Timer, DMA controller, Interrupt controller built into the architecture?

discussion of forwardcom instruction set and corresponding hardware and software

Moderator: agner

Post Reply
HubertLamontagne
Posts: 80
Joined: 2017-11-17, 21:39:51

Timer, DMA controller, Interrupt controller built into the architecture?

Post by HubertLamontagne »

One important part of how the PC became common was the standardized timers, dma controllers and interrupt controllers based on the chips IBM used in early PCs:
- Intel 8237 DMA controller (x2 in PC AT)
- Intel 8259 IRQ controller (x2 in PC AT)
- Intel 8253/8254 timer

On modern PCs these were supplemented by newer devices with the same role (HPET timer, APIC interrupt ctl., bus-mastered multi-block dma).

Would it make sense to directly specify a basic set of this kind of devices in the Forwardcom spec?
Post Reply