AMD
P R E L I M I N A R Y
76
Am79C965
Effect of AHOLD
Assertion of AHOLD during Linear Burst transfers will
cause the PCnet-32 controller to float some portion of
the address bus beginning at the next clock cycle. If
BRDY is returned while AHOLD is active, then the linear
burst sequence will continue until the current burst
would otherwise normally terminate, since the data bus
and the lower portion of the address bus may remain
active during AHOLD. However, a new linear burst se-
quence, requiring a new
ADS assertion, will not be
started while AHOLD is active.
When AHOLD is asserted during T1 of a linear burst,
then the linear burst operation will be suspended until
AHOLD is deasserted. Once AHOLD is deasserted,
then the PCnet-32 controller will start the suspended
linear burst with the intended address. See Figure 23.
(Note that the intended T1 of the linear burst sequence
has been labeled Ta in the figure, since a T1 was never
executed due to the suspension of the address bus re-
quired by the assertion of AHOLD.)
When AHOLD is asserted in the middle of a linear burst,
the linear burst may proceed without stalling or halting.
AHOLD requires that PCnet-32 controller float a portion
of its address bus, but linear burst data cycles will still
proceed, since the AHOLD signal only affects a portion
of the address bus, and that portion of the address bus is
not being used for the middle accesses of a linear burst.
However, if AHOLD is asserted in the middle of a linear
burst operation, and the AHOLD signal is held long
enough that a new linear burst sequence will start (a
new
ADS is to be issued by the PCnet-32 controller)
then at the end of the current linear sequence, the
PCnet-32 controller must wait for the AHOLD signal to
become inactive before beginning the next linear se-
quence, since the AHOLD signal would now interfere
with the PCnet-32 controller’s wish to assert
ADS and a
new address on the entire address bus. During the time
that the PCnet-32 controller is waiting for the release of
the AHOLD signal, the PCnet-32 controller will continue
to drive the command signals, but
ADS will be driven
inactive.
Note that if
RDYRTN is asserted during a linear burst se-
quence while AHOLD is active, then no more access will
be performed until AHOLD is deasserted. This is be-
cause the assertion of
RDYRTN will cause the
PCnet-32 controller to insert a new T1 cycle into the lin-
ear burst. A T1 cycle requires assertion of
ADS, but ADS
assertion is not allowed as long as AHOLD is still as-
serted. Therefore, the T1 cycle is delayed until the
AHOLD is deasserted.
The portion of the Address Bus that will be floated at the
time of an address hold operation will be determined by
the value of the Cache Line Length register (BCR18,
bits 15–11). Table 23 lists all of the legal values of CLL
showing the portion of the Address Bus that will become
floated during an address hold operation.
Table 23. CLL Value of Floated Address in AHOLD
Floated Portion of Address
Bus During AHOLD
00000
None
00001
A31–A2
00010
A31–A3
00011
Reserved CLL Value
00100
A31–A4
00101–00111
Reserved CLL Values
01000
A31–A5
01001–01111
Reserved CLL Values
10000
A31–A6
10001–11111
Reserved CLL Values
CLL Value
Note that the default value of CLL after H_RESET is
00100. All timing diagrams in this document are drawn
with the assumption that this is the value of CLL.