Compaq EV67 User Manual

Page of 356
Alpha 21264/EV67 Hardware Reference Manual
Internal Architecture
2–33
I/O Write Buffer and the WMB Instruction
RdBlkSpec (valid), RdBlkModSpec (valid), RdBlkSpecI (valid)
RdBlkVic, RdBlkModVic, RdBlkVicI
CleanToDirty, SharedToDirty, STChangeToDirty, InvalToDirty
FetchBlk, FetchBlkSpec (valid), Evict
RdByte, RdLw, RdQw, WrByte, WrLW, WrQW
The counter is decremented with the C (commit) bit in the Probe and SysDc commands 
(see Section 4.7.7). Systems can assert the C bit in the SysDc fill response to the com-
mands that originally incremented the counter, or attached to the last probe seen by that 
command when it reached the system serialization point. If the number of uncommitted 
transactions reaches 15 (saturating the counter), the Cbox will stall MAF and IOWB 
processing until at least one of the pending transactions has been committed. Probe pro-
cessing is not interrupted by the state of this counter.
2.12.1.1 MB Instruction Processing
When an MB instruction is fetched in the predicted instruction execution path, it stalls 
in the map stage of the pipeline. This also stalls all instructions after the MB, and con-
trol of instruction flow is based upon the value in Cbox CSR SYSBUS_MB_ENABLE 
as follows:
If Cbox CSR SYSBUS_MB_ENABLE is clear, the Cbox waits until the IQ is 
empty and then performs the following actions:
a.
Sends all pending MAF and IOWB entries to the system port.
b. Monitors Cbox CSR MB_CNT[3:0], a 4-bit counter of outstanding committed 
events. When the counter decrements from one to zero, the Cbox marks the 
youngest probe queue entry.
c.
Waits until the MAF contains no more Dstream references and the SQ, LQ, and 
IOWB are empty.
When all of the above have occurred and a probe response has been sent to the sys-
tem for the marked probe queue entry, instruction execution continues with the 
instruction after the MB. 
If Cbox CSR SYSBUS_MB_ENABLE  is set, the Cbox waits until the IQ is empty 
and then performs the following actions: 
a.
Sends all pending MAF and IOWB entries to the system port
b. Sends the MB command to the system port
c.
Waits until the MB command is acknowledged, then marks the youngest entry 
in the probe queue
d. Waits until the MAF contains no more Dstream references and the SQ, LQ, and 
IOWB are empty
When all of the above have occurred and a probe response has been sent to the sys-
tem for the marked probe queue entry, instruction execution continues with the 
instruction after the MB.