The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 04, 2000
Filed:
Feb. 04, 1997
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A computer system is presented having a mechanism for re-configuring the size of a data bus which links memory and/or input/output devices, or which links those devices to an execution unit. The mechanism includes a microcontroller embodying an chip select unit and a bus interface unit. The chip select unit allows computer system initiation from an upper memory address space occupied by a ROM. Thereafter, middle and lower memory address spaces occupied by RAM can be accessed by either an 8-bit or a 16-bit data bus, that data bus being either separate from or multiplexed with an address bus. The size of RAM can be configured in accordance with the data bus size which accesses RAM. Input/output address space can also be adjusted depending upon the data bus size which accesses input/output peripherals. The microcontroller thereby includes chip select signals which select the various memory devices and the input/output device, and further includes a bus interface unit which programmably chooses either 8-bit or 16-bit accesses to those selected devices.