
M80C186
Enhanced Mode Operation
In Enhanced Mode, the M80C186 will operate with
Power-Save, DRAM refresh, and numerics coproc-
essor support in addition to all the Compatible Mode
features.
In Compatible Mode the M80C186 operates with all
the features of the NMOS M80186, with the excep-
tion of M8087 support (i.e. no numeric coprocessing
is possible in Compatible Mode). Queue-Status in-
formation is still available for design purposes other
than M8087 support.
All the Enhanced Mode features are completely
masked when in Compatible Mode. A write to any of
the Enhanced Mode registers will have no effect,
while a read will not return any valid data.
Entering Enhanced Mode
If connected to a numerics coprocessor, this mode
will be invoked automatically. Without a NPX, this
mode can be entered by tying the RESET output
signal from the M80C186 to the TEST/BUSY input.
Queue-Status Mode
The queue-status mode is entered by strapping the
RD pin low. RD is sampled at RESET and if LOW,
the M80C186 will reconfigure the ALE and WR pins
to be QS0 and QS1 respectively. This mode is avail-
able on the M80C186 in both Compatible and En-
hanced Modes and is identical to the NMOS
M80186.
DRAM Refresh Control Unit
Description
The Refresh Control Unit (RCU) automatically gen-
erates DRAM refresh bus cycles. The RCU operates
only in Enhanced Mode. After a programmable peri-
od of time, the RCU generates a memory read re-
quest to the BIU. If the address generated during a
refresh bus cycle is within the range of a properly
programmed chip select, that chip select will be acti-
vated when the BIU executes the refresh bus cycle.
The ready logic and wait states programmed for that
region will also be in force. If no chip select is acti-
vated, then external ready is automatically required
to terminate the refresh bus cycle.
If the HLDA pin is active when a DRAM refresh re-
quest is generated (indicating a bus hold condition),
then the M80C186 will deactivate the HLDA pin in
order to perform a refresh cycle. The circuit external
to the M80C186 must remove the HOLD signal in
order to execute the refresh cycle. The sequence of
HLDA going inactive while HOLD is being held active
can be used to signal a pending refresh request.
All registers controlling DRAM refresh may be read
and written in Enhanced Mode. When the processor
is operating in Compatible Mode, they are deselect-
ed and are therefore inaccessible. Some fields of
these registers cannot be written and are always
read as zeros.
DRAM Refresh Addresses
The address generated during a refresh cycle is de-
termined by the contents of the MDRAM register
(see Figure 40) and the contents of a 9-bit counter.
Figure 41 illustrates the origin of each bit.
15
M6
14
M5
13
M4
12
M3
11
M2
10
M1
9
8
0
7
0
6
0
5
0
4
0
3
0
2
0
1
0
0
0
MDRAM:
Offset E0H
M0
Bits 0–8:
Reserved, read back as 0.
Bits 9–15: M0–M6, are address bits A13–A19 of the 20-bit memory refresh address. These bits should
correspond to the chip select address to be activated for the DRAM partition. These bits are
set to 0 on RESET.
Figure 40. Memory Partition Register
A19
M6
A18
M5
A17
M4
A16
M3
A15
M2
A14
M1
A13
M0
A12
0
A11
0
A10
0
A9
CA8
A8
CA7
A7
CA6
A6
CA5
A5
CA4
A4
CA3
A3
CA2
A2
CA1
A1
CA0
A0
1
M6–M0: Bits defined by MDRAM Register
CA8–CA0: Bits defined by refresh address counter
Figure 41. Addresses Generated by RCU
41