IBM powerpc 750gx Manuel D’Utilisation

 

User’s Manual

gx_07.fm.(1.2)
March 27, 2006 

 

Signal Descriptions

Page 249 of 377

This chapter describes the 750GX microprocessor’s external signals. It contains a concise description of indi-
vidual signals, showing behavior when the signal is asserted and negated and when the signal is an input and 
an output. 

Note:  A bar over a signal name indicates that the signal is active low—for example, ARTRY (address retry) 
and TS (transfer start). Active-low signals are referred to as asserted (active) when they are low and negated 
when they are high. Signals that are not active low, such as A[0–31] (address-bus signals) and TT[0–4] 
(transfer type signals) are referred to as asserted when they are high and negated when they are low.

The 750GX’s signals are grouped as follows:

Address arbitration

The 750GX uses these signals to arbitrate for address-bus mastership.

Address transfer start

Indicate that a bus master has begun a transaction on the address bus.

Address transfer

These signals include the address bus. They are used to transfer the address.

Transfer attribute

Provide information about the type of transfer, such as the transfer size and 
whether the transaction is burst, write-through, or cache-inhibited.

Address transfer 
termination

Acknowledge the end of the address phase of the transaction. They also indicate 
whether a condition exists that requires the address phase to be repeated. 

Data arbitration

The 750GX uses these signals to arbitrate for data-bus mastership.

Data transfer

These signals, which consist of the data bus, are used to transfer the data.

Data-transfer 
termination

Data termination signals are required after each data beat in a data transfer. In a 
single-beat transaction, the data termination signals also indicate the end of the 
tenure; while in burst accesses, the data termination signals apply to individual 
beats and indicate the end of the tenure only after the final data beat. They also 
indicate whether a condition exists that requires the data phase to be repeated. 

Interrupts/resets

These signals include the external interrupt signal, checkstop signals, and both soft 
reset and hard reset signals. They are used to interrupt and, under various condi-
tions, to reset the processor. 

Processor status and 
control

These signals are used to set the reservation coherency bit, enable the time base, 
and for other functions. They are also used in conjunction with such resources as 
secondary caches and the time-base facility.

Clock control

Determine the system clock frequency. These signals can also be used to synchro-
nize multiprocessor systems.

Test interface

The Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) (IEEE 1149.1a-1993) interface and the 
common on-chip processor (COP) unit provide a serial interface to the system for 
performing board-level boundary-scan interconnect tests.