M IGSY¶EIPROPOSED STANDARDFOR THE S-100 BUSPreliminary Spefiat 0 IEEE./s696AID2George Morrow, Thinker ToysHoward Fullmer, Parasitic Engineering, Inc.

Members, IEEE Computer Society Microprocessor Standards Committee

The computer bus commonlyknown as the S-100 was first intro-duced by MITS, Inc., with its Altairkit. This bus has since spreadthroughout the electronics industryand beyond. Today over a hundredmanufacturers make products whichclaim to be compatible with theS-100 bus even though-until now-no complete specification has beenavailable. The following table, fig-ures, and notes constitute the pre-liminary draft of a proposed stand-ard for the S-100 bus.

This document is a specification forboth timing and signal disciplines.Signal discipline is described usingthe bus master/bus slave languagelong associated with Digital Equip-ment Corporation's PDP-11. Thispoint of view facilitated the develop-ment of a simple and highly reliableDMA protocol, the extended addres-sing capabilities, and the 16-bit widedata path proposals. These exten-sions to the original Altair busrepresent a significant advance tothe state of the art of small com-puters and are a direct result of acontinuing dialogue with a largenumber of interested people whohave contributed their thoughts andideas to the standards committee.The extended address and dataproposals are compatible with sys-tems that don't use these features,including most existing systems.Signals which are defined or rede-fined for the extensions are indicatedby an asterisk.The preliminary specification will

be presented at the 1978 NCC inJune in Anaheim, California. Com-ments can be made at that time orby writing to George Morrow,

S-100 Bus Signal Definitions (preliminary-subject to revision)

PIN NO. SIGNAL NAME & TYPE POLARITY DESCRIPTION

0 -1t /R\t

2 +16volts(B)

3 XRDY (S)' '°

4

56789

1011

121314

151617

18

VIO (S)'°Vii (S)'°V12 (S)'°V13 (S)10V14 (S)10V15 (S)10V16 (S)'0V17 (S)0

Instantaneous minimum greater than7 volts, instantaneous maximum lessthan 25 volts, average maximum lessthan 11 volts.Instantaneous minimum greater than14 volts, instantaneous maximumless than 35 volts, averagemaximum less than 20 volts.

positive One of two ready inputs to thecurrent bus master. The bus isready when both these readyinputs are true.

negativenegativenegativenegativenegativenegativenegative

negative

negativeSTAT DSB (M)' '°

19 C/C DSB (M)10

20 UNPROT

21 SS22 ADD DSB (M)'°

Vectored interrupt line 0.

Vectored interrupt line 1.

Vectored interrupt line 2.

Vectored interrupt line 3.Vectored interrupt line 4.

Vectored interrupt line 5.Vectored interrupt line 6.

Vectored interrupt line 7.

Not specified.Not specified.Not specified.Not specified.Not specified.Not specified.The control signal to disablethe 9* status signals.2

negative The control signal to disable the6 command/control signals.3

- Not specified.

negative

Not specified.The control signal to disablethe 16 address signals.4

0018-9162/78/0500-0084$00.75 C 1978 IEEE

tO -'lt DJ]I

COM PUTER84

S-100 Bus Signal Definitions (preliminary-subject to revision)

PIN NO. SIGNAL NAME & TYPE POLARITY DESCRIPTION

23 DO DSB (M)10

24 +2 (B)

25

26 PHLDA (M)

27 PWAIT (M)

2829

3031

32

3334*35

PINTEA5 (M)A4 (M)A3 (M)A15 (M)

A12 (M)A9 (M)

negative The control signal to disablethe 8 data output signals.8

positive The master timing signal forthe bus.

- Not specified.

positive A command/control signal usedin conjunction with PHOLD tocoordinate bus master transferoperations.

positive The acknowledge signal to eitherof the bus ready signals XRDY,PRDY or to a HLT instruction.

positive Not specified.positive Address bit 5.

positive Address bit 4.

positive Address bit 3.

positive Address bit 15 (most significantfor non-extended addressing).

positive Address bit 12.

positive Address bit 9.D01 (M)/A17 (M)/DATA1 (M/S)11 12 positive

*36 DOO (M)/A16 (M)/DATAO (M/S)

37*38

Al0 (M)D04 (M)/A20 (M)/DATA4 (M/S)

*39 D05 (M)/A21 (M)/DATA5 (M/S)

*40 D06 (M)/A22 (M)/DATA6 (M/S)

*41 D12 (M)/DATA1O(M/S)6

*42 D13 (M)/DATA11 (M/S)

*43 Dl7 (M)/DATA15 (M/S)

44 SMi (M)

45 SOUT (M)

46 SINP (M)

47 SMEMR (M)

48 SHLTA (M)

Data out bit 1, extended addressbit 17, bidirectional data bit 1.

positive Data out bit 0, extended addressbit 16, bidirectional data bit 0(least significant).

positive Address bit 10.

positive Data out bit 4, extended addressbit 20, bidirectional data bit 4.

positive

positive

Data out bit 5, extended addressbit 21, bidirectional data bit 5.

Data out bit 6, extended addressbit 22, bidirectional data bit 6.

positive Data in bit 2, bidirectional databit 10.

positive Data in bit 3, bidirectional databit 11.

positive Data in bit 7, bidirectional databit 15 (most significant).

positive The status signal which indicatesthat the current cycle7 is anop-code fetch.

positive The status signal identifying thedata transfer bus cycle of an OUTinstruction.

positive The status signal identifying thedata transfer bus cycle of an INinstruction.

positive The status signal identifying buscycles which transfer data frommemory to a bus master which arenot interrupt acknowledgeinstruction fetch cycle(s).

positive The status signal which acknowl-edges that a HLT instruction hasbeen executed.

Cont'd on overleaf

Thinker Toys, 1201 10th Street,Berkeley, CA 94707 or to Robert G.Stewart, 1658 Belvoir Drive, LosAltos, CA 94022.The committee is currently con-

sidering proposals for DMA andinterrupt priority specifications.These will be made public in thenear future-perhaps at the NCCmeeting.

Bus signal notes (see table)

1. There are three types of signalson the S-100 bus. M stands for busmaster. Signals designated by (M)are those which a bus master mustgenerate. The bus master currentlycontrolling the bus has the responsi-bility for faithfully generating allsignals of type M during its controlof the bus.S stands for bus slave. A bus slave

need generate only that subset oftype S signals which are necessaryto communicate with bus masterswhich have the ability to addressthe slave.B stands for bus. Any bus signal

which is not of type M or S is bydefault type B. This is not to saythat some bus master is not in factgenerating one or more type B sig-nals. Rather a type B signal is onethat (a) not all bus masters arerequired to generate, and (b) not anybus slave is required to generate.A bus master is, by definition, a

bus device which generates at leastall of the type M signals. A busslave is a bus device which generatessome subset of type S signals. A busmaster may also be a bus slave andvice-versa. Memory devices arealmost always bus slaves whileDMA devices are usually both abus master (data transfers) and abus slave (accepting commands).Central processing units are usuallybus masters.

2. The 9* status signals areSMEMR, SINP, SM1, SOUT,SHLTA, SSTACK (not specified),SWO, SINTA, and SXTRQ.

3. The 6 command/control sig-nals are PHLDA, PSYNC, PDBIN,PINTE (not specified), PWR, andPWAIT.

4. The 16 address signals areA15, A14, A13, A12, All, A10, A9,A8, A7, A6, A5, A4, A3, A2, Al,and AO.

5. Data output is specified relativeto a bus master. By definition, datawhich is transmitted by a bus

Preliminary-Subject to RevisionMay 1978 85

master is always data output andoccurs on the DO bus or DATA*bus.

6. Data input is specified relativeto a bus master. By definition, datawhich is received by a bus master isalways data input and occurs on theDI bus or DATA* bus.

7. A bus cycle is a collection ofbus states (BSa). A bus cycle alwaysstarts with a BS, state which isfollowed by a BS2 state. After BS2comes an indeterminate number ofBS,,. (bus wait) states. A bus cyclemay have zero BS,,. states or it mayhave an arbitrarily large number ofBS,,. states. BS3 is the bus statewhich follows BS,, (or BS2 if thereare no BS,,. states present). BS3 isfollowed by zero or more BS; (busidle) states. A BS3 or BSi stateterminates a bus cycle.

8. The DO bus is the following setof signals: D07, D06, D05, D04,D03, D02, DO1, and DO0.

9. The DI bus is the following setof signals: D17, D16, D15, D14, D13,D12, DI, and DIO.

10. These signals should be gen-erated by an open collector busdriver capable of sinking at least24 mA at no more than 0.5 volts.*11. During the last half of busstate 1 and the first half of busstate 2, the DO lines are used tofurnish extended addressing toslaves that can utilize this informa-tion.*12. For 16-bit masters and slaves,the DI and DO lines gang togetherto form a 16-bit bidirectional databus called DATAO-15. The DO linescarry the low-order byte while theDI lines accommodate the high-orderbyte. The configuration of the DIand DO buses is governed by thesignals SXTRQ and SIXTN. Whenboth these signals are low, the DIand DO lines become bidirectional.Otherwise, DI carries the data tothe current master while DO carriesdata to the addressed slave.

Signal characteristics

Bus drivers must sink at least24 mA at no- more than 0.5 volts.Except for open collector drivers,they must source at least 2 mA atno less than 2.4 volts.Bus receivers must have diode

clamps to prevent excessive nega-tive excursions. Any bus signal lessthan 0.8 volts must be recognizedas a logic zero, and any signal more

S-100 Bus Signal Definitions (preliminary-subject to revision)

PIN NO. SIGNAL NAME & TYPE POLARITY DESCRIPTION

49 CLOCK (B)

50 GND51 +8volts(B)52 -16 volts (B)

53 SSWI54 ET CR

5556

5758

*59

60*61

626364656667

- 2 MHz, 40-60% duty cycle. Notrequired to be synchronous withany other bus signals.Signal and power ground.See comments for pin number 1.Instantaneous maximum less than- 14 volts, instantaneous minimumgreater than - 35 volts, averageminimum greater than - 20 volts.

negativeNot specified.A reset signal to rest bus slaves.When this signal goes low, it muststay low for at least 3 bus states.

- Not specified.- Not specified.

SXTRQ (M) negative

SIXTN (S) negative

Not specified.Not specified.The status signal which requests16-bit wide slaves to respondby asserting SIXTN.Not specified.The signal generated by 16-bitslaves in response to the 16-bitrequest status signal SXTRQ.Not specified.

- Not specified.- Not specified.

Not specified.Not specified.

PHANTOM (B)

68 MWRITE (B)

69 p70 PROT71 RUN72 PRDY (S)'073 PINT (S)'°

74 PHOLD(M)10

75 PRESET (B)10

than 2 volts must be interpreted asa logic one.Receivers are to source no more

than 0.8 mA at 0.5 volts and are to

negative A bus signal which disables normalslave devices and enables phantomslaves-primarily used forbootstrapping systems withouthardware front panels.

positive MWRITE = ( MR) . SOUT. Thissignal must follow PWR by notmore than 30 ns.

positivenegative

Not specified.Not specified.Not specified.See comments for pin number 3.The primary interrupt requestbus signal.

negative The command/control signal used inconjunction with PHLDA to coordinatebus master transfer operations.

negative The reset signal to reset bus masterdevices. When this signal goes low,it must stay low for at least 3 busstates.

sink no more than 80 HiA at 2.4volts. The capacitance load of aninput from the bus must not exceed25 pF.

Preliminary-Subject to Revision86 COMPUTER

S-100 Bus Signal Definitions (preliminary-subject to revision)

PIN NO. SIGNAL NAME & TYPE POLARITY DESCRIPTION

76 PSYNC (M)

77 PWR (M)

78

798081828384858687

*88

positive The command/control signal identify-ing BS,. (See bus state comments.)

negative The command/control signal signify-ing the presence of valid data onDO bus8 or DATA* bus.'2

positive The command/control signal thatrequests data on the Dl bus9 orDATA* bus12 from the currentlyaddressed slave.

PDBIN (M)

AO (M)Al (M)A2 (M)

A6 (M)A7 (M)A8 (M)A13 (M)A14 (M)All (M)D02 (M)/A18 (M)/DATA2 (M/S)

*89 D03 (M)/A19 (M)/DATA3 (M/S)

*90 D07 (M)/A23 (M)/DATA7 (M/S)

*91

*92

D14 (S)/DATA12 (M/S)

D15 (S)/DATA13 (M/s)

*93 D16 (S)/DATA14 (M/S)

*94 DIl (S)/DATA9 (M/S)

*95 DID (S)/DATA8 (M/S)

96 SINTA (M)

97 SWO (M)

98 SSTACK99 POC (B)

positivepositivepositivepositivepositivepositivepositivepositivepositivepositive

positive

positive

Address bit 0 (least significant).Address bit 1.

Address bit 2.

Address bit 6.Address bit 7.

Address bit 8.

Address bit 13.Address bit 14.Address bit 11.

Data out bit 2, extended addressbit 18, and bidirectional data bit 2.

Data out bit 3, extended addressbit 19, and bidirectional data bit 3.Data out bit 7 (most significant for8-bit data), extended address bit 23,and bidirectional data bit 7.

positive Data in bit 4 and bidirectional databit 12.

positive

positive

Data in bit 5 and bidirectional databit 13.Data in bit 6 and bidirectional databit 14.

positive Data in bit 1 and bidirectional databit 9.

positive Data in bit 0 (least significant for8-bit data) and bidirectional databit 8.

positive The status signal identifying theinstruction fetch cycle(s) that imme-diately follow an accepted interruptrequest presented on PINT.

negative The status signal identifying a buscycle which transfers data from abus master to a slave.

negative

100 GND

Bus state comments

BS, is the initial bus state of a

bus cycle. The address lines, data

Not specified.The power-on clear signal for all busdevices; when this signal goes low,it must stay low for at least 3 busstates.

Signal and power ground.

and sta'tus, are in a state of fluxduring most of BS,, and PSYNCis active starting with the secondhalf of BS,.

BS2 is the second bus state whenaddress data, status, and ready sig-nals become stable.BS. states occur as needed to

synchronize a bus master with a busslave which has brought one of theready lines false.BS3 is the data transfer state

when a bus master transfers datato a slave or vice-versa.BSi is a state during which the

bus is idle.

Timing notes

All timing references in the tim-ing diagrams (Figures 1 and 2) arespecified at the midpoint of therising or falling edge of the signal.Rise and fall times are not to exceed50 ns.All signals referred to in the tim-

ing diagrams are S-100 bus signalswith the exceptions in Note 6.

1. The falling edge of PWR mustoccur within the area shown. Therising edge must occur within asimilar area of the next bus state.

2. BSa is either BS2 or BS,.3. Addresses, data output, and

status signals must remain stableduring BSW.

4. The interrupt lines must besampled, by the CPU or interruptcontroller, during the stable periodshown in the bus state precedingBS, of an op-code fetch. This doesnot imply that the interrupt linemust be stable during this period.However, if an interrupt line isasserted true during this period,then- it is not defined whether an

interrupt will occur before the nextinstruction is executed. Once aninterrupt line is asserted true, itshould remain true until the CPUresponds. Normally, this responsewould be an I/O instruction thataddresses the interrupting device.

5. The rising edge of PWAITmust occur within the area shown.The falling edge must occur withina similar area following the risingedge of the logical AND of PRDYand XRDY.

6. Signals prefixed by "DMA"r-efer to internal logic of the new

bus master. These signals controlthe buffers of this bus master whichdrive the command and control,status, address, and data outputbus lines. The timing diagramdepicts logic levels which are highwhen these buffers are disabled.

Preliminary-Subject to Revision 87May 1978

BSa? BS,, W BSa. BS,

.I

I 54t<140-..1 5<t 1440--1-t9500 7 t>0

04 K150- 0-o<t<10oo >

PRXR

t>50-.] tz5O]5 t550ODY andLDY 1 m

t_>o - 100 - - ta100

PWAIT I

PINTV0

t>,901 1 t>5-1

V17-0 E

i

(c) Interrupt and wait timing.

BSae 8SOUI I -n

BS, ID /S7) NI

(d) Bus exchange timing.

(b) Memory or IlO write.

BS, BS2 BS

| t<25Q L EXTENDED ADDRESS

DO/A23-16:

PDBINII

_4tI0I

l ~~~~I,*(e) Extended addressing.

Figure 1. S.100 bus timing, in nanoseconds, for (a) memory or llO read, (b) memory or llO write, (c) interrupt and wait,(d) bus exchange, and *(e) extended addressing (preliminary-subject to revision).

I

(a) Memory or 1/0 read.

I BS, BS2 BS3I ~~~~I

Preliminary-Subject to Revision88 COMPUTER

7. BSp is either BS3 or BSi.8. BSY is either BSi or BS,.

*9. Extended address bits A16through A23 are multiplexed onthe DO lines. They must occur asshown within 250 ns after the risingedge of +2 during BS,. During awrite, data must appear on theselines 100 ns before PWR is active.The PWR signal can be asserted assoon as 5 ns after the rising edgeof +2 during BS2. Therefore, underworst case conditions, the extendedaddresses are on the bus for 155 ns.Masters can generate PWR later asshown. This would allow the ex-tended addresses to be on the buslonger. However, slaves should bedesigned to correctly respond inthe worst case situation.*10. To avoid conflict on the DOlines during a 16-bit read, similarto the situation described in Note 9above, the extended addresses mustbe removed from the DO lines beforethe rising edge of PDBIN.

LAST PROPOSED DMA CYCLE NEXTCPU CYCLE ----hCPU CYCLE

BS3 BS, BS BS BS, BS,1 1 ~2 31 4 51 6 7 1 8

PHOLD

PHLDA

PSYNC

PDBIN

Figure 2. Proposed DMA protocol (preliminary-subject to revision).

Direct memory accessrequirements

A DMA cycle is a special caseof a bus master taking over the bus

to execute a memory read or writecycle. A DMA device is requiredto generate all type M (bus master)signals on the bus, and control thebus exchange.

Cont'd on overleaf

MicroprocessorStandards Discussed

Proposed standards for instructionsets, relocatable software, floating pointarithmetic, and buses were consideredin an open meeting of the IEEE Com-puter Society's Microprocessor Stand-ards Committee, chaired by Robert G.Stewart.' The meeting, held duringCompcon Spring, attracted an audienceof about 30 people. The committeehopes to complete most of the IEEEstandards approval process by the endof the year.The second draft of the Standard for

Microprocessor Instructions and Assem-blers, presented by Wayne Fischer, pro-posed uniform requirements for instruc-tion names and mnemonics, operandsyntax, and comments, as well as rulesfor generating new mnemonics. Theneed for this standard is revealed by thefact that the several manufacturers of8080-like microprocessors now use dif-ferent mnemonics for semantically iden-tical instructions. Standardization of thisarea will make it easier for users to learnanother microprocessor and to transportassembler programs.Tom Pittman identified several aspects

of the relocatable software format task.Software for 8080-like microprocessors

such as the 8080A, 8085, and Z-80could have moveable object code. Dif-ferent operating systems assume mem-ory to be in different places. Objectmodules from new, higher-order lan-guages should run under the "old"operating systems. ObjeCt modulesshould be combined by a linker ratherthan by re-assembly.

Based on a sample of six formats,Pittman found that presently availableformats seem to be language dependentand have insufficient flexibility. Thereseems to be an implied "standard" linkerfor which the choices are to build onan existing format or define a new one.However, there seems to be no one,suitable existing format and willingnessto define a new format is lacking sofar on the part of some major micro,processor manufacturers, at least on anindustry basis.The base material for the floating point

task was a proposal from Intel.2 DickDelp identified the key factors as trade-off between speed and mathematicalrigor, processor independence of format,and level of implementation. The com-mittee resolved most issues, micropro-cessor independence, for examp!e, infavor of rigor.The microprocessor bus task includes

two board-level buses, the Intel Multibusand the S-100 bus, and a componentlevel bus, the Microbus from NationalSemiconductor.

George Morrow pointed out thatproducts for the S-100 bus now beingsupplied by some 150 vendors are notreally compatible. The current work isprimarily to specify existing practiceusing master/slave concepts. Newground in the form of a DMA protocolhas been broken.

Extending the S-100 bus to 24 addressbits and 16 data bits was recommendedby Dave Gustavson. Exactly how thiswill be done is presently under consider-ation.The component-level Microbus is

intended to be processor independentand to be used by systems of less thanten integrated circuits, according toGordon Force. The specification, in worksince last summer, will emphasize ACtiming characteristics.

Drafts of proposed standards will beavailable by writing to the committeechairman, Robert G. Stewart, 1658Belvair Drive, Los Altos, CA 94022.Some drafts will be published inComputer as they near final form. M

References1. Robert G. Stewart, "Standards For Micro-

processors," Computer, Vol. 11, No. 3,March 1978, pp. 65-66.

2. John F. Palmer, "The Intel Standard ForFloating-Point Arithmetic," Proc. Compsac77, pp. 107-112.

Preliminary-Subject to RevisionMay 1978 89

The bus exchange. PHOLD is thesignal used by one bus master torequest that another bus master giveup control of the bus. PHOLIE mustnot be asserted true unless PHLDAis false.One bus master (CPU) relinquishes

control of the bus to another (DMA)as shown in the bus exchange timingdiagram. The DMA device mustcontrol the CPU's bus driversthrough the use of ADD DSB, DODSB, STAT DSB, and C/C DSB. Itmust also control its own bus driversthrough the use of signals similarto those shown in Note 6.The CPU (current master) and the

DMA device (new master) must both

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drive the command and control sig-nals for at least 200 ns at two dif-ferent periods as shown in the busexchange timing diagram. Duringthese two times, the command andcontrol signals are required to havethe following levels: (1) PSYNC = 0;(2) PWAIT = 0; (3) PHLDA = 1;(4) PDBIN = 0; and (5) PWR = 1.

The DMA cycle timing sequencewhich follows is a suggested imple-mentation that meets all the require-ments of the generalized bus exchangetiming. The sequence is controlledby the edges of +2. At some previoustime, PHOLD was asserted accord-ing to the limitations described in

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the first paragraph of this section.PHLDA is asserted true by the CPUduring BS3 of the last CPU buscycle. The bus exchange begins onthe falling edge of +2 while'PHLDAis true (labeled 1 on the timingdiagram). The DMA bus cycle thenproceeds as described in the follow-ing section. At edge 8 of +2 PHOLDis driven false by the DMA deviceand henceforth the CPU is againin control of the bus.

Proposed DMA cycle sequence.+2 edge:1. CPU address and data bus

drivers turned off. DMA commandand control drivers turned on. TheCPU and DMA command and con-trol signals must match the levelsdescribed in the previous section.

2. CPU status and command andcontrol drivers turned off. 'DMAaddress, data output, and statusdr'ivers turned on. PSYNC = 1.

3. No change.4. PSYNC = 0. PDBIN = 1 if

memory read or PWR= 0 if mem-ory write.

5. No change.6. PDBIN = 0andPWR = 1.7. CPU command and control

drivers turned on. DMA address anddata output drivers turned off.

8. CPU address, data output, andstatus drivers turned on. DMAstatus and command and controldrivers turned off. PHOLD =1.Multiple data transfers can occur

by repeating steps 2 through 6. E

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank the othermembers 'of the MicroprocessorStandards Committee for their sup-port and invaluable comments.Special thanks to Robert Stewartwho is chairman of the committee.His leadership and organizationalskills have been a great aid to allof us.

We would also like to extend ourthanks to Kells Elmquist and SteveEdleman of Ithaca Audio. Both ofthese gentlemen flew out to theSecond Computer Faire to discusstheir ideas about S-100 bus exten-sions with us. Several of their ideaswere truly inspirational. Their intel-lectual prodding was the force whichcreated the extended addressingand the bidirectional data bus pro-posals.

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