/Wren6991/PicoDVI

[ZiiS]

"Micro-controller" is a very wide term. Today it is applied to many things that would have been a good desktop computer only 20 years ago. As you surmise it is not at all impressive that they can talk on the network (may have hardware that fully supports current generation wired and wireless networking) The Pi Pico is quite a simple micro controller, similar to the 1980s hardware that would have actually used 10BASE-T. The impressive bit is it fully software except 3 resistors; rather then having dedicated hardware.

[actionfromafar]

It's not through an Ethernet port, that's the interesting part. :)

[unwind]

If the controller is $1 and lacks actual support, and no external network hardware is being used: yes.

[jmiskovic]

I find remarkable how simple it appears to be. You could take any existing Pico-based board, find two unused pins and solder on those four components. You update the software and suddenly the project is network-connected! For most other micro controllers this would either be impossible (dedicated pin already occupied with another function), or would require installing another PCB.

[baq]

yes, because it's implemented 100% in software, no dedicated computing/networking hardware (resistors don't count)