Chromatix wrote:
Well, I know that much. VDA and VPA are not *literally* extra address lines, though they can be used to divide data and program address spaces (which is probably more useful in context of an MMU). I was merely suggesting to incorporate them into the address-decoding circuitry so that the /CE lines are effectively qualified by them; effectively creating two address spaces, one of which has no devices at all mapped to it.
If you use it specifically for I/O space, then you only really need to use VDA, since you're unlikely to execute any code directly from an I/O device. But here we're likely to want to qualify ROM space, specifically to avoid unnecessary wait-states being triggered (I think a lot of internal-operation cycles end up putting $xxFFFF on the bus, which might often map to ROM).
I didn't know this, and knowing it now it may be very important to do this to avoid accidental wait states.
GARTHWILSON wrote:
backspace119 wrote:
There are, however, some triple input gates in the LVC series, which up until now I thought was 3.3v only, but appears to accept 5v, and output 3.8v logic high at 5v operation.
That's at a whopping 32mA output current. At 100µA output current, it can reach Vcc-0.1V or better, according to the data sheet.
Wow, ok, so then the LVC series is probably something to look into then, although a lot of what I was seeing was single gates.
Chromatix wrote:
Treating VDA and VPA as address signals rather than bus-control signals does make some sense, actually. You can generate ~(VDA | VPA) and drop it into the /OE pin of a '688, for example, instead of tying that pin low; some other comparators also have cascade inputs. I think the 74HC multiple-input gates are often fast enough to build address-decoding logic, since the addresses become valid early, so you can use those to help qualify addresses.
Then the bus-control signals are simplified to forms which don't require 3-input gates:
Bank_LE = ~(Phi2 | /RDY)
/OE = (~R/W | ~(Phi2 | /RDY))
/WE = (R/W | ~(Phi2 | /RDY))
Ok, I may need to simplify other parts of my design down to use 2 input gates. The VDA and VPA as extra address lines is a neat idea too.