Ethernet controller with excess on-board flash for microcontroller interface

A network appliance for interfacing between a physical network and providing a predefined functionality on the network, comprising:

• a functional module having an associated functional module processing system for performing the predefined functionality;
• and
• a single chip network controller for interfacing between the physical network and said functional module and said associated processing on a media side of said network controller, said network controller including:
• a physical layer for receiving data for transmission to the network and encoding the received data for transmission thereto and for receiving data from the network, and for receiving data from the physical network and decoding the received data,
• a media layer for interfacing with said functional module processing system for receiving data from said functional module processing system for interface with said physical layer for encoding and transmission thereof, and for receiving decoded data from said physical layer and providing access thereto by said functional module processing system,
• on-chip non-volatile memory having a first portion associated with configuration information for configuring operation of said physical layer and said media layer and a second portion thereof that is accessible by said functional module processing system on the media side of said network controller, and
• a memory interface for interfacing said functional module processing system with the second portion of said memory, such that said functional module processing system has an expanded memory capability, the memory space of said functional module processing system being mapped with the memory space of the on-chip non-volatile memory, the mapped portion of the on-chip non-volatile memory extending the memory for the functional module processing system, wherein an address generated by said functional module processing system that addresses a memory location in the internal memory space of the functional module processing system can be received by said memory interface to access a mapped location in said non-volatile memory.