MICROCONTROLLER WITH INTEGRATED MONITORING CAPABILITIES FOR NETWORK APPLICATIONS

A microcontroller has integrated monitoring capabilities for network applications. The disclosed techniques can take advantage, for example, of an unused, duplicate network controller that is present in some microcontrollers by providing selection circuitry and configuration capabilities that allow the unused, duplicate network controller to be used for the purpose of monitoring frames that are transferred between network media and another network controller residing on the microcontroller. The monitored frames can then be used, for example, for debugging or other purposes, such as statistical analyzes or security enhancements.