7
FN2949.4
February 22, 2008
Functional Description
Static Operation
All 80C88 circuitry is static in design. Internal registers,
counters and latches are static and require not refresh as
with dynamic circuit design. This eliminates the minimum
operating frequency restriction placed on other
microprocessors. The CMOS 80C88 can operate from DC to
the specified upper frequency limit. The processor clock may
be stopped in either state (high/low) and held there
indefinitely. This type of operation is especially useful for
system debug or power critical applications.
The 80C88 can be single stepped using only the CPU clock.
This state can be maintained as long as is necessary. Single
step clock operation allows simple interface circuitry to
provide critical information for start-up.
Static design also allows very low frequency operation (as
low as DC). In a power critical situation, this can provide
extremely low power operation since 80C88 power
dissipation is directly related to operation frequency. As the
system frequency is reduced, so is the operating power until,
at a DC input frequency, the power requirement is the 80C88
standby current.
Internal Architecture
The internal functions of the 80C88 processor are partitioned
logically into two processing units. The first is the Bus
Interface Unit (BIU) and the second is the Execution Unit
(EU) as shown in the CPU block diagram.
These units can interact directly but for the most part
perform as separate asynchronous operational processors.
The bus interface unit provides the functions related to
instruction fetching and queuing, operand fetch and store,
and address relocation. This unit also provides the basic bus
control. The overlap of instruction pre-fetching provided by
this unit serves to increase processor performance through
improved bus bandwidth utilization. Up to 4-bytes of the
instruction stream can be queued while waiting for decoding
and execution.
The instruction stream queuing mechanism allows the BIU to
keep the memory utilized very efficiently. Whenever there is
space for at least 1-byte in the queue, the BIU will attempt a
byte fetch memory cycle. This greatly reduces “dead time”:
on the memory bus. The queue acts as a First-In-First-Out
(FIFO) buffer, from which the EU extracts instruction bytes
as required. If the queue is empty (following a branch
instruction, for example), the first byte into the queue
immediately becomes available to the EU.
The execution unit receives pre-fetched instructions from the
BIU queue and provides unrelocated operand addresses to
the BIU. Memory operands are passed through the BIU for
processing by the EU, which passes results to the BIU for
storage.
Memory Organization
The processor provides a 20-bit address to memory which
locates the byte being referenced. The memory is organized
as a linear array of up to 1 million bytes, addressed as
00000(H) to FFFFF(H). The memory is logically divided into
code, data, extra, and stack segments of up to 64-bytes
each, with each segment falling on 16-byte boundaries. (See
QS1, QS0
24, 25
O
QUEUE STATUS: provide status to allow external
tracking of the internal 80C88 instruction queue.
The queue status is valid during the CLK cycle after
which the queue operation is performed. Note that the
queue status never goes to a high impedance statue
(floated).
34
O
Pin 34 is always a logic one in the maximum mode and is held at a high impedance logic one during a “grant
sequence”.
Pin Description (Continued)
The following pin function descriptions are for 80C88 system in maximum mode (i.e., MN/MX = GND). Only the pin functions which
are unique to the maximum mode are described; all other pin functions are as described above.
SYMBOL
PIN
NUMBER
TYPE
MAXIMUM MODE SYSTEM (i.e., MN/MX = GND).
QS1
QS0
CHARACTERISTICS
00
No Operation
0
1
First Byte of Opcode from
Queue
1
0
Empty the Queue
1
Subsequent Byte from
Queue
80C88