VME Bus

Vinay Shet
Introduction
• VME - Versa Module Europa
• Flexible, open-ended bus system using the
Eurocard Standard
• Introduced by Motorola, Mostek and Signetics
in 1981
• It was intended to be a flexible environment,
supporting a variety of computing intensive
tasks.
• Defined in IEEE 1014-1987 standard
Introduction
• In 1981, Motorola decided to second source
the MC68000 microprocessor chip
• Motorola proposed the use of VERSA bus
backplane
• However, the others rejected this proposal
saying that the VERSA bus board size was
much too large
• In response, Motorola proposed that they use
the (much smaller) Eurocard board instead
Introduction
• VERSA bus electrical specifications and
Eurocard mechanical specifications
VME bus features
• Master / slave architecture

Functional unit Data Functional unit

called MASTER called SLAVE

• Since multiple Masters can reside on the bus,

it is a MULTIPROCESSING bus
• Can take from 1 to 21 Masters
VME bus features
• Asynchronous bus – there is no central
synchronization clock (uses handshaking
protocol)
Data
MASTER SLAVE
Address
Control signals
MASTER SLAVE

DTACK
MASTER SLAVE
• Advantages?
VME bus features
• Addressing
• Provides variety of address spaces and data
widths – Dynamic address and data sizing
• Makes no distinction between IO space and
Memory space
• Uses three address spaces
• 16-bit (A16)
• 24-bit (A24)
• 32-bit (A32)
• 6 bit address modifier code is used to distinguish
between these address spaces
VME bus features
• Data Transfer
• Provides variety of data widths – Dynamic data sizing
• Data transfer sizes can be
• 8-bit
• 16-bit
• 32-bit
• Data transfer cycles can be Single Cycle or Block Transfer
• Single Cycle – Address is sent with each data transfer
• Block Transfer – one address is sent with multiple data
transfers
VME bus features
• Data Transfer Cycles
• Single cycles – D8(O), D8(EO), D16, D32 and
MD32
• Block Transfer – BLT, MBLT, A40BLT
• Mixing different address and data widths
• You can use different address and data widths
based on the application
• Common examples
• A16/D8(O) – simple IO boards
• A32/D32 – high performance modules
VME bus features
• Data Transfer Speed

 Topology Bus Cycle Maximum Speed

VMEbus
BLT 40 Mbyte/sec
IEEE-1014

 VME64  MBLT 80 Mbyte/sec

VME64x 2eVME 160 Mbyte/sec

320 - 500+
VME320 2eSST
Mbyte/sec
VME bus features
• Byte Ordering
• VME bus does not specify byte ordering
• Most devices use the Motorola model which is big
endian, but the Digital model is little endian
• Two models are provided to accomplish byte
swapping
• VMS bus adapter
• Software interfaces
VME bus features
• Interrupts Vectors
• VME bus interrupt vectors range from 0x00
to 0xFF, inclusive.
• The bus adapter consumes some of these
adapters and area not available to the
device drivers
• Interrupt Priorities
• Seven interrupt priorities (IRQ1 through
IRQ 7 – IRQ7 highest priority)
VME bus features
• Bus Arbitration
• With single master, life is easy – when system
boots, the master asks for the bus, gets it and
keeps it.
• VME provides 4 separate bus request levels
• Two or more masters can request the bus at the
same time on the same request level
• If multiple requests on same level then proximity to
slot one is used to determine who will get the bus
VME bus features
• Bus Arbitration
• E.g M(3) and M(7) request on level 1 at
same time M(3) will get the bus first
• M(7) has to wait until M(3) has finished and
then assuming no one form slot 1 – 6
requests then M(7) gets bus
• Arbitration is done by the System
Controller – always resides in slot 1
VME bus features
• Bus Arbitration
• Arbitration can be set up in
• Priority mode
• Round robin mode
• Single level mode
• Releasing the bus
• RWD – Release when done
• ROR – Release on request (usually
implemented in H/W hence faster)
VME bus features
• Bus Arbitration
• Fairness
• In heavily loaded system, first four boards can
hog the bus and starve the rest.
• To prevent this – bus requesters are
programmed to request bus only when bus
request lines are not asserted – Fairness
• This ensures that all boards – even in a heavily
loaded system – eventually get the bus
VME bus features
• Live insertion capability
• Electronic module can be removed and inserted in
the system when the power is on
• Also known as Hot Swap
• Typical Board de-allocation Process
• System admin software disables new connections to
board’s device driver
• System waits for all connections to terminate or forces
existing connections to terminate
VME bus features
• VMEbus System Controller
• Resides in slot 1
• Bus Arbitration
• Provides 16 MHz system clock (SYSCLK)
• Provides the interrupt acknowledge (IACK) daisy chain
driver
• VMEbus Daisy Chains
• Five daisy chain signals on VME bus – four used for
bus arbitration and one for interrupt acknowledge
• Bus arbitration done using 4 bus request lines and 4
bus grant in/out lines
VME bus features

• VME bus standard specifies two board

sizes
• 3U – 100mm x 160mm – one connector P1
• 6U – 233.5mm x 160mm – two connectors
P1, P2

•VME bus P2/J2 user defined pins

 VME bus features
• Summary of features

Item Specification Notes

Architecture Master/slave  

Asynchronous, with both multiplexed and non-

Transfer Mechanism There is no central synchronization clock.
multiplexed bus cycles.

Addressing Range 16, 24, 32, 40 or 64-bit Address path width selected dynamically.

8, 16, 24, 32 or 64-bit

Data Path Width Data path width selected dynamically.

Data Transfer Rate 0 - 500+ Mbyte/sec See Table

 VME bus features
• Summary of features
Priority interrupt system with 8, 16 or 32-bit
Interrupts 7 levels
STATUS/ID (interrupt vector).

Multiprocessing Flexible bus arbitration with true peer-to-peer

1 - 21 processors
Capability multiprocessing.

Item Specification Notes

Architecture Master/slave  

Asynchronous, with both multiplexed and non-

Transfer Mechanism There is no central synchronization clock.
multiplexed bus cycles.

Addressing Range 16, 24, 32, 40 or 64-bit Address path width selected dynamically.
VME bus features
• Summary of features
Data Path Width 8, 16, 24, 32 or 64-bit Data path width selected dynamically.

Data Transfer Rate 0 - 500+ Mbyte/sec See Table

Priority interrupt system with 8, 16 or 32-bi

Interrupts 7 levels
STATUS/ID (interrupt vector).

Multiprocessing Flexible bus arbitration with true peer-to-pe

1 - 21 processors
Capability multiprocessing.

Live Insertion
Yes Using optional standards.
Capability

Control & Status

Registers Yes Under VME64 & VME64x
VME bus features
• Summary of features
3U single-height Eurocard 160 x 100 mm Eurocard
Mechanical Standard 6U double-height Eurocard 160 x 233 mm Eurocard
9U (optional standard) 367 x 400 mm Eurocard

Through the Front Panel

User Defined I/O Yes
and P2/J2 User Defined Pins

Conduction Cooled
Version Yes Under IEEE 1101.2
(Military)

Maximum Number of The number of cards is limited by how many

Card Slots in 21 boards, located on 0.8" centers, can be
Backplane placed into a 19" rack panel.
Original VME bus spec
• MASTER/SLAVE architecture
• Asynchronous bus
• Variable speed handshaking protocol
• Non-multiplexed bus
• Addressing range between 16 and 32 bits
• Data path widths of between 8 and 32 bits
• Bandwidths of up to 40 Mbyte/sec
• Multiprocessing capability
• Interrupt capability
Original VME bus spec
• Wide variety of mechanical hardware
based on the IEEE 1101 standard
• Up to 21 card slots can be used in a
single backplane
VME64 features
• Larger, 64-bit data path for 6U boards
• Larger, 64-bit addressing range for 6U boards
• 32-bit data and 40 bit addressing modes for 3U
boards
• Twice the bandwidth (up to 80Mbytes/sec)
• Lower noise connector system
• Cycle retry capability
• Bus LOCK cycle
• First slot detector
VME64 features
• Automatic plug-n-play features
• Configuration ROM / CSR capability
• Re-definition of SERCLK and SERDAT
pins
VME64x features
• A new 160 pin connector family
• A 95 pin P0/J0 connector
• 3.3 V power supply pins
• More +5 VDC power supply pins
• Geographical addressing
• Higher bandwidth bus cycles
• 141 more user defined pins
• Rear plug-in units
• Live insertion / hot swap capability
• Injector / ejector locking handles
VME bus software
• VME bus has the lasrgest software
base of any computer architecture
• There are 103 known commercial
operating systems running on VME bus
– other propreitary Operating systems
are also known to exist
VME bus architecture
• VME architecture is usually described
interms of its functional modules
• See table 3
VME bus architecture
• Various functional units communicate
with each other over five sub-buses
• See table 4
VME bus architecture
• Bus cycles are impressed upon the sub-
buses
• The standard VME bus cycle is the
READ/WRITE cycle.
• See table 5
Multi Crate operation
• Max size of VME bus backplanes is 21
slots
• If more slots are needed there are two
ways of achieving this
• Use a VME bus-to-VME bus bridge cardset
• Use a pair of “reflective memory” card
Applications
• Industrial Control
• Military
• Aerospace
• Transportation
• Telecom
• Simulation
• Medical
• High energy physics
• General business
Links
• IEEE 1014-1987 standard specification
• www.vita.com/vmefaq
• www.hitex.com/automation/FAQ/vmefaq