
TNETA1561
ATM SEGMENTATION AND REASSEMBLY DEVICE
WITH PCI HOST INTERFACE
SDNS028B – OCTOBER 1994 – REVISED JANUARY 1996
35
POST OFFICE BOX 655303
DALLAS, TEXAS 75265
PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION
TX completion-ring word 0
OWN (bit 31)
This completion-ring entry is owned by the PCI SAR when the OWN bit is set. The completion-ring entry is
owned by the host when the OWN bit is zero. The PCI SAR uses the next completion-ring entry in the ring if
the OWN bit is set. The TNETA1561 clears the OWN bit after updating the entry. The host then receives an
interrupt and retrieves the next entry in the completion ring to post the completion of packet transmission for
a BWG and the release of the buffer space occupied by the buffers constituting the packet. The host then sets
the OWN bit to allow the PCI SAR to use the completion-ring entry when it has queued a packet for transmission.
If the OWN bit is not set when the PCI SAR is ready to post a completed packet, a status bit is set in the
hardware-status register and an interrupt is generated if the error condition is unmasked.
BWG index (bits 7–0)
The only item that is posted to the transmit completion ring when the PCI SAR completes transmission of a
packet is the BWG index. This is adequate for the host to locate the transmit-buffer pointers to the buffer
locations where data for the packet was stored and reclaim the buffer space.
receive free-buffer-ring format
There are two free-buffer rings. A receive free-buffer-ring entry consists of one word. Each of the two rings has
256 entries. The host places free-buffer pointers in the entries of each ring. The PCI SAR removes a pointer
when it starts processing each new packet from the link.
receive free-buffer-ring summary
ENTRY
DESCRIPTION
Word 0
OWN (bit 31)
Unused (bits 30–28)
Start-of-buffer pointer (bits 27–0)
RX free-buffer-ring word 0
OWN (bit 31)
Each free-buffer-ring entry is owned by the PCI SAR when the OWN bit is set and it is owned by the host when
the OWN bit is zero. The host sets the OWN bit for new entries placed in the free-buffer rings. The PCI SAR
uses the next free-buffer-ring entry in the respective ring if the OWN bit is set. The PCI SAR clears the OWN
bit after acquiring the buffer and releasing the ring location to the host. The buffer is not freed until a packet is
posted to the receive completion ring. If the OWN bit is not set when the PCI SAR polls a free-buffer ring for a
new entry, a status bit is set in the hardware-status register and an interrupt to host is generated if the error
condition is unmasked.
start-of-buffer pointer (bits 27–0)
A pointer to a buffer, aligned to a 16-byte boundary, is the only information placed in each free-buffer ring.
receive DMA block
The PCI SAR supports 1024 receive DMA-channel entries with each containing eight words. Each DMA channel
represents a VCI on which data is received, and DMA entries in the control memory are indexed by incoming
VCIs. The PCI SAR initiates all transactions affecting the DMA table, except those required for one-time
configuration of a channel in word 3, during normal operation based on the header of cells received from the link.
Data with the PTI field equal to 10X, representing VC-level OAM cells, is diverted to DMA channel 0 that
operates in the null-AAL mode with a packet length of one cell. Word 0 in each receive DMA-channel entry is
copied from word 3 at the start of each new packet. A number of the fields in word 0 represent the dynamic state
of the reassembly process for a cell. The fields in word 3 represent one-time configuration values for the VC
entered by the host. PCI SAR accesses word 0 during normal cell-level processing to retrieve configuration
items.