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STPCI2GDY Datasheet(PDF) 77 Page - STMicroelectronics |
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STPCI2GDY Datasheet(HTML) 77 Page - STMicroelectronics |
77 / 111 page ![]() DESIGN GUIDELINES Issue 1.0 - July 24, 2002 77/111 6.2. STPC CONFIGURATION The STPC is a very flexible product thanks to decoupled clock domains and to strap options enabling a user-optimized configuration. As some trade off are often necessary, it is important to do an analysis of the application needs prior to design a system based on this product. The applicative constraints are usually the following: - CPU performance - graphics / video performances - power consumption - PCI bandwidth - booting time - EMC Some other elements can help to tune the choice: - Code size of CPU Consuming tasks - Data size and location On the STPC side, the configurable parameters are the following: - synchronous / asynchronous mode - HCLK speed - MCLK speed - Local Bus / ISA bus 6.2.1. LOCAL BUS / ISA BUS The selection between the ISA bus and the Local Bus is relatively simple. The first one is a standard bus but slow. The Local Bus is fast and programmable but doesn't support any DMA nor external master mechanisms. The Table 6-1 below summarize the selection: Before implementing a function requiring DMA capability on the ISA bus, it is recommended to check if it exists on PCI, or if it can be implemented differently, in order to use the local bus mode. 6.2.2. CLOCK CONFIGURATION The CPU clock and the memory clock are independent unless the "synchronous mode" strap option is set (see the STRAP OPTIONS chapter). The potential clock configurations are then relatively limited as listed in Table 6-2. The advantage of the synchronous mode compared to the asynchronous mode is a lower latency when accessing SDRAM from the CPU or the PCI (saves 4 MCLK cycles for the first access of the burst). For the same CPU to Memory transfer performance, MCLK has to be roughly higher by 20MHz between SYNC and ASYNC modes to get the same system performance level (example: 66MHz SYNC = 86MHz ASYNC) . In all cases, use SDRAM with CAS Latency equals to 2 (CL2) for the best performances. The advantage of the asynchronous mode is the capability to reprogram the MCLK speed on the fly. This could help for applications where power consumption must be optimized. The last, and more complex, information to consider is the behaviour of the software. In case high CPU or FPU computation is needed, it is sometime better to be in DX2-133/MCLK=66 synchronous mode than DX2-133/MCLK=90 asynchronous mode. This depends on the locality of the number crunching code and the amount of data manipulated. The Table 6-3 below gives some examples. The right column correspond to the configuration number as described in Table 6-2: Obviously, the values for HCLK or MCLK can be reduced compared to Table 6-2 in case there is no need to push the device at its limits, or when avoiding to use specific frequency ranges (FM radio band for example). 6.3. ARCHITECTURE RECOMMENDATIONS This section describes the recommend implementations for the STPC interfaces. For more details, download the Reference Schematics from the STPC web site. Table 6-1. Bus mode selection Need Selection Legacy I/O device (Floppy, ...), Super I/O ISA Bus DMA capability (Soundblaster) ISA Bus Flash, SRAM, basic I/O device Local Bus Fast boot Local Bus Boot flash of 4MB or more Local Bus Programmable Chip Select Local Bus Table 6-2. Main STPC modes CMode HCLK MHz CPU clock clock ratio MCLK MHz 1 Synchronous 66 133 (x2) 66 2 Asynchronous 66 133 (x2) 90 Table 6-3. Clock mode selection Constraints C Need CPU power Critical code fits into L1 cache 1 Need CPU power Code or data does not fit into L1 cache 3 Need high PCI bandwitdh 3 Need flexible SDRAM speed 2 |