Technical Information 1-25
Table Section 1-6 DMA Cycles and Compatible DMA Devices
DMA Cycle
Transfer
Rate (MB/s)
Compatible
DMA Devices
Compatible
8-bit
16-bit
1.0
2.0
All ISA
All ISA
Type A
8-bit
16-bit
32-bit
1.3
2.6
5.3
Most ISA
Most ISA
EISA only
Type B
8-bit
16-bit
32-bit
2.0
4.0
8.0
Some ISA
Some ISA
EISA only
Burst DMA (Type C)
8-bit
16-bit
32-bit
8.2
16.5
33.0
EISA only
EISA only
EISA only
EISA’s bus master archictecture supports intelligent peripherals. The bus master
architecture provides a high-speed data channel with data rates up to 33 MB per second
using EISA Burst cycles. The bus master provides local intelligence by including a
dedicated I/O processor and local memory. It can relieve the burden on the processor by
performing sophisticated memory access functions, such as non-ordered, scatter-gather
data transfers.
The EISA bus provides a way for EISA expansion boards and ISA-compatible devices to
communicate. EISA data and control signals are generated by the bus master or slave. This
lets the system board copy the data to the appropriate byte lanes and translate the control
signals. Automatic translation is provided by the system board for DMA devices and 16-
and 32-bit EISA devices.
EISA’s centralized arbitration scheme allows efficient bus sharing among multiple EISA
bus masters and DMA devices. The centralized arbitration supports preemption of an
active bus master or DMA device and can reset a device that does not release the bus after
preemption. The bus is granted to DMA devices, DRAM refresh, bus masters, and
processor functions on a rotational basis. This rotation provides a short latency for DMA
devices to assure ISA compatibility and longer latencies for the bus master and processor.
EISA interrupts can be configured for edge- or level-triggered operation. Edge-triggered
operation supplies compatibility with existing, interrupt-driven ISA devices. Level-
triggered operation allows the sharing of a single system interrupt by many EISA devices.