Structure and Function of The Expansion Bus
Structure and Function of The Expansion Bus
Connections
• All integrated circuits must be regulated by a clock • The expansion bus crystal is an
crystal
extension to the external data bus
• Every device soldered to the motherboard is
designed to run at the speed of the system crystal – Used to control the part of the external data bus
connected to the expansion slot
• The chipset acts as a
divider between the two
buses
1
CPU Crystals PC Bus (8-bit ISA)
• The first bus is the frontside bus that runs at • IBM XT had 8088 processor and an 8-bit
the speed of the system crystal external data bus at a top speed of
• The second bus is the expansion bus that runs 4.77MHz
at the speed of the expansion bus crystal
• IBM used an expansion bus that could
run around 7 MHz (as fast as the system
bus) called the PC bus, XT bus, or ISA
bus
• Expansion cards and the CPU need some • How does a device know that the CPU wants its
way to communicate attention?
2
I/O Mem Wire I/O Addresses
• The expansion bus consists of the external data bus • Different wire patterns used by the CPU to
and the address bus communicate with different devices inside the
• Every device on the PC connects to both PC are known as I/O addresses
• When a voltage is placed on the IO/MEM wire, only
the first 16 wires are monitored by all devices
• Before we can talk about I/O addresses • I/O addresses are represented as 4-digit
we need to understand hexadecimal and hexadecimal values starting from 0000
binary math and ending at FFFF
– Remember that when the CPU turns on the IO/MEM
wire, it sends and I/O address using the first 16
address bus wires
For an in-depth discussion of binary – These wires either have a voltage (1) or they don’t
and hexadecimal numbering systems,
click here (0)
– We represent which wires have a voltage with an
address bus binary number with 16 digits
• 0010101110101101
• Wouldn’t it be easier to represent this long binary number
with the hexadecimal number 2BAD? That’s exactly what
computer techs do!
3
I/O Address
Rules of I/O Addresses
Terminology
• All devices must have an I/O address • When talking about I/O addresses, drop
– This is how the CPU talks to everything in the PC the leading zeros (1F0…not 01F0)
– The I/O address is either preset or must be • Every device gets a range of I/O
assigned addresses
• All devices use more than one I/O • The first I/O address is called the base
address I/O address
– CPU uses different I/O addresses for different
commands
• Put an “h” on the end of the value to
– Devices must be able to respond to the CPU with
specify hex (1F0h)
other I/O addresses • I/O addresses provide a two-way
– Hence, a range of I/O addresses is assigned communication pathway between the
• No two devices can share the same I/O peripherals and the CPU
address
• The CPU can initiate a conversation with • The 8259 chip acts as an intermediary between
any device at will all the devices and the CPU’s INT wire
• It hooks to the INT wire of the CPU on one side,
• Any device may talk to the CPU but how and has 8 other wires called the interrupt
does a device get the CPU’s attention? requests (IRQs) that extend out from the chip
• Devices use the interruption mechanism into the motherboard
to gain the attention of the CPU by
placing a voltage on a special wire called
the INT (interrupt) wire – the
CPU will stop what it is doing
and deal with the device
4
16-Bit IRQ Map The Rules of IRQs
• Every peripheral needs an IRQ and I/O • COM3 and COM4 are two common port
address standards that are assigned the 3E8-3EF
• IBM created standard preset and 2E8-2EF set of I/O addresses
combinations of IRQs and I/O addresses respectively
• These preset combinations for serial • COM3 uses IRQ4 and COM4 uses IRQ3
devices and parallel devices are called
– These are the same IRQ’s used for COM1 and
COM ports and LPT ports respectively COM2
– COM1 uses IRQ 4
– How can two devices use the same IRQ…as long as
– COM2 uses IRQ 3 they never talk at the same time!
– LPT1 uses IRQ 7
– LPT2 uses IRQ 5 • LPT (Line Printer) port settings apply to
parallel connections for devices such as
printers
I/O ports:
– A serial port is a 9 or 15-pin male DB connector,
whereas the COM port is just the I/O address and
IRQ assigned to it
– A parallel port is a 25-pin female DB connector,
whereas the LPT port is just the IRQ and an I/O
address assigned to it
5
COM Ports and LPT Direct Memory Access
Ports Today (DMA)
• IBM dictated a specific I/O address and • Direct Memory Access (DMA) is the process of
IRQ for a particular COM or LPT port accessing memory without using the CPU
• It enables the system to run background
• The IRQ can be changed as long as the applications without interrupting the CPU
device can handle it, and the software
that communicates with the device
knows about the change
• Change COM or LPT IRQs in the CMOS
setup
• The 8237 chip is used to control DMA functions • Provides up to 7 DMA channels
• It links to the CPU via a HRQ wire • DRQ0 and DRQ4 are linked
• The chip has 4 wires, called DMA requests • DMA channels 1 thru 3 are for 8-bit transfers
(DRQs) or DMA channels, which lead to the • DMA channels 5 thru 7 are for 16-bit transfers
DRAM refresh circuitry and ISA slots • Designed for the ISA bus
• No two devices can share DRQs
6
Microchannel
Architecture (MCA )
• MCA had a 32-bit bus to match the 386
CPU’s external data bus with a speed of
12MHz
– May self
Modern Expansion Bus
configure
devices
– IBM proprietary
and expensive
7
PCI PCI
• Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) • Bus mastering enables the PCI devices to
provides a stronger, faster, and flexible transfer data between themselves
alternative to any other expansion bus
• Its burst mode feature enables efficient
– The flexible design enables the PCI to coexist with other
buses, and scale up in speed and throughput data transfers
– PCI devices are self-configuring
– PCI Special Interest Group (SIG) defined I/O addresses
and IRQs for most devices…using a sharable Interrupt
Channel instead of IRQs
– Fully implements DMA – allowing PCI devices to transfer
data among themselves
Accelerated Graphic
PCI Port
•One of the main reasons Intel designed the AGP was to allow the video
• Divides its chipset duties between two chips card to have a high speed connection directly to the system ram
– Northbridge (or PCI controller) performs the classic
functions and controls the PCI bus •The AGP was created in 1996
– Southbridge (PCI to ISA bridge or just PCI bridge) acts as a bus specifically designed
as an intermediary between the PCI bus and the other for high performance graphics
bus and video support
PCI-X
8
PCI-Express
Steps to Installing
Expansion Cards
Step 1: Knowledge
9
PnP (Plug and Play) PnP Requirements
10
How PnP Works How PnP Works
• A legacy device list is created to reserve those • Next the PnP BIOS checks with the PnP devices
system resources to see which system resources are options for
each device
• The PnP BIOS then assigns system resources 4. All devices require BIOS, which for
based on that information expansion cards is almost always a
device driver
– Devices will come with device drivers on the
installation CD
– It is recommended that you get the latest drivers
from the manufacturer’s web site
– To update the device drivers you may need to
uninstall the current driver first
– Windows XP has a feature to rollback your system
to the previous driver just in case the new driver
you installed does not work
11
Step 5: Verify
5. Check the
device
properties in
Device Troubleshooting Expansion Cards
Manager to
verify it is
working
properly
Device Manager
Device Manager
Symbols
• Check for the device in Device Manager • Black ! on a yellow circle
– Alt-click My ComputerÎProperties ÎHardware tab – Device is missing, Windows doesn’t recognize it, or
ÎDevice Manager a device driver problem – device may still work
– If the device does not show up in Device Manager • Red X
• Run the Add/Remove Hardware Wizard in Control Panel
– Disabled device – system resource conflict or
• If it still doesn’t show up, the device is damaged or it is a
legacy device whose system resources are not configured
damaged device – will not work
properly • Blue I on a white background
– System resources were configured manually
• Green ?
– Windows does not have the correct driver but has
successfully installed a compatible driver
12
Changing the Legacy Setup Software
Resources Program
13