P R E L I M I N A R Y
AMD
1-395
Am79C960
The PCnet-ISA controller will perform 8-bit ISA bus cy-
cle operation for all resource (registers, PROMs,
SRAM) if
SBHE
has been left unconnected, such as in
the case of an 8-bit system like the PC/XT.
The
BPCS
signal generated by the PCnet-ISA controller
is three 20 MHz clock cycles wide (150 ns). Including de-
lays, the Boot PROM has 120 ns to respond to the
BPCS
signal from the PCnet-ISA controller. This signal is in-
tended to be connected to the
CS
pin on the boot
PROM, with the PROM
OE
pin tied to ground. The ac-
cess time of the boot PROM must be 120 ns or faster
when 16-bit ISA memory cycles are to be supported.
Static RAM Cycles
The shared memory SRAM is an 8-bit device connected
to the PCnet-ISA controller Private Bus, and can occupy
up to 64 Kbytes of address space. In Shared Memory
Mode, an external address comparator is responsible
for asserting
SMAM
to the PCnet-ISA controller.
SMAM
is intended to be a perfect decode of the SRAM address
space, i.e.
REF
, LA17-23, SA16 for 64 Kbytes of SRAM.
The LA signals must be latched by BALE in order to pro-
vide a stable decode for
SMAM
. The PCnet-ISA
controller assumes 16-bit ISA memory bus cycles for
the SRAM, so this same logic must assert
MEMCS16
to
the ISA bus if 16-bit bus cycles are to be supported.
A 16-bit SRAM bus cycle begins with the Permanent
Master driving the addresses valid,
REF
inactive, and
either
MEMR
or
MEMW
active. (AEN is not involved in
memory cycles). External hardware would assert
SMAM
and
MEMCS16
. The PCnet-ISA controller de-
tects this combination of signals and initiates the SRAM
access.
In a write cycle, the PCnet-ISA controller stores the data
into an internal holding register, allowing the ISA bus cy-
cle to finish normally. The data in the holding register will
then be written to the SRAM without the need for ISA
bus control. In the event the holding register is already
filled with unwritten SRAM data, the PCnet-ISA control-
ler will extend the ISA write cycle by driving IOCHRDY
LOW until the unwritten data is stored in the SRAM. The
current ISA bus cycle will then complete normally.
In a read cycle, the PCnet-ISA controller arbitrates for
the Private Bus. If it is unavailable, the PCnet-ISA con-
troller drives IOCHRDY LOW. When the Private Data
Bus is available, the PCnet-ISA controller asserts the
Address Buffer Output Enable (
ABOE
) signal to drive
the upper 6 bits of the Private Address Bus from the Sys-
tem Address Bus. The PCnet-ISA controller itself drives
the lower 10 bits of the Private Address Bus from the
System Address Bus and compares the 16 bits of ad-
dress on the Private Address Bus with that of a SRAM
data word held in an internal pre-fetch buffer.
If the address does not match that of the prefetched
SRAM data, then the PCnet-ISA controller drives
IOCHRDY LOW and reads two bytes from the SRAM.
The PCnet-ISA controller then proceeds as though the
addressed data location had been prefetched.
If the internal prefetch buffer contains the correct data,
then the pre-fetch buffer data is driven on the System
Data bus. If IOCHRDY was previously driven LOW due
to either Private Data Bus arbitration or SRAM access,
then it is released HIGH. The PCnet-ISA controller re-
mains in this state until
MEMR
is de-asserted, at which
time the PCnet-ISA controller performs a new prefetch
of the SRAM. In this way memory read wait states can
be minimized.
The PCnet-ISA controller performs prefetches of the
SRAM between ISA bus cycles. The SRAM is
prefetched in an incrementing word address fashion.
Prefetched data are invalidated by any other activity on
the Private Bus, including Shared Memory Writes by
either the ISA bus or the network interface, and also ad-
dress and boot PROM reads.
The only way to configure the PCnet-ISA controller for
8-bit ISA bus cycles for SRAM accesses is to configure
the entire PCnet-ISA controller to support only 8-bit ISA
bus cycles. This is accomplished by leaving the
SBHE
pin disconnected. The PCnet-ISA controller will perform
8-bit ISA bus cycle operation for all resources (registers,
PROMs, SRAM) if
SBHE
has never been driven active
since the last RESET, such as in the case of an 8-bit sys-
tem like the PC/XT. In this case, the external address
decode logic must not assert
MEMCS16
to the ISA bus,
which will be the case if
MEMCS16
is left unconnected.
It is possible to manufacture a dual 8/16 bit PCnet-ISA
controller adapter card, as the
MEMCS16
and
SBHE
signals do not exist in the PC/XT environment.
At the memory device level, each SRAM Private Bus
read cycle takes two 50 ns clock periods for a maximum
read access time of 75 ns. The timing looks like this:
16907B-10
XTAL1
(20 MHz)
Address
SROE
Static RAM Read Cycle