Chip Select Lines
AT91X40 Series
The EBI provides up to eight chip select lines:
• Chip select lines NCS0 - NCS3 are dedicated to the EBI (not multiplexed).
• Chip select lines CS4 - CS7 are multiplexed with the top four address lines A23 -
A20.
By exchanging address lines for chip select lines, the user can optimize the EBI to suit
the external memory requirements: more external devices or larger address range for
each device.
The selection is controlled by the ALE field in EBI_MCR (Memory Control Register). The
following combinations are possible:
A20, A21, A22, A23 (configuration by default)
A20, A21, A22, CS4
A20, A21, CS5, CS4
A20, CS6, CS5, CS4
CS7, CS6, CS5, CS4
Figure 7. Memory Connections for Four External Devices
NCS0 - NCS3
NRD
EBI
NWRx
A0 - A23
D0 - D15
NCS3
Memory Enable
NCS2
Memory Enable
NCS1
Memory Enable
NCS0
Memory Enable
Output Enable
Write Enable
8 or 16
A0 - A23
D0 - D15 or D0 - D7
Note: For four external devices, the maximum address space per device is 16M bytes.
21
1354D–ATARM–08/02