The Hi3519 Hisilicon CPU has RGMII pins. We are trying to connect it to the EC21 LTE Module from Quectel which contains SGMII pins. Would using two Realtek RTL8201F-VB-GG PHY chips with magnetics between them work as shown below?
EC21 (SGMII pins) <--> RTL8211DN PHY <--> MAGNETIC <--> RTL8211DN PHY <--> MAC Hi3559A (RGMII pins)
Can the PMD pins be connected directly without the magnetics? We are very limited in space so we not sure if a transformer can fit with in the design. Are there any other ways to convert between SGMII and RGMII? Thank you in advance for the help.
Edit: I just read up on the Reaktek app note and it suggest ideas on capacitive coupling to go magnetic-less: Youtronics App Note
RTL8208B supports SMII, can I use two of those PHY and connect them as shown below with capacitive coupling instead of using a transformer to save space? The new connections would be:
EC21 (SGMII pins) <--> RTL8208B PHY <--> capacitive coupling <--> RTL8208B PHY <--> MAC Hi3559A (RGMII pins)