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<chapter id="internals">
<title>FreeBSD Internals</title>
<sect1 id="booting">
<title>The FreeBSD Booting Process</title>
<para><emphasis>Contributed by &a.phk;. v1.1, April
26th.</emphasis></para>
<para>Booting FreeBSD is essentially a three step process: load the
kernel, determine the root filesystem and initialize user-land
things. This leads to some interesting possibilities shown
below.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Loading a kernel</title>
<para>We presently have three basic mechanisms for loading the
kernel as described below: they all pass some information to the
kernel to help the kernel decide what to do next.</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term>Biosboot</term>
<listitem>
<para>Biosboot is our &ldquo;bootblocks&rdquo;. It consists of two
files which will be installed in the first 8Kbytes of the
floppy or hard-disk slice to be booted from.</para>
<para>Biosboot can load a kernel from a FreeBSD
filesystem.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>Dosboot</term>
<listitem>
<para>Dosboot was written by DI. Christian Gusenbauer, and
is unfortunately at this time one of the few pieces of
code that will not compile under FreeBSD itself because it
is written for Microsoft compilers.</para>
<para>Dosboot will boot the kernel from a MS-DOS file or
from a FreeBSD filesystem partition on the disk. It
attempts to negotiate with the various and strange kinds
of memory manglers that lurk in high memory on MS/DOS
systems and usually wins them for its case.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>Netboot</term>
<listitem>
<para>Netboot will try to find a supported Ethernet card,
and use BOOTP, TFTP and NFS to find a kernel file to
boot.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Determine the root filesystem</title>
<para>Once the kernel is loaded and the boot-code jumps to it, the
kernel will initialize itself, trying to determine what hardware
is present and so on; it then needs to find a root
filesystem.</para>
<para>Presently we support the following types of root
filesystems:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term>UFS</term>
<listitem>
<para>This is the most normal type of root filesystem. It
can reside on a floppy or on hard disk.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>MSDOS</term>
<listitem>
<para>While this is technically possible, it is not
particular useful because of the <acronym>FAT</acronym> filesystem's
inability to deal with links, device nodes and other such
&ldquo;UNIXisms&rdquo;.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>MFS</term>
<listitem>
<para>This is actually a UFS filesystem which has been
compiled into the kernel. That means that the kernel does
not really need any hard disks, floppies or other hardware
to function.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>CD9660</term>
<listitem>
<para>This is for using a CD-ROM as root filesystem.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>NFS</term>
<listitem>
<para>This is for using a fileserver as root filesystem,
basically making it a diskless machine.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Initialize user-land things</title>
<para>To get the user-land going, the kernel, when it has finished
initialization, will create a process with <literal>pid ==
1</literal> and execute a program on the root filesystem; this
program is normally <filename>/sbin/init</filename>.</para>
<para>You can substitute any program for
<command>/sbin/init</command>, as long as you keep in mind
that:</para>
<para>there is no stdin/out/err unless you open it yourself. If you
exit, the machine panics. Signal handling is special for
<literal>pid == 1</literal>.</para>
<para>An example of this is the
<command>/stand/sysinstall</command> program on the
installation floppy.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Interesting combinations</title>
<para>Boot a kernel with a MFS in it with a special
<filename>/sbin/init</filename> which...</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term>A &mdash; Using DOS</term>
<listitem>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>mounts your <filename>C:</filename> as
<filename>/C:</filename></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Attaches <filename>C:/freebsd.fs</filename> on
<filename>/dev/vn0</filename></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>mounts <filename>/dev/vn0</filename> as
<filename>/rootfs</filename></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>makes symlinks<!-- <br> -->
<filename>/rootfs/bin</filename> -&gt;
<filename>/bin</filename><!-- <br> -->
<filename>/rootfs/etc</filename> -&gt;
<filename>/etc</filename><!-- <br> -->
<filename>/rootfs/sbin</filename> -&gt;
<filename>/sbin</filename><!-- <br> --> (etc...)<!--
<br> --></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Now you are running FreeBSD without repartitioning
your hard disk...</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>B &mdash; Using NFS</term>
<listitem>
<para>NFS mounts your
<filename>server:~you/FreeBSD</filename> as
<filename>/nfs</filename>, chroots to
<filename>/nfs</filename> and executes
<filename>/sbin/init</filename> there</para>
<para>Now you are running FreeBSD diskless, even though you
do not control the NFS server...</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>C &mdash; Start an X-server</term>
<listitem>
<para>Now you have an X-terminal, which is better than that
dingy X-under-windows-so-slow-you-can-see-what-it-does
thing that your boss insist is better than forking out
money on hardware.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>D &mdash; Using a tape</term>
<listitem>
<para>Takes a copy of <filename>/dev/rwd0</filename> and
writes it to a remote tape station or fileserver.</para>
<para>Now you finally get that backup you should have made a
year ago...</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>E &mdash; Acts as a firewall/web-server/what do I
know...</term>
<listitem>
<para>This is particularly interesting since you can boot
from a write- protected floppy, but still write to your
root filesystem...</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="memoryuse">
<title>PC Memory Utilization</title>
<para><emphasis>Contributed by &a.joerg;.<!-- <br> --> 16 Apr
1995.</emphasis></para>
<para><emphasis>A short description of how FreeBSD uses memory on the
i386 platform</emphasis></para>
<para>The boot sector will be loaded at <literal>0:0x7c00</literal>,
and relocates itself immediately to <literal>0x7c0:0</literal>.
(This is nothing magic, just an adjustment for the
<literal>%cs</literal> selector, done by an <literal>ljmp</literal>.)</para>
<para>It then loads the first 15 sectors at <literal>0x10000</literal>
(segment <makevar>BOOTSEG</makevar> in the biosboot Makefile), and sets up the stack to
work below <literal>0x1fff0</literal>. After this, it jumps to the
entry of boot2 within that code. I.e., it jumps over itself and the
(dummy) partition table, and it is going to adjust the %cs
selector&mdash;we are still in 16-bit mode there.</para>
<para>boot2 asks for the boot file, and examines the
<filename>a.out</filename> header. It masks the file entry point
(usually <literal>0xf0100000</literal>) by
<literal>0x00ffffff</literal>, and loads the file there. Hence the
usual load point is 1 MB (<literal>0x00100000</literal>). During
load, the boot code toggles back and forth between real and
protected mode, to use the BIOS in real mode.</para>
<para>The boot code itself uses segment selectors
<literal>0x18</literal> and <literal>0x20</literal> for
<literal>%cs</literal> and <literal>%ds/%es</literal> in
protected mode, and <literal>0x28</literal> to jump back into real
mode. The kernel is finally started with <literal>%cs</literal> <literal>0x08</literal> and
<literal>%ds/%es/%ss</literal> <literal>0x10</literal>, which
refer to dummy descriptors covering the entire address space.</para>
<para>The kernel will be started at its load point. Since it has been
linked for another (high) address, it will have to execute PIC until
the page table and page directory stuff is setup properly, at which
point paging will be enabled and the kernel will finally run at the
address for which it was linked.</para>
<para><emphasis>Contributed by &a.davidg;.<!-- <br> --> 16 Apr
1995.</emphasis></para>
<para>The physical pages immediately following the kernel BSS contain
proc0's page directory, page tables, and upages. Some time later
when the VM system is initialized, the physical memory between
<literal>0x1000-0x9ffff</literal> and the physical memory after the
kernel (text+data+bss+proc0 stuff+other misc) is made available in
the form of general VM pages and added to the global free page
list.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="dma">
<title>DMA: What it Is and How it Works</title>
<para><emphasis>Copyright &copy; 1995,1997 &a.uhclem;, All Rights
Reserved.<!-- <br> --> 10 December 1996. Last Update 8 October
1997.</emphasis></para>
<para>Direct Memory Access (DMA) is a method of allowing data to be
moved from one location to another in a computer without
intervention from the central processor (CPU).</para>
<para>The way that the DMA function is implemented varies between
computer architectures, so this discussion will limit itself to the
implementation and workings of the DMA subsystem on the IBM Personal
Computer (PC), the IBM PC/AT and all of its successors and
clones.</para>
<para>The PC DMA subsystem is based on the Intel 8237 DMA controller.
The 8237 contains four DMA channels that can be programmed
independently and any one of the channels may be active at any
moment. These channels are numbered 0, 1, 2 and 3. Starting with
the PC/AT, IBM added a second 8237 chip, and numbered those channels
4, 5, 6 and 7.</para>
<para>The original DMA controller (0, 1, 2 and 3) moves one byte in
each transfer. The second DMA controller (4, 5, 6, and 7) moves
16-bits from two adjacent memory locations in each transfer, with
the first byte always coming from an even-numbered address. The two
controllers are identical components and the difference in transfer
size is caused by the way the second controller is wired into the
system.</para>
<para>The 8237 has two electrical signals for each channel, named DRQ
and -DACK. There are additional signals with the names HRQ (Hold
Request), HLDA (Hold Acknowledge), -EOP (End of Process), and the
bus control signals -MEMR (Memory Read), -MEMW (Memory Write), -IOR
(I/O Read), and -IOW (I/O Write).</para>
<para>The 8237 DMA is known as a &ldquo;fly-by&rdquo; DMA controller. This
means that the data being moved from one location to another does
not pass through the DMA chip and is not stored in the DMA chip.
Subsequently, the DMA can only transfer data between an I/O port and
a memory address, but not between two I/O ports or two memory
locations.</para>
<note>
<para>The 8237 does allow two channels to be connected together to
allow memory-to-memory DMA operations in a
non-&ldquo;fly-by&rdquo; mode, but nobody in the PC industry uses
this scarce resource this way since it is faster to move data
between memory locations using the CPU.</para>
</note>
<para>In the PC architecture, each DMA channel is normally activated
only when the hardware that uses a given DMA channel requests a
transfer by asserting the DRQ line for that channel.</para>
<sect2>
<title>A Sample DMA transfer</title>
<para>Here is an example of the steps that occur to cause and
perform a DMA transfer. In this example, the floppy disk
controller (FDC) has just read a byte from a diskette and wants
the DMA to place it in memory at location 0x00123456. The process
begins by the FDC asserting the DRQ2 signal (the DRQ line for DMA
channel 2) to alert the DMA controller.</para>
<para>The DMA controller will note that the DRQ2 signal is asserted.
The DMA controller will then make sure that DMA channel 2 has been
programmed and is unmasked (enabled). The DMA controller also
makes sure that none of the other DMA channels are active or want
to be active and have a higher priority. Once these checks are
complete, the DMA asks the CPU to release the bus so that the DMA
may use the bus. The DMA requests the bus by asserting the HRQ
signal which goes to the CPU.</para>
<para>The CPU detects the HRQ signal, and will complete executing
the current instruction. Once the processor has reached a state
where it can release the bus, it will. Now all of the signals
normally generated by the CPU (-MEMR, -MEMW, -IOR, -IOW and a few
others) are placed in a tri-stated condition (neither high or low)
and then the CPU asserts the HLDA signal which tells the DMA
controller that it is now in charge of the bus.</para>
<para>Depending on the processor, the CPU may be able to execute a
few additional instructions now that it no longer has the bus, but
the CPU will eventually have to wait when it reaches an
instruction that must read something from memory that is not in
the internal processor cache or pipeline.</para>
<para>Now that the DMA &ldquo;is in charge&rdquo;, the DMA activates its
-MEMR, -MEMW, -IOR, -IOW output signals, and the address outputs
from the DMA are set to 0x3456, which will be used to direct the
byte that is about to transferred to a specific memory
location.</para>
<para>The DMA will then let the device that requested the DMA
transfer know that the transfer is commencing. This is done by
asserting the -DACK signal, or in the case of the floppy disk
controller, -DACK2 is asserted.</para>
<para>The floppy disk controller is now responsible for placing the
byte to be transferred on the bus Data lines. Unless the floppy
controller needs more time to get the data byte on the bus (and if
the peripheral does need more time it alerts the DMA via the READY
signal), the DMA will wait one DMA clock, and then de-assert the
-MEMW and -IOR signals so that the memory will latch and store the
byte that was on the bus, and the FDC will know that the byte has
been transferred.</para>
<para>Since the DMA cycle only transfers a single byte at a time,
the FDC now drops the DRQ2 signal, so the DMA knows that it is no
longer needed. The DMA will de-assert the -DACK2 signal, so that
the FDC knows it must stop placing data on the bus.</para>
<para>The DMA will now check to see if any of the other DMA channels
have any work to do. If none of the channels have their DRQ lines
asserted, the DMA controller has completed its work and will now
tri-state the -MEMR, -MEMW, -IOR, -IOW and address signals.</para>
<para>Finally, the DMA will de-assert the HRQ signal. The CPU sees
this, and de-asserts the HOLDA signal. Now the CPU activates its
-MEMR, -MEMW, -IOR, -IOW and address lines, and it resumes
executing instructions and accessing main memory and the
peripherals.</para>
<para>For a typical floppy disk sector, the above process is
repeated 512 times, once for each byte. Each time a byte is
transferred, the address register in the DMA is incremented and
the counter in the DMA that shows how many bytes are to be
transferred is decremented.</para>
<para>When the counter reaches zero, the DMA asserts the EOP signal,
which indicates that the counter has reached zero and no more data
will be transferred until the DMA controller is reprogrammed by
the CPU. This event is also called the Terminal Count (TC).
There is only one EOP signal, and since only DMA channel can be
active at any instant, the DMA channel that is currently active
must be the DMA channel that just completed its task.</para>
<para>If a peripheral wants to generate an interrupt when the
transfer of a buffer is complete, it can test for its -DACKn
signal and the EOP signal both being asserted at the same time.
When that happens, it means the DMA will not transfer any more
information for that peripheral without intervention by the CPU.
The peripheral can then assert one of the interrupt signals to get
the processors' attention. In the PC architecture, the DMA chip
itself is not capable of generating an interrupt. The peripheral
and its associated hardware is responsible for generating any
interrupt that occurs. Subsequently, it is possible to have a
peripheral that uses DMA but does not use interrupts.</para>
<para>It is important to understand that although the CPU always
releases the bus to the DMA when the DMA makes the request, this
action is invisible to both applications and the operating
systems, except for slight changes in the amount of time the
processor takes to execute instructions when the DMA is active.
Subsequently, the processor must poll the peripheral, poll the
registers in the DMA chip, or receive an interrupt from the
peripheral to know for certain when a DMA transfer has
completed.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>DMA Page Registers and 16Meg address space
limitations</title>
<para>You may have noticed earlier that instead of the DMA setting
the address lines to 0x00123456 as we said earlier, the DMA only
set 0x3456. The reason for this takes a bit of explaining.</para>
<para>When the original IBM PC was designed, IBM elected to use both
DMA and interrupt controller chips that were designed for use with
the 8085, an 8-bit processor with an address space of 16 bits
(64K). Since the IBM PC supported more than 64K of memory,
something had to be done to allow the DMA to read or write memory
locations above the 64K mark. What IBM did to solve this problem
was to add an external data latch for each DMA channel that holds
the upper bits of the address to be read to or written from.
Whenever a DMA channel is active, the contents of that latch are
written to the address bus and kept there until the DMA operation
for the channel ends. IBM called these latches &ldquo;Page
Registers&rdquo;.</para>
<para>So for our example above, the DMA would put the 0x3456 part of
the address on the bus, and the Page Register for DMA channel 2
would put 0x0012xxxx on the bus. Together, these two values form
the complete address in memory that is to be accessed.</para>
<para>Because the Page Register latch is independent of the DMA
chip, the area of memory to be read or written must not span a 64K
physical boundary. For example, if the DMA accesses memory
location 0xffff, after that transfer the DMA will then increment
the address register and the DMA will access the next byte at
location 0x0000, not 0x10000. The results of letting this happen
are probably not intended.</para>
<note>
<para>&ldquo;Physical&rdquo; 64K boundaries should not be
confused with 8086-mode 64K &ldquo;Segments&rdquo;, which are
created by mathematically adding a segment register with an
offset register. Page Registers have no address overlap and are
mathematically OR-ed together.</para>
</note>
<para>To further complicate matters, the external DMA address
latches on the PC/AT hold only eight bits, so that gives us
8+16=24 bits, which means that the DMA can only point at memory
locations between 0 and 16Meg. For newer computers that allow
more than 16Meg of memory, the standard PC-compatible DMA cannot
access memory locations above 16Meg.</para>
<para>To get around this restriction, operating systems will reserve
a RAM buffer in an area below 16Meg that also does not span a
physical 64K boundary. Then the DMA will be programmed to
transfer data from the peripheral and into that buffer. Once the
DMA has moved the data into this buffer, the operating system will
then copy the data from the buffer to the address where the data
is really supposed to be stored.</para>
<para>When writing data from an address above 16Meg to a DMA-based
peripheral, the data must be first copied from where it resides
into a buffer located below 16Meg, and then the DMA can copy the
data from the buffer to the hardware. In FreeBSD, these reserved
buffers are called &ldquo;Bounce Buffers&rdquo;. In the MS-DOS world, they
are sometimes called &ldquo;Smart Buffers&rdquo;.</para>
<note>
<para>A new implementation of the 8237, called the 82374, allows
16 bits of page register to be specified, allows access to the
entire 32 bit address space, without the use of bounce
buffers.</para>
</note>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>DMA Operational Modes and Settings</title>
<para>The 8237 DMA can be operated in several modes. The main ones
are:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term>Single</term>
<listitem>
<para>A single byte (or word) is transferred. The DMA must
release and re-acquire the bus for each additional byte.
This is commonly-used by devices that cannot transfer the
entire block of data immediately. The peripheral will
request the DMA each time it is ready for another
transfer.</para>
<para>The standard PC-compatible floppy disk controller (NEC
765) only has a one-byte buffer, so it uses this
mode.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>Block/Demand</term>
<listitem>
<para>Once the DMA acquires the system bus, an entire block
of data is transferred, up to a maximum of 64K. If the
peripheral needs additional time, it can assert the READY
signal to suspend the transfer briefly. READY should not
be used excessively, and for slow peripheral transfers,
the Single Transfer Mode should be used instead.</para>
<para>The difference between Block and Demand is that once a
Block transfer is started, it runs until the transfer
count reaches zero. DRQ only needs to be asserted until
-DACK is asserted. Demand Mode will transfer one more
bytes until DRQ is de-asserted, at which point the DMA
suspends the transfer and releases the bus back to the
CPU. When DRQ is asserted later, the transfer resumes
where it was suspended.</para>
<para>Older hard disk controllers used Demand Mode until CPU
speeds increased to the point that it was more efficient
to transfer the data using the CPU, particularly if the
memory locations used in the transfer were above the 16Meg
mark.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>Cascade</term>
<listitem>
<para>This mechanism allows a DMA channel to request the
bus, but then the attached peripheral device is
responsible for placing the addressing information on the
bus instead of the DMA. This is also used to implement a
technique known as &ldquo;Bus Mastering&rdquo;.</para>
<para>When a DMA channel in Cascade Mode receives control of
the bus, the DMA does not place addresses and I/O control
signals on the bus like the DMA normally does when it is
active. Instead, the DMA only asserts the -DACK signal
for the active DMA channel.</para>
<para>At this point it is up to the peripheral connected to
that DMA channel to provide address and bus control
signals. The peripheral has complete control over the
system bus, and can do reads and/or writes to any address
below 16Meg. When the peripheral is finished with the
bus, it de-asserts the DRQ line, and the DMA controller
can then return control to the CPU or to some other DMA
channel.</para>
<para>Cascade Mode can be used to chain multiple DMA
controllers together, and this is exactly what DMA Channel
4 is used for in the PC architecture. When a peripheral
requests the bus on DMA channels 0, 1, 2 or 3, the slave
DMA controller asserts HLDREQ, but this wire is actually
connected to DRQ4 on the primary DMA controller instead of
to the CPU. The primary DMA controller, thinking it has
work to do on Channel 4, requests the bus from the CPU
using HLDREQ signal. Once the CPU grants the bus to the
primary DMA controller, -DACK4 is asserted, and that wire
is actually connected to the HLDA signal on the slave DMA
controller. The slave DMA controller then transfers data
for the DMA channel that requested it (0, 1, 2 or 3), or
the slave DMA may grant the bus to a peripheral that wants
to perform its own bus-mastering, such as a SCSI
controller.</para>
<para>Because of this wiring arrangement, only DMA channels
0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 are usable with peripherals on
PC/AT systems.</para>
<note>
<para>DMA channel 0 was reserved for refresh operations in
early IBM PC computers, but is generally available for
use by peripherals in modern systems.</para>
</note>
<para>When a peripheral is performing Bus Mastering, it is
important that the peripheral transmit data to or from
memory constantly while it holds the system bus. If the
peripheral cannot do this, it must release the bus
frequently so that the system can perform refresh
operations on main memory.</para>
<para>The Dynamic RAM used in all PCs for main memory must
be accessed frequently to keep the bits stored in the
components &ldquo;charged&rdquo;. Dynamic RAM essentially consists of
millions of capacitors with each one holding one bit of
data. These capacitors are charged with power to
represent a <literal>1</literal> or drained to represent a <literal>0</literal>. Because
all capacitors leak, power must be added at regular
intervals to keep the <literal>1</literal> values intact. The RAM chips
actually handle the task of pumping power back into all of
the appropriate locations in RAM, but they must be told
when to do it by the rest of the computer so that the
refresh activity won't interfere with the computer wanting
to access RAM normally. If the computer is unable to
refresh memory, the contents of memory will become
corrupted in just a few milliseconds.</para>
<para>Since memory read and write cycles &ldquo;count&rdquo; as
refresh cycles (a dynamic RAM refresh cycle is actually an
incomplete memory read cycle), as long as the peripheral
controller continues reading or writing data to sequential
memory locations, that action will refresh all of
memory.</para>
<para>Bus-mastering is found in some SCSI host interfaces
and other high-performance peripheral controllers.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>Autoinitialize</term>
<listitem>
<para>This mode causes the DMA to perform Byte, Block or
Demand transfers, but when the DMA transfer counter
reaches zero, the counter and address are set back to
where they were when the DMA channel was originally
programmed. This means that as long as the peripheral
requests transfers, they will be granted. It is up to the
CPU to move new data into the fixed buffer ahead of where
the DMA is about to transfer it when doing output
operations, and read new data out of the buffer behind
where the DMA is writing when doing input
operations.</para>
<para>This technique is frequently used on audio devices
that have small or no hardware &ldquo;sample&rdquo; buffers. There
is additional CPU overhead to manage this &ldquo;circular&rdquo;
buffer, but in some cases this may be the only way to
eliminate the latency that occurs when the DMA counter
reaches zero and the DMA stops transfers until it is
reprogrammed.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Programming the DMA</title>
<para>The DMA channel that is to be programmed should always be
&ldquo;masked&rdquo; before loading any settings. This is because the
hardware might unexpectedly assert the DRQ for that channel, and
the DMA might respond, even though not all of the parameters have
been loaded or updated.</para>
<para>Once masked, the host must specify the direction of the
transfer (memory-to-I/O or I/O-to-memory), what mode of DMA
operation is to be used for the transfer (Single, Block, Demand,
Cascade, etc), and finally the address and length of the transfer
are loaded. The length that is loaded is one less than the amount
you expect the DMA to transfer. The LSB and MSB of the address
and length are written to the same 8-bit I/O port, so another port
must be written to first to guarantee that the DMA accepts the
first byte as the LSB and the second byte as the MSB of the length
and address.</para>
<para>Then, be sure to update the Page Register, which is external
to the DMA and is accessed through a different set of I/O
ports.</para>
<para>Once all the settings are ready, the DMA channel can be
un-masked. That DMA channel is now considered to be &ldquo;armed&rdquo;,
and will respond when the DRQ line for that channel is
asserted.</para>
<para>Refer to a hardware data book for precise programming details
for the 8237. You will also need to refer to the I/O port map for
the PC system, which describes where the DMA and Page Register
ports are located. A complete port map table is located
below.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>DMA Port Map</title>
<para>All systems based on the IBM-PC and PC/AT have the DMA
hardware located at the same I/O ports. The complete list is
provided below. Ports assigned to DMA Controller #2 are undefined
on non-AT designs.</para>
<sect3>
<title>0x00&ndash;0x1f DMA Controller #1 (Channels 0, 1, 2 and
3)</title>
<para>DMA Address and Count Registers</para>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols="3">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>0x00</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 starting address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x00</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 current address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x01</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 starting word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x01</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 remaining word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x02</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 starting address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x02</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 current address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x03</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 starting word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x03</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 remaining word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x04</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 starting address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x04</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 current address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x05</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 starting word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x05</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 remaining word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x06</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 starting address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x06</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 current address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x07</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 starting word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x07</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 remaining word count</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>DMA Command Registers</para>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols="3">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>0x08</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Command Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x08</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Status Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x09</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Request Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x09</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>-</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0a</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Single Mask Register Bit</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0a</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>-</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0b</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Mode Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0b</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>-</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0c</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Clear LSB/MSB Flip-Flop</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0c</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>-</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0d</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Master Clear/Reset</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0d</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Termporary Register (not available on newer
versions)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0e</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Clear Mask Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0e</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>-</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0f</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Write All Mask Register Bits</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x0f</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Read All Mask Register Bits (only in Intel
82374)</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>0xc0&ndash;0xdf DMA Controller #2 (Channels 4, 5, 6 and
7)</title>
<para>DMA Address and Count Registers</para>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols="3">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>0xc0</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 4 starting address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xc0</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 4 current address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xc2</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 4 starting word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xc2</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 4 remaining word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xc4</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 starting address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xc4</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 current address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xc6</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 starting word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xc6</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 remaining word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xc8</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 starting address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xc8</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 current address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xca</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 starting word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xca</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 remaining word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xcc</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 starting address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xcc</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 current address</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xce</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 starting word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xce</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 remaining word count</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>DMA Command Registers</para>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols="3">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>0xd0</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Command Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xd0</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Status Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xd2</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Request Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xd2</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>-</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xd4</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Single Mask Register Bit</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xd4</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>-</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xd6</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Mode Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xd6</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>-</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xd8</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Clear LSB/MSB Flip-Flop</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xd8</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>-</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xda</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Master Clear/Reset</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xda</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Termporary Register (not present in Intel
82374)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xdc</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Clear Mask Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xdc</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>-</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xde</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Write All Mask Register Bits</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0xdf</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Read All Mask Register Bits (only in Intel
82374)</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>0x80&ndash;0x9f DMA Page Registers</title>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols="3">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>0x87</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 Low byte (23-16) page Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x83</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 Low byte (23-16) page Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x81</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 Low byte (23-16) page Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x82</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 Low byte (23-16) page Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x8b</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 Low byte (23-16) page Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x89</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 Low byte (23-16) page Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x8a</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 Low byte (23-16) page Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x8f</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Low byte page Refresh</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>0x400&ndash;0x4ff 82374 Enhanced DMA Registers</title>
<para>The Intel 82374 EISA System Component (ESC) was introduced
in early 1996 and includes a DMA controller that provides a
superset of 8237 functionality as well as other PC-compatible
core peripheral components in a single package. This chip is
targeted at both EISA and PCI platforms, and provides modern DMA
features like scatter-gather, ring buffers as well as direct
access by the system DMA to all 32 bits of address space.</para>
<para>If these features are used, code should also be included to
provide similar functionality in the previous 16 years worth of
PC-compatible computers. For compatibility reasons, some of the
82374 registers must be programmed <emphasis>after</emphasis>
programming the traditional 8237 registers for each transfer.
Writing to a traditional 8237 register forces the contents of
some of the 82374 enhanced registers to zero to provide backward
software compatibility.</para>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols="3">
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>0x401</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 High byte (bits 23-16) word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x403</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 High byte (bits 23-16) word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x405</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 High byte (bits 23-16) word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x407</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 High byte (bits 23-16) word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4c6</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 High byte (bits 23-16) word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4ca</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 High byte (bits 23-16) word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4ce</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 High byte (bits 23-16) word count</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x487</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 High byte (bits 31-24) page
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x483</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 High byte (bits 31-24) page
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x481</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 High byte (bits 31-24) page
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x482</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 High byte (bits 31-24) page
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x48b</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 High byte (bits 31-24) page
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x489</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 High byte (bits 31-24) page
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x48a</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 High byte (bits 31-24) page
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x48f</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>High byte page Refresh</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4e0</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 Stop Register (bits 7-2)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4e1</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 Stop Register (bits 15-8)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4e2</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 Stop Register (bits 23-16)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4e4</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 Stop Register (bits 7-2)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4e5</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 Stop Register (bits 15-8)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4e6</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 Stop Register (bits 23-16)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4e8</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 Stop Register (bits 7-2)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4e9</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 Stop Register (bits 15-8)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4ea</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 Stop Register (bits 23-16)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4ec</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 Stop Register (bits 7-2)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4ed</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 Stop Register (bits 15-8)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4ee</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 Stop Register (bits 23-16)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4f4</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 Stop Register (bits 7-2)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4f5</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 Stop Register (bits 15-8)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4f6</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 Stop Register (bits 23-16)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4f8</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 Stop Register (bits 7-2)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4f9</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 Stop Register (bits 15-8)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4fa</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 Stop Register (bits 23-16)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4fc</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 Stop Register (bits 7-2)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4fd</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 Stop Register (bits 15-8)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4fe</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 Stop Register (bits 23-16)</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x40a</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channels 0-3 Chaining Mode Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x40a</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel Interrupt Status Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4d4</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channels 4-7 Chaining Mode Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x4d4</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Chaining Mode Status</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x40c</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Chain Buffer Expiration Control Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x410</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 Scatter-Gather Command Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x411</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 Scatter-Gather Command Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x412</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 Scatter-Gather Command Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x413</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 Scatter-Gather Command Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x415</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 Scatter-Gather Command Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x416</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 Scatter-Gather Command Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x417</entry>
<entry>write</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 Scatter-Gather Command Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x418</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 Scatter-Gather Status Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x419</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 Scatter-Gather Status Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x41a</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 Scatter-Gather Status Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x41b</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 Scatter-Gather Status Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x41d</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 Scatter-Gather Status Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x41e</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 Scatter-Gather Status Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x41f</entry>
<entry>read</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 Scatter-Gather Status Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x420-0x423</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 0 Scatter-Gather Descriptor Table Pointer
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x424-0x427</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 1 Scatter-Gather Descriptor Table Pointer
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x428-0x42b</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 2 Scatter-Gather Descriptor Table Pointer
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x42c-0x42f</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 3 Scatter-Gather Descriptor Table Pointer
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x434-0x437</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 5 Scatter-Gather Descriptor Table Pointer
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x438-0x43b</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 6 Scatter-Gather Descriptor Table Pointer
Register</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>0x43c-0x43f</entry>
<entry>r/w</entry>
<entry>Channel 7 Scatter-Gather Descriptor Table Pointer
Register</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
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