BUS COMMUNICATION

A data connection between two or more devices connected to

the computer

EC308 Embedded System 1

 Bus uses

Used to connect major components

• CPU

• DMA

• Memory modules

• Peripheral devices, etc.

• Can be synchronous or asynchronous

EC308 Embedded System 2

 Different Buses

• Buses that work in sync with CPU and system clock are called the local buses

or system buses.

• Buses that work asynchronously with the CPU are called the expansion buses.

• Ex. The memory bus is a local bus while the ISA bus is an expansion bus.

EC308 Embedded System 3

 What Does a Bus carry?
• Electrical Power.
• Control Signals.
• Memory Address.
• Data.

EC308 Embedded System 4

 Bus Communication for networking
• Bus communication simplifies the number of connections
and provides a common way (protocol) of connecting
different or same type of I/O devices

EC308 Embedded System 5

 IO Bus
• I/O devices communicate with the processor through an I/O
bus, which is separate from the memory bus that the
processor uses to communicate with the memory system.

• A bus has a fixed bandwidth that must be shared by all of

the devices on the bus.

EC308 Embedded System 6

 Serial Bus
• A serial bus has very few lines and the number of lines as
per the protocol.
• A wide range of I/O devices without having to implement a
specific interface for each I/O device.
• All can communicate through a common serial bus.

EC308 Embedded System 7

 Parallel Bus
• Using a parallel I/O bus allows a computer or controller or
embedded system to interface with number of internal
systems at very short distances without having to implement
a specific interface for each I/O device.

EC308 Embedded System 8

 Local Bus
• A set of parallel conductors,
which allow devices attached to
it to communicate with the
CPU.
• The bus consists of three main
parts:
– Control lines, Address lines, Data
lines

EC308 Embedded System 9

Serial communication bus

EC308 Embedded System 10

 Serial communication bus types

• I2C Bus – Inter-Integrated Circuit

• CAN Bus – Controller Area Network

• USB Bus – Universal Serial Bus

EC308 Embedded System 11

Parallel communication bus

EC308 Embedded System 12

 Parallel communication bus types

• ISA bus – Industry Standard Architecture

• EISA bus – Extended Industry Standard Architecture

• PCI bus – Peripheral Component Interconnect

• PCI-X bus – Peripheral Component Interconnect eXtended

EC308 Embedded System 13

ISA bus – Industry Standard
Architecture

EC308 Embedded System 14

 ISA BUS

8-bit
EC308 Embedded System 16-bit 15
 ISA (8 Bit) Buses
• Used in the first 4.77-MHz PCs introduced in 1982.
• 62 - Pin Bus.
• 8 Data Lines (allowing for 8 bits of data to be transferred at a time).
• 20 address lines (1 Mbytes of addressing ).

ISA (16 Bit) Buses

• 8.33-MHz Bus introduced in 1984.
• 62 + 36 - Pin Bus.
• Eight more data lines (allowing for 16-bit data transfers).
• Four more address lines (allowing 16 Mbytes of addressing).
EC308 Embedded System 16
 ISA BUS
More More
DMA IRQ lines DMA ± 5, ±12V
IRQ lines
8 - 15 clock lines Power & G
lines 2-7

Extra 8 bits of Extra 4 bits of 20 bits of Address bus

I/O bus Address bus 8 bits of I/O bus

16 bit Original 8 bit ISA

EC308 Embedded System 17

 ISA Bus
• The BUS is divided into two sides.
• The first side pins are named A1 to A31 and it
is the components side.
– It consists of the address and data buses.
• The second side pins are named B1 to B31
and it is the solder side.
– This side contents the power pins and the signals
related to interrupts and DMA transfers.

EC308 Embedded System 18

 ISA Bus
Advantages Disadvantages
• Low cost • Low speed
• Compatibility • Jumpers and DIP switches
• Becoming out-dated
• Used widely
• Limited number of interrupts.
• No central registry.

EC308 Embedded System 19

EISA – Extended Industry
Standard Architecture

EC308 Embedded System 20

 EISA – Extended Industry Standard
Architecture
• Developed by the "Gang of Nine" (nine non-IBM manufacturers of
IBM-compatible PCs, led by Compaq) in 1988.
• 32 Bit Bus.
• Runs at 8.33 MHz.
• Pins - 98 + 100 inlay
• The theoretical maximum transfer speed is 33 Mbytes/s.
• Compatible with 8 bit ISA, 16 bit ISA, 32 bit EISA

EC308 Embedded System 21

 EISA
Advantages
• ISA Compatibility: ISA cards will work in EISA slots.
• 32 Bit Bus Width: Like MCA (Micro Channel Architecture, 1987) , the bus was
expanded to 32 bits.
• Bus Mastering: The EISA bus supports bus mastering adapters for greater
efficiency, including proper bus arbitration.
• Plug and Play: EISA automatically configures adapter cards, similar to the Plug
and Play standards of modern systems

EC308 Embedded System 22

 EISA
Disadvantages
• It never became widely used .
• It is no longer found in computers today.

EC308 Embedded System 23

ISA bus

EC308 Embedded System 24

ISA BUS

ISA Card

EC308 Embedded System 25

EISA bus

EC308 Embedded System 26

 EISA – 1988
• EISA card – Does not fit in ISA slot.

EC308 Embedded System 27

PCI + ISA Bus

EC308 Embedded System 28

PCI bus

EC308 Embedded System 29

PCI bus

EC308 Embedded System 30

 PCI Buses – Peripheral
Component Interconnect Buses

EC308 Embedded System 31

Older PC Implementations

EC308 Embedded System 32

Newer PC Implementations

EC308 Embedded System 33

Block diagram of a PCI bus system
Processor/Main Memory System
Copro- Main
CPU Cache
cessor Memory

PCI Motion
Audio
Bridge Video
PCI Bus

SCSI host Interface to LAN Graphics

I/O
adapter Expansion Bus adapter adapter
Expansin Bus (ISA/EISA)

Bus Slot Bus Slot Bus Slot Bus Slot

EC308 Embedded System 34

 PCI Buses – Peripheral Component
Interconnect Buses
• Created by Intel (1992)
• PCI bus, 32 or 64-bit operating at 33 MHz
• PCI-X bus, 32 or 64-bit operating at 66/133 MHz
• Designed to support ISA and EISA buses.
• It interfaces the expansion bus and the memory bus.

EC308 Embedded System 35

 PCI Bus – Peripheral Component
Interconnect Bus
3 main goals:
• To get better performance when transferring data between the computer and
its peripherals.
• uses a higher clock rate (25 or 33 MHz) than ISA.

• To be as platform independent as possible.

• is used extensively on IA-32, Alpha, PowerPC, SPARC64, and IA-64 systems.

• To simplify adding and removing peripherals to the system.

• supports for auto detection of interface boards.

EC308 Embedded System 36

PCI Express bandwidth comparison

EC308 Embedded System 37

 PCI Technology
Conventional PCI
• It is a parallel bus, synchronous to a single bus clock.
• Initial PCI 1.0 proposal by Intel in 1991
• Introduced by PCI-SIG as PCI 2.0 in 1993
• Version 2.1 approved in 1995
• Recent version 2.3 approved in March 2002
PCI-X
• PCI-X standard was developed jointly by IBM, HP, and Compaq and submitted for
approval in 1998.
• Version 1.0 approved in September 1999
• Version 2.0 approved in July 2002
PCI Express
• High-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older
PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards
• Formerly known as 3GIO
• Version 1.0 approved in July 2002

EC308 Embedded System 38

 Conventional PCI
• Plug-and-Play Functionality
• Standard PCI is 32 bit and operates at 33 MHz
• Throughput 133 MB/sec
• PCI 2.1 introduced
• Universal PCI cards supporting both 3.3V and 5V
• 32-Bit throughput @ 66 MHz: 266 MB/sec
• 64-Bit throughput @ 66 MHz: 532 MB/sec
• PCI 2.3 system no longer supports 5V-only adapters
• 3.3V and Universal PCI products are still fully supported

EC308 Embedded System 39

 PCI-X 1.0
• Based on existing PCI architecture
• 64-Bit slots with support for 3.3V and Universal PCI
• No support for 5V-only boards!
• Fully backwards-compatible
• Conventional 33/66 MHz PCI adapters can be used in PCI-X slots
• PCI-X adapters can be used in conventional PCI slots
• Provides two speed grades: 66 MHz and 133 MHz

EC308 Embedded System 40

 PCI-X 2.0
• Based on PCI-X 1.0
• Still fully backwards-compatible
• Introduces ECC (Error Correction Codes mechanism to improve
robustness and data integrity)
• Provides two additional speed grades
• PCI-X 266: 266 MHz (2.13 GB/sec)
• PCI-X 533: 533 MHz (4.26 GB/sec)
• Bandwidth sufficient to support new breed of cutting-edge
technologies
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet / Fiber Channel
• 4X/12X infiniBand
EC308 Embedded System 41
 PCI-X Speed Limitations
• PCI-X supports point-to-point and multi-drop loads
• Highest speed grades are supported exclusively with point-to-point
loads
• PCI-X 133
• PCI-X 266
• PCI-X 533
• Two PCI-X 133 loads operate at 100 MHz

EC308 Embedded System 42

PCI Hardware

EC308 Embedded System 43

 PCI Card Connectors
5V 32-Bit Connector Keyway

33 MHz

5V 64-Bit Connector

3.3V 32-Bit Connector

33/66 MHz

3.3V 64-Bit Connector

Rear Front
EC308 Embedded System 44
 5 V To 3.3 V Migration Path

• 5 Volt Card • Dual-Voltage Card • 3 Volt Card

• 5 Volt • 3 Volt
System • Key away from System • Key near backpanel
backpanel

EC308 Embedded System 45

PCI Configuration

EC308 Embedded System 46

Configuration Space Header
Device ID Vendor ID 00
Status Command 04
Class Code Rev 08
BIST Header Type Latency Timer Cache Line Size 0C
Base Address 0 10
Base Address 1 14
Base Address 2 18
Base Address 3 1C
Base Address 4 20
Base Address 5 24
Cardbus CIS Pointer 28
Subsystem ID Subsystem Vendor ID 2C
Expansion ROM Base Address 30
Reserved 34
Reserved 38
Max_Lat Min_Gnt Interrupt Pin Interrupt Line 3C

EC308 Embedded System 47

 System Initialization

• Configuration allows software (BIOS) to initialize the system

• Each device has configuration registers

• At power up software scans bus(es)

• Software analyses system requirements

• Configuration registers are set to configure individual devices

EC308 Embedded System 48

 PCI Configuration Register
• Device ID
• Vendor ID
• Status / Command reg.
• Base Address [0,1,2,3,4,5]
• Maximum Latency
• Minimum GNT
• Subsystem ID, Subsystem Vendor ID

EC308 Embedded System 49

 PCI Configuration Register
• Device ID
• Vendor ID
• Status / Command reg.
• Base Address [0,1,2,3,4,5]
• Maximum Latency
• Minimum GNT
• Subsystem ID, Subsystem Vendor ID

EC308 Embedded System 50

 PCI Command Types [C/BE]
• 0000 -> INTR ack
• 0010 -> I/O Read
• 0011 -> I/O Write
• 0110 -> Memory Read
• 0111 -> Memory Write
• 1010 -> Configuration read
• 1011 -> Configuration write

EC308 Embedded System 51

 PCI device identification
• The hardware circuitry of each peripheral board will know memory
locations, I/O ports, and configuration registers.
• Memory locations and I/O ports are shared by all the devices on a PCI
bus.
• Each PCI peripheral is identified by a bus number(16-bits), combined
by bus (8), device(5), and function(3).
• Using the lspci tool, we can get the information of each PCI peripheral.
• BB:DD.F as three values (bus, device, and function)

EC308 Embedded System 52

 Each PCI device on Bus
• May contain a processor and software to perform a specific function.
• Each device has the specific memory address-range, specific
interrupt-vectors and the device I/O port addresses.
• A bus of appropriate specifications and protocol interfaces these to
the host computer system or compute
• PCI bus unique feature is its configuration address space.

EC308 Embedded System 53

 PCI controller Features
• Accesses one device at a time
• All the devices within host device or system can share the I/O port
and memory addresses, but cannot share the configuration registers
• Device cannot modify other configuration registers but can access
other device resources or share the work or assist the other device
PCI controller Features

EC308 Embedded System 54

 PCI Bus Configuration
• When power is applied to a PCI device, the hardware the will respond
only to configuration transactions.
Configuration Registers and Initialization
• PCI devices feature a 256-byte address space. The first 64 bytes are
standardized, while the rest are device dependent.
• The PCI registers are always little-endian.

EC308 Embedded System 55

 PCI Bus accessing
Accessing the Configuration Space
• After the driver has detected the device, it usually needs to read from
or write to the three address spaces: memory, port, and configuration.
• Because the microprocessor has no way to access the configuration
space directly, the computer vendor has to use the PCI controller to
write and read registers.
Accessing the I/O and Memory Spaces
• A PCI device implements up to 6 I/O address regions.
• Each region consists of either memory or I/O locations.

EC308 Embedded System 56

 PCI Bus

Advantages

• Very high speed, plug & play, dominant board-level bus

Disadvantages

• Incompatible with older systems, can cost more

EC308 Embedded System 57

 Overview of Speeds of buses
Bus Type Bus Width Bus Speed MB/sec
ISA 16 bits 8 MHz 16MBps

EISA 32 bits 8 MHz 32MBps

PCI 32 bits 33 MHz 132MBps

PCI 64 bits 33 MHz 264MBps

PCI 64 bits 66 MHz 512MBps

PCI 64 bits 133 MHz 1GBps

EC308 Embedded System 58

 BUS COMPARISON
Bus
Theoretical Maximum
Type of Bus Clock Bus Width Advantages Disadvantages
Transfer Rate
Signal
8 Mbytes/sec (64 Low cost, compatibility, Low speed, jumpers & DIP
ISA 8 MHz 16-bit
Mbits/sec) widely used switches. Becoming obsolete
Very high speed, plug
Incompatible with older systems,
PCI 133 MHz 64-bit 1 Gbytes/sec (8 Gbits/sec) & play, dominant
can cost more
board-level bus
Designed for industrial
Lower speed than PCI, need
132 Mbytes/sec (1 use, hot swapping/plug
Compact PCI 33 MHz 64-bit adapter for PC use, incompatible
Gbit/sec) & play, ideal for
with older systems
embedded systems
Low cost, ideal for
Slower than PCI and other plug-in
portable systems, hot
1.5 Mbytes/sec (12 busses (such as firewire), not
USB 1.1 n/a n/a swapping/plug & play,
Mbits/sec) compatible with older
up to 127 devices via 1
peripherals
port
EC308 Embedded System 59
 BUS COMPARISON
Bus
Theoretical Maximum
Type of Bus Clock Bus Width Advantages Disadvantages
Transfer Rate
Signal

All the advantages of

USB plus significantly
higher speeds making
60 Mbytes/sec (480 Not compatible with older
USB 2.0 n/a n/a it compatible with
Mbits/sec) peripherals, still slower than PCI
high-speed peripherals
such as data drives and
video cameras.
Enables multiple PCs to
Most peripheral devices cannot
remotely share
be connected directly to
information and
Ethernet 10 Base 1.25 Mbyte/sec (10 ethernet, adapter is required.
n/a n/a peripheral devices,
T Mbits/sec) Slow data communication by
provides error checking
current standards Possible
lacking in standard
security issues.
serial communication
EC308 Embedded System 60