yay! more knowledge - Generic Local Bus
I figured this could use a separate post, yay for my (not so) slight OCD.
So, currently, the project I'm working on for work requires use of a device which bridges the PCI bus to a "Intel/Generic 32-bit local bus". doing a quick search online for that (and variations thereof) returned no pertinent results within the first two pages on google.
The datasheet for the component which implements this "Intel/Generic 32-bit local bus" is (only) 400 pages. There's a section that attempts to explain the way this local bus works, and there's some, I might add, very useful timing diagrams. I've perused all of this section and actually read a good portion of it without feeling comfortable about actually implementing this in a design.
sadly, this situation makes me feel like my scholastic experience so far has been (a little) lacking in teaching me the fundamentals to get by in the day-to-day life of an engineer. Regardless of the schools inabilities, I still need to have a better understanding of all this technology if I want to become a competent engineer.
So, is there something I missed, in the midst of the 100 dollar books, and sometimes several hundred dollar design kits that I had to buy for school? maybe it's time I cracked open those old boxes and did the homework I should have done then.
Maybe I'll actually implement a DMA controller on my old 8086 board to get a better idea how it functions. might be good practice, and I definitely have no idea what to do with the (obviously) DMA related signals on this component with the "Intel/Generic 32-bit local bus". since I'm not even using the DMA functionality, I'm guessing I probably just tie this stuff to ground or pull it up or something. Yet, I can't be sure of that and I'd prefer it works the first time =p
-Arthur
"learning all the engineery stuff, so you don't have to"
So, currently, the project I'm working on for work requires use of a device which bridges the PCI bus to a "Intel/Generic 32-bit local bus". doing a quick search online for that (and variations thereof) returned no pertinent results within the first two pages on google.
The datasheet for the component which implements this "Intel/Generic 32-bit local bus" is (only) 400 pages. There's a section that attempts to explain the way this local bus works, and there's some, I might add, very useful timing diagrams. I've perused all of this section and actually read a good portion of it without feeling comfortable about actually implementing this in a design.
sadly, this situation makes me feel like my scholastic experience so far has been (a little) lacking in teaching me the fundamentals to get by in the day-to-day life of an engineer. Regardless of the schools inabilities, I still need to have a better understanding of all this technology if I want to become a competent engineer.
So, is there something I missed, in the midst of the 100 dollar books, and sometimes several hundred dollar design kits that I had to buy for school? maybe it's time I cracked open those old boxes and did the homework I should have done then.
Maybe I'll actually implement a DMA controller on my old 8086 board to get a better idea how it functions. might be good practice, and I definitely have no idea what to do with the (obviously) DMA related signals on this component with the "Intel/Generic 32-bit local bus". since I'm not even using the DMA functionality, I'm guessing I probably just tie this stuff to ground or pull it up or something. Yet, I can't be sure of that and I'd prefer it works the first time =p
-Arthur
"learning all the engineery stuff, so you don't have to"