ETHERNET trx lan8710a

[aamir.usaf@gmail.com]

Hi,
I am looking for a dev. platform for an application that receives UDP packets and forward the data to an (external) SPI master in 32bit frame. I was looking into PIC-WEB and PIC32-EMZ64 boards as suitable candidates. One thing I want to know is why does PIC32-EMZ64 need to have LAN8710A Ethernet transceiver while PIC-WEB does not have it. The micro controller in each of them have build-in Ethernet controller. Thanks in advance for your comments.

[KeesZagers]

A guess from my point of view: The microcontroller in PIC-WEB also has the driver circuit built-in; the one in PIC32-EMZ64 has not. In general I prefer the last option. Static discharge on the network has no direct influence on the microcontroller pins; the external driver has a better protection.