SLIP layer utilizes serial cable as the main communication media, rather than ethernet cable. SLIP does not require a NIC, and thus offers very simple and inexpensive IP connection. SLIP is usually a one-to-one connection, where a host computer acts as the client. The SLIP module is designed to operate with a Windows®-based computer, though it may be modified to work with other operating systems with very few changes. With the modular design of the stack, it is only necessary to link the SLIP module (SLIP.c) to use it. The APIs provided by the SLIP module are essentially the same as those used by MAC (refer to the API descriptions for MAC on the following pages for details).
SLIP uses interrupt driven serial data transfer, as opposed to the polling method used by the NIC MAC. The main application must declare an interrupt handler and call the SLIP interrupt handler, MACISR. For additional details, refer to the source code for “Websrvr.c”, the Web server example program included in the downloadable Zip file archive. In order to connect to the Microchip TCP/IP Stack using the SLIP module, the host system must be configured for a SLIP connection.
