obtaining a MAC-address

Hi,
I bought a LAN-Chip (the LAN91C111 from SMSC) in order to realize an interface to a FPGA. I wrote a driver for this chip and have now the following prob.

I do need a unique MAC-address for the chip, because it must be accessible via internet.

First thought was, that the manufacturer of the chip can provide an address (because of the lower 3 bytes of the MAC-address [OUI] are in the PHY registers of the chip by default). Negative. They told me, that they must not resell their OUI. I should get an Individual Address Block from the IEEE (650,-$).

So, what to do now? All I need is an unique address, and I don't want to spend so much money to this. Has anybody an idea?

Regards,
Ruediger

(^^;?(I'm unsure of this, Is this not a standard card?)

There seems to be many data sheets. Have you read all these?

http://www.smsc.com/main/catalog/lan91c111.html

Some Rpppoe soft seems to represent MAC address also.

just for clarification, you are suggesting you bought the proper chips and have produced your own board, correct?

AdamTT

in another thread of this forum i got a good hint: using the MAC-address of another NIC. its easy: either you buy a card, read out the MAC and use the NIC never or use the MAC-address of a NIC in another network.

@megumi:
yes, i have read them because i needed to (necessary for writing a driver and integrating the chip into the board layout). the problem of the MAC-address is not a software-problem. in fact i can change the MAC-address by driver, but for this i do need an unique address.

@AdamPI:
almost. i produced an embedded webserver (running on a Xilinx FPGA). and its physical interface is a combination of this lan chip and a PulseJack ethernet connector. now i need a mac-address for less money.

(~~; ( I must have studied a bit to understand you, though I am still unsure of this.)

First three octet (OUI) is registered here, Official:

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml

Non-Official Organization OUI is assembled by Users, here:

Ethernet codes master page

http://map-ne.com/Ethernet/

P.S. Using these data, you may conceive unique address. But in the end, you'd better get any Junk NIC and replace it.

Really, I think I use the MAC addresses from junk NIC. It's illegal, but will fit for testing purposes. Many thanks!