Digi NS9215 manual Write protection Extended wait transfers, Be aware

M E M O R Y C O N T RO L L E R

Static memory controller

Write protection

Extended wait transfers

Notes:

Buffering enables the transaction order to be rearranged to improve memory performance. If the transaction order is important, the buffers must be disabled.

Extended wait and page mode cannot be enabled at the same time.

Each static memory chip select can be configured for write-protection. SRAM usually is unprotected and ROM devices must be write-protected (to avoid potential bus conflict when performing a write access to ROM), but the P field in the Static Memory Configuration register (see “StaticMemory Configuration 0–3 registers” on page 251) can be set to write-protect SRAM as well as ROM devices. If a write access is made to a write-protected memory bank, a bus error occurs. If a write access is made to a memory bank containing ROM devices and the chip select is not write- protected. An error is not returned and the write access proceeds as normal. Note that this might lead to a bus conflict.

The static memory controller supports extremely long transfer times. In normal use, the memory transfers are timed using the Static Memory Read Delay register (StaticWaitRd) and Static Memory Wait Delay register (StaticWaitWr). These registers allow transfers with up to 32 wait states. If a very slow static memory device has to be accessed, however, you can enable the static configuration extended wait (EW) bit. When EW is enabled, the Static Extended Wait register is used to time both the read and write transfers. The Static Extended Wait register allows transfers to have up to 16368 wait states.

A peripheral can, at any time, signal to the processor that it wants to complete an access early by asserting the ns_ta_strb signal. This allows a slow peripheral with variable access times to signal that it is ready to complete an access. The processor normally completes an access when it finds a rising edge on ns_ta_strb.

For a burst access, the peripheral must toggle ns_ta_strb for each access it wants to complete early. The peripheral is not required to assert ns_ta_strb for each access in the burst; for example, the peripheral requires the programmed access for the start of a four access burst followed by three early completion accesses, each signalled by the assertion of ns_ta_strb.

Using the ns_ta_strb signal is valid only when the EW bit is enabled.

Be aware:

Using extremely long transfer times might mean that SDRAM devices are not refreshed correctly.

Very slow transfers can degrade system performance, as the external memory interface is tied up for long periods of time. This has detrimental effects on

208Hardware Reference NS9215