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1996-01-31 14:26:20 +00:00

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<sect><heading>DMA: What it is and how it works<label id="dma"></heading>
<p><em>Copyright &copy; 1995 &a.uhclem;, All Rights Reserved.<newline>
18 October 1995.</em>
<!-- Version 1(2) -->
Direct Memory Access (DMA) is a method of allowing data to
be moved from one location to another in a computer without
intervention from the central processor (CPU).
The way that the DMA function is implemented varies between
computer architectures, so this discussion will limit
itself to the implementation and workings of the DMA
subsystem on the IBM Personal Computer (PC), the IBM PC/AT
and all of its successors and clones.
The PC DMA subsystem is based on the Intel 8237 DMA
controller. The 8237 contains four DMA channels that can
be programmed independently and any of the channels may be
active at any moment. These channels are numbered 0, 1, 2
and 3. Starting with the PC/AT, IBM added a second 8237
chip, and numbered those channels 4, 5, 6 and 7.
The original DMA controller (0, 1, 2 and 3) moves one byte
in each transfer. The second DMA controller (4, 5, 6, and
7) moves 16-bits in each transfer. The two controllers are
identical and the difference in transfer size is caused by
the way the second controller is wired into the system.
The 8237 has two electrical signals for each channel, named
DRQ and -DACK. There are additional signals with the
names HRQ (Hold Request), HLDA (Hold Acknowledge), -EOP
(End of Process), and the bus control signals -MEMR (Memory
Read), -MEMW (Memory Write), -IOR (I/O Read), and -IOW (I/O
Write).
The 8237 DMA is known as a ``fly-by'' DMA controller. This
means that the data being moved from one location to
another does not pass through the DMA chip and is not
stored in the DMA chip. Subsequently, the DMA can only
transfer data between an I/O port and a memory address, but
not between two I/O ports or two memory locations.
<quote><em>Note:</em> The 8237 does allow two channels to
be connected together to allow memory-to-memory DMA
operations in a non-``fly-by'' mode, but nobody in the PC
industry uses this scarce resource this way since it is
faster to move data between memory locations using the
CPU.</quote>
In the PC architecture, each DMA channel is normally
activated only when the hardware that uses that DMA
requests a transfer by asserting the DRQ line for that
channel.
<sect1><heading>A Sample DMA transfer</heading>
<p>Here is an example of the steps that occur to cause a
DMA transfer. In this example, the floppy disk
controller (FDC) has just read a byte from a diskette and
wants the DMA to place it in memory at location
0x00123456. The process begins by the FDC asserting the
DRQ2 signal to alert the DMA controller.
The DMA controller will note that the DRQ2 signal is asserted.
The DMA controller will then make sure that DMA channel 2
has been programmed and is enabled. The DMA controller
also makes sure that none of the other DMA channels are active
or have a higher priority. Once these checks are
complete, the DMA asks the CPU to release the bus so that
the DMA may use the bus. The DMA requests the bus by
asserting the HRQ signal which goes to the CPU.
The CPU detects the HRQ signal, and will complete
executing the current instruction. Once the processor
has reached a state where it can release the bus, it
will. Now all of the signals normally generated by the
CPU (-MEMR, -MEMW, -IOR, -IOW and a few others) are
placed in a tri-stated condition (neither high or low)
and then the CPU asserts the HLDA signal which tells the
DMA controller that it is now in charge of the bus.
Depending on the processor, the CPU may be able to
execute a few additional instructions now that it no
longer has the bus, but the CPU will eventually have to
wait when it reaches an instruction that must read
something from memory that is not in the internal
processor cache or pipeline.
Now that the DMA ``is in charge'', the DMA activates its
-MEMR, -MEMW, -IOR, -IOW output signals, and the address
outputs from the DMA are set to 0x3456, which will be
used to direct the byte that is about to transferred to a
specific memory location.
The DMA will then let the device that requested the DMA
transfer know that the transfer is commencing. This is
done by asserting the -DACK signal, or in the case of the
floppy disk controller, -DACK2 is asserted.
The floppy disk controller is now responsible for placing
the byte to be transferred on the bus Data lines. Unless
the floppy controller needs more time to get the data
byte on the bus (and if the peripheral needs more time it
alerts the DMA via the READY signal), the DMA will wait
one DMA clock, and then de-assert the -MEMW and -IOR
signals so that the memory will latch and store the byte
that was on the bus, and the FDC will know that the byte
has been transferred.
Since the DMA cycle only transfers a single byte at a
time, the FDC now drops the DRQ2 signal, so that the DMA
knows it is no longer needed. The DMA will de-assert the
-DACK2 signal, so that the FDC knows it must stop placing
data on the bus.
The DMA will now check to see if any of the other DMA
channels have any work to do. If none of the channels
have their DRQ lines asserted, the DMA controller has
completed its work and will now tri-state the -MEMR,
-MEMW, -IOR, -IOW and address signals.
Finally, the DMA will de-assert the HRQ signal. The CPU
sees this, and de-asserts the HOLDA signal. Now the CPU
activates its -MEMR, -MEMW, -IOR, -IOW and address lines,
and it resumes executing instructions and accessing main
memory and the peripherals.
For a typical floppy disk sector, the above process is
repeated 512 times, once for each byte. Each time a byte
is transferred, the address register in the DMA is
incremented and the counter that shows how many bytes are
to be transferred is decremented.
When the counter reaches zero, the DMA asserts the EOP
signal, which indicates that the counter has reached zero
and no more data will be transferred until the DMA
controller is reprogrammed by the CPU. This event is
also called the Terminal Count (TC). There is only one
EOP signal, because only one DMA channel can be active at
any instant.
If a peripheral wants to generate an interrupt when the
transfer of a buffer is complete, it can test for its
-DACK signal and the EOP signal both being asserted at
the same time. When that happens, it means the DMA won't
transfer any more information for that peripheral without
intervention by the CPU. The peripheral can then assert
one of the interrupt signals to get the processors'
attention. The DMA chip itself is not capable of
generating an interrupt. The peripheral and its
associated hardware is responsible for generating any
interrupt that occurs.
It is important to understand that although the CPU
always releases the bus to the DMA when the DMA makes the
request, this action is invisible to both applications
and the operating systems, except for slight changes in
the amount of time the processor takes to execute
instructions when the DMA is active. Subsequently, the
processor must poll the peripheral, poll the registers in
the DMA chip, or receive an interrupt from the peripheral
to know for certain when a DMA transfer has completed.
<sect1><heading>DMA Page Registers and 16Meg address space limitations</heading>
<p>You may have noticed earlier that instead of the DMA
setting the address lines to 0x00123456 as we said
earlier, the DMA only set 0x3456. The reason for this
takes a bit of explaining.
When the original IBM PC was designed, IBM elected to use
both DMA and interrupt controller chips that were
designed for use with the 8085, an 8-bit processor with
an address space of 16 bits (64K). Since the IBM PC
supported more than 64K of memory, something had to be
done to allow the DMA to read or write memory locations
above the 64K mark. What IBM did to solve this problem
was to add a latch for each DMA channel, that holds the
upper bits of the address to be read to or written from.
Whenever a DMA channel is active, the contents of that
latch is written to the address bus and kept there until
the DMA operation for the channel ends. These latches
are called ``Page Registers''.
So for our example above, the DMA would put the 0x3456
part of the address on the bus, and the Page Register for
DMA channel 2 would put 0x0012xxxx on the bus. Together,
these two values form the complete address in memory that
is to be accessed.
Because the Page Register latch is independent of the DMA
chip, the area of memory to be read or written must not
span a 64K physical boundary. If the DMA accesses memory
location 0xffff, the DMA will then increment the address
register and it will access the next byte at 0x0000, not
0x10000. The results of letting this happen are probably not intended.
<quote><em>Note:</em> ``Physical'' 64K boundaries should
not be confused with 8086-mode 64K ``Segments'', which
are created by adding a segment register with an offset
register. Page Registers have no address overlap.</quote>
To further complicate matters, the external DMA address
latches on the PC/AT hold only eight bits, so that gives
us 8+16=24 bits, which means that the DMA can only point
at memory locations between 0 and 16Meg. For newer
computers that allow more than 16Meg of memory, the
PC-compatible DMA cannot access locations above 16Meg.
To get around this restriction, operating systems will
reserve a buffer in an area below 16Meg that also doesn't
span a physical 64K boundary. Then the DMA will be
programmed to read data to that buffer. Once the DMA has
moved the data into this buffer, the operating system
will then copy the data from the buffer to the address
where the data is really supposed to be stored.
When writing data from an address above 16Meg to a
DMA-based peripheral, the data must be first copied from
where it resides into a buffer located below 16Meg, and
then the DMA can copy the data from the buffer to the
hardware. In FreeBSD, these reserved buffers are called
``Bounce Buffers''. In the MS-DOS world, they are
sometimes called ``Smart Buffers''.
<sect1><heading>DMA Operational Modes and Settings</heading>
<p>The 8237 DMA can be operated in several modes. The main
ones are:
<descrip>
<tag/Single/ A single byte (or word) is transferred.
The DMA must release and re-acquire the bus for each
additional byte. This is commonly-used by devices
that cannot transfer the entire block of data
immediately. The peripheral will request the DMA
each time it is ready for another transfer.
The floppy disk controller only has a one-byte
buffer, so it uses this mode.
<tag>Block/Demand</tag> Once the DMA acquires the
system bus, an entire block of data is transferred,
up to a maximum of 64K. If the peripheral needs
additional time, it can assert the READY signal.
READY should not be used excessively, and for slow
peripheral transfers, the Single Transfer Mode should
be used instead.
The difference between Block and Demand is the once a
Block transfer is started, it runs until the transfer
count reaches zero. DRQ only needs to be asserted
until -DACK is asserted. Demand Mode will transfer
one more bytes until DRQ is de-asserted, then when
DRQ is asserted later, the transfer resumes where it
was suspended.
Older hard disk controllers used Demand Mode until
CPU speeds increased to the point that it was more
efficient to read the data using the CPU.
<tag>Cascade</tag> This mechanism allows a DMA channel
to request the bus, but then the attached peripheral
device is responsible for placing addressing
information on the bus. This is also known as ``Bus
Mastering''.
When a DMA channel in Cascade Mode receives control
of the bus, the DMA does not place addresses and I/O
control signals on the bus like it normally does.
Instead, the DMA only asserts the -DACK signal for
this channel.
Now it is up to the device connected to that DMA
channel to provide address and bus control signals.
The peripheral has complete control over the system
bus, and can do reads and/or writes to any address
below 16Meg. When the peripheral is finished with
bus, it de-asserts the DRQ line, and the DMA
controller can return control to the CPU or to some
other DMA channel.
Cascade Mode can be used to chain multiple DMA
controllers together, and this is exactly what DMA
Channel 4 is used for in the PC. When a peripheral
requests the bus on DMA channels 0, 1, 2 or 3, the
slave DMA controller asserts HLDREQ, but this wire is
actually connected to DRQ4 on the primary DMA
controller. The primary DMA controller then requests
the bus from the CPU using HLDREQ. Once the bus is
granted, -DACK4 is asserted, and that wire is
actually connected to the HLDA signal on the slave
DMA controller. The slave DMA controller then
transfers data for the DMA channel that requested it,
or the slave DMA may grant the bus to a peripheral
that wants to perform its own bus-mastering.
Because of this wiring arrangement, only DMA channels
0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 are usable on PC/AT systems.
<quote><em>Note:</em> DMA channel 0 was reserved for
refresh operations in early IBM PC computers, but
is generally available for use by peripherals in
modern systems.</quote>
When a peripheral is performing Bus Mastering, it is
important that the peripheral transmit data to or
from memory constantly while it holds the system bus.
If the peripheral cannot do this, it must release the
bus frequently so that the system can perform refresh
operations on memory.
Since memory read and write cycles ``count'' as refresh
cycles (a refresh cycle is actually an incomplete
memory read cycle), as long as the peripheral
controller continues reading or writing data to
sequential memory locations, that action will refresh
all of memory.
Bus-mastering is found in some SCSI adapters and
other high-performance peripheral cards.
<tag>Autoinitialize</tag> This mode causes the DMA to
perform Byte, Block or Demand transfers, but when the
DMA transfer counter reaches zero, the counter and
address is set back to where they were when the DMA
channel was originally programmed. This means that
as long as the device requests transfers, they will
be granted. It is up to the CPU to move new data
into the fixed buffer ahead of where the DMA is about
to transfer it for output operations, and read new
data out of the buffer behind where the DMA is
writing on input operations. This technique is
frequently used on audio devices that have small or
no hardware ``sample'' buffers. There is additional
CPU overhead to manage this ``circular'' buffer, but in
some cases this may be the only way to eliminate the
latency that occurs when the DMA counter reaches zero
and the DMA stops until it is reprogrammed.
</descrip>
<sect1><heading>Programming the DMA</heading>
<p>The DMA channel that is to be programmed should always
be ``masked'' before loading any settings. This is because
the hardware might assert DRQ, and the DMA might respond,
even though not all of the parameters have been loaded or
updated.
Once masked, the host must specify the direction of the
transfer (memory-to-I/O or I/O-to-memory), what mode of
DMA operation is to be used for the transfer (Single,
Block, Demand, Cascade, etc), and finally the address and
length of the transfer are loaded. The length that is
loaded is one less than the amount you expect the DMA to
transfer. The LSB and MSB of the address and length are
written to the same 8-bit I/O port, so another port must
be written to first to guarantee that the DMA accepts the
first byte as the LSB and the second byte as the MSB.
Then, be sure to update the Page Register, which is
external to the DMA and is accessed through a different
set of I/O ports.
Once all the settings are ready, the DMA channel can be
un-masked. That DMA channel is now considered to be
``armed'', and will respond when DRQ is asserted.
Refer to a hardware data book for precise programming
details for the 8237. You will also need to refer to the
I/O port map for the PC system. This map describes where
the DMA and Page Register ports are located. A complete
table is located below.
<sect1><heading>DMA Port Map</heading>
<p>All systems based on the IBM-PC and PC/AT have the DMA
hardware located at the same I/O ports. The complete
list is provided below. Ports assigned to DMA Controller
&num;2 are undefined on non-AT designs.
<sect2><heading>0x00 - 0x1f DMA Controller &num;1 (Channels 0, 1, 2 and 3)</heading>
<p>DMA Address and Count Registers
<verb>
0x00 write Channel 0 starting address
0x00 read Channel 0 current address
0x02 write Channel 0 starting word count
0x02 read Channel 0 remaining word count
0x04 write Channel 1 starting address
0x04 read Channel 1 current address
0x06 write Channel 1 starting word count
0x06 read Channel 1 remaining word count
0x08 write Channel 2 starting address
0x08 read Channel 2 current address
0x0a write Channel 2 starting word count
0x0a read Channel 2 remaining word count
0x0c write Channel 3 starting address
0x0c read Channel 3 current address
0x0e write Channel 3 starting word count
0x0e read Channel 3 remaining word count
</verb>
DMA Command Registers
<verb>
0x10 write Command Register
0x10 read Status Register
0x12 write Request Register
0x12 read -
0x14 write Single Mask Register Bit
0x14 read -
0x16 write Mode Register
0x16 read -
0x18 write Clear LSB/MSB Flip-Flop
0x18 read -
0x1a write Master Clear/Reset
0x1a read Temporary Register
0x1c write Clear Mask Register
0x1c read -
0x1e write Write All Mask Register Bits
0x1e read -
</verb>
<sect2><heading>0xc0 - 0xdf DMA Controller &num;2 (Channels 4, 5, 6 and 7)</heading>
<p>DMA Address and Count Registers
<verb>
0xc0 write Channel 4 starting address
0xc0 read Channel 4 current address
0xc2 write Channel 4 starting word count
0xc2 read Channel 4 remaining word count
0xc4 write Channel 5 starting address
0xc4 read Channel 5 current address
0xc6 write Channel 5 starting word count
0xc6 read Channel 5 remaining word count
0xc8 write Channel 6 starting address
0xc8 read Channel 6 current address
0xca write Channel 6 starting word count
0xca read Channel 6 remaining word count
0xcc write Channel 7 starting address
0xcc read Channel 7 current address
0xce write Channel 7 starting word count
0xce read Channel 7 remaining word count
</verb>
DMA Command Registers
<verb>
0xd0 write Command Register
0xd0 read Status Register
0xd2 write Request Register
0xd2 read -
0xd4 write Single Mask Register Bit
0xd4 read -
0xd6 write Mode Register
0xd6 read -
0xd8 write Clear LSB/MSB Flip-Flop
0xd8 read -
0xda write Master Clear/Reset
0xda read Temporary Register
0xdc write Clear Mask Register
0xdc read -
0xde write Write All Mask Register Bits
0xde read -
</verb>
<sect2><heading>0x80 - 0x9f DMA Page Registers</heading>
<p><verb>
0x87 r/w DMA Channel 0
0x83 r/w DMA Channel 1
0x81 r/w DMA Channel 2
0x82 r/w DMA Channel 3
0x8b r/w DMA Channel 5
0x89 r/w DMA Channel 6
0x8a r/w DMA Channel 7
0x8f Refresh
</verb>