The Web Site to Remember National Semiconductor's Series 32000 Family

Architecture

The M32632 is not hammered in stone. Every time a new FPGA development board came into use some changes were necessary. For example the Cyclone V GX Starter Kit has a high DRAM bandwidth due to its LPDDR2 device. This required a new DRAM interface. The read data bus is now 128 bits wide which is a full cache line. In addition some bug fixes are inlcuded in each new version.

This chapter gives an overview of the external connections to the M32632 Version 3.0 .

Top Level View

In Figure 1 the symbol of the M32632 CPU can be seen. The symbol is used in Altera's design software when you create a system in which the CPU is a component. The pins on the left side are all input pins and the pins on the right side are all output pins. Normally all of this pins are not directly connected to real I/Os of the FPGA. Inside an FPGA no bidirectional connections exists. Therefore a databus has always two components, one for reading and one for writing.

Fig. 1. The symbol of the M32632 CPU.

I/O signals which belong to a certain function are described in the following tables.

Basic Signals

Signal Dir Function
BCLKINBasic Clock
BRESETINReset synchronized to BCLK
DRAMSZ[2..0]INConfiguration of DRAM size
NMI_NINNon maskable interrupt signal
INT_NINMaskable interrupt signal
STATUS[3..0]OUTStatus code for General Purpose Interface
ILOOUTInterlocked bus cycle
STATSIGS[7..0]OUTState signals which can be used to monitor CPU activity

BCLK should be also the system clock.

General Purpose Interface

Signal Dir Function
IO_RDOUTRead access
IO_WROUTWrite access
IO_A[31..0]OUTAccess address
IO_BE[3..0]OUTByte enable signal for write access
IO_DI[31..0]OUTData bus used for writing
IO_Q[31..0]INData bus used for reading
IO_READYINAcknowledge signal for end of access

DRAM Interface

Signal Dir Function
IC_ACCOUTInstruction cache read access
IDRAM_ADR[28..0]OUTAddress of instruction cache access
IC_MDONEINAcknowledge signal for end of instruction cache access
IC_INHIBITINIf active the instruction cache access is not cachable
DC_WROUTWrite access
DC_ACCOUTData cache read access
DRAM_ADR[28..0]OUTAddress of data cache access
DC_MDONEINAcknowledge signal for end of data cache access
DC_INHIBITINIf active the data cache access is not cachable
DRAM_DI[35..0]OUTByte enable signal and data for memory write access
DRAM_Q[127..0]INMemory data bus used for writing into the caches
ENWRINEnable write signal for the data cache (write buffer empty)
ENDRAMINEnable DRAM after system initialization

The M32632 CPU must be configured to the DRAM size of the system. Currently the CPU can be used with a maximum of 512 MBytes of DRAM memory.

DMA Interface

Signal Dir Function
HOLDINHold request signal
HLDAOUTHold acknowledge signal
DMA_CHKINThe address bus DMA_AA is valid
DMA_AA[28..4]INDMA address which is currently accessed

Coprocessor Interface

Signal Dir Function
COP_GOOUTStart coprocessor operation
COP_OP[23..0]OUTCoprocessor operation code
COP_OUT[127..0]OUTData to coprocessor, two 64 bit quad words
COP_DONEINCoprocessor has finished operation
COP_IN[63..0]INData from coprocessor, one 64 bit quad word

System Level View

Today every simple development board for FPGAs has enough DRAM capacity to build a capable computer system. Figure 2 shows a typical system where most of the functions are integrated in the FPGA. The use of a DMA controller is optional.

Fig. 2. Computer in an FPGA : the world of today.

Timing Level View

Figure 3 shows the timing of basic I/O cycles. A read access (IO_RD="1") needs two clock cycles if an FPGA memory block is accessed. The reason is that the address is latched inside the memory block and data (IO_Q="00000075") is valid after latching the address. If BCLK is slow the falling edge can be used for latching the address and then the access can be done in one clock cycle. A write access (IO_WR="1") inside the FPGA is done in one clock cycle. The high state ("1") of the signal IO_READY tells the CPU that the access has been finished. External accesses normally require multiple clock cycles.

Fig. 3. I/O read and write of the M32632 CPU.

More informations about the M32632 V3.0 and how to build a system with it can be found in the next two documents:

M32632 Version 3.0 Architecture

M32632 Version 3.0 User's Manual

This chapter was last modified on 9 December 2018. Next chapter: Performance