
Intel386
TM
DX MICROPROCESSOR
231630–5
Physical Memory Space
I/O Space
NOTE:
Since A31 is HIGH during automatic communication with coprocessor, A31 HIGH and M/IO
Y
LOW can be used to
easily generate a coprocessor select signal.
Figure 5-4. Physical Memory and I/O Spaces
5.3.3 Memory and I/O Organization
The Intel386 DX datapath to memory and I/O
spaces can be 32 bits wide or 16 bits wide. When
32-bits wide, memory and I/O spaces are organized
naturally as arrays of physical 32-bit Dwords. Each
memory or I/O Dword has four individually address-
able bytes at consecutive byte addresses. The low-
est-addressed byte is associated with data signals
D0–D7; the highest-addressed byte with D24–D31.
The Intel386 DX includes a bus control input,
BS16
Y
, that also allows direct connection to 16-bit
memory or I/O spaces organized as a sequence of
16-bit words. Cycles to 32-bit and 16-bit memory or
I/O devices may occur in any sequence, since the
BS16
Y
control is sampled during each bus cycle.
See
5.3.4 Dynamic Data Bus Sizing
. The Byte En-
able signals, BE0
Y
–BE3
Y
, allow byte granularity
when addressing any memory or I/O structure,
whether 32 or 16 bits wide.
5.3.4 Dynamic Data Bus Sizing
Dynamic data bus sizing is a feature allowing direct
processor connection to 32-bit or 16-bit data buses
for memory or I/O. A single processor may connect
to both size buses. Transfers to or from 32- or 16-bit
ports are supported by dynamically determining the
bus width during each bus cycle. During each bus
cycle an address decoding circuit or the slave de-
vice itself may assert BS16
Y
for 16-bit ports, or ne-
gate BS16
Y
for 32-bit ports.
With BS16
Y
asserted, the processor automatically
converts operand transfers larger than 16 bits, or
misaligned 16-bit transfers, into two or three trans-
fers as required. All operand transfers physically oc-
cur on D0–D15 when BS16
Y
is asserted. There-
fore, 16-bit memories or I/O devices only connect
on data signals D0–D15. No extra transceivers are
required.
Asserting BS16
Y
only affects the processor when
BE2
Y
and/or BE3
Y
are asserted during the current
cycle. If only D0–D15 are involved with the transfer,
asserting BS16
Y
has no affect since the transfer
can proceed normally over a 16-bit bus whether
BS16
Y
is asserted or not. In other words, asserting
BS16
Y
has no effect when only the lower half of the
bus is involved with the current cycle.
There are two types of situations where the proces-
sor is affected by asserting BS16
Y
, depending on
which Byte Enables are asserted during the current
bus cycle:
Upper Half Only:
Only BE2
Y
and/or BE3
Y
asserted.
Upper and Lower Half:
At least BE1
Y
, BE2
Y
asserted (and perhaps
also BE0
Y
and/or BE3
Y
).
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