
VIA Technologies, Inc.
A
RCHITECTURAL
O
VERVIEW
Preliminary
VT83C469
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The VT83C469 functional blocks include the PCMCIA/JEIDA PC Card socket interface, ISA interface, memory and
I/O window mapping, socket power management, interrupt steering, configuration registers and ATA mode
operation.
PCMCIA/JEIDA PC Card Socket Interface
The PCMCIA/JEIDA interface consists of 60 signals and 8 power connections that interfaces to PC Cards through a
68 pin socket. A single VT83C469 can be configured to support either one or two sockets. Up to eight PC Card
sockets may be supported by cascading VT83C469 chips. This chip supports memory, I/O and ATA card
interchangeably.
ISA Interface
The VT83C469 interfaces directly to the ISA bus. No external buffers or transceivers are needed. For systems based
on the 386SL, this chip provides the special signals INTR, RIO#, PWRGOOD, HDREQ, HDACK#, HTC, DREQ#,
DACK, TC#, HBUFDIR, LBUFDIR, D7BUFDIR, A_5VDECT AND B_5VDECT.
Memory and I/O Window Mapping
Multiple PC cards in a system could conflict if they try to utilize the same system memory and I/O space. The
VT83C469 allows the drivers to map a memory card into up to five separate windows and an I/O card into two
separate windows, thus avoiding system configuration conflicts.
The VT83C469 provides memory paging, memory address mapping for PC card attribute and common memory, and
I/O address mapping. The VT83C469 includes registers which provide access to the card information structure and
card configuration registers within PC card's attribute memory (as described by the PCMCIA/JEIDA PC Card
Standard).
Power Management for Socket Side and Core
At power on, if there is no card plugged into any socket, power to the socket is turned off. When a card is inserted,
one of two events occur. If the chip has been set for automatic power on, then the VT83C469 automatically enables
the power to socket. If the VT83C469 has been configured to cause management interrupts for card detection events,
a management interrupt is generated to inform driver of the fact that a card was installed. Software driver can then
initialize the card, or in the case of manual power detection, power the socket up manually and then initialize it.
When a card is removed from a socket, and if the VT83C469 has been configured for automatic power on, the
VT83C469 automatically disables VCC and VPP supplies to the socket.
Interrupt Steering
The VT83C469 steers the interrupt from the PC card to one of ten system interrupts. Multiple PC cards in a system
can conflict if they try to utilize the same interrupt level. The VT83C469 can be programmed to eliminate this
conflict by steering each PC card interrupt request to a different system interrupt.
Configuration Registers
The VT83C469 provides a register containing interface identity and version information for each socket.
ATA Mode Operation
The VT83C469 supports direct connection to AT attached interface hard drives. ATA drives use an interface that is
very similar to the IDE interface found on many popular portable computers. In this mode, the address and data
conflict with the floppy drive is handled automatically.