1.1 Overview
MIPS® Malta™ User’s Manual, Revision 01.07 9
Copyright © 2000-2007 MIPS Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.
The Core board shown in Figure 1.1 is a typical implementation. Though the Core Board is not strictly within the
scope of this document, it is worth noting that all Core Boards conform to the same interface specification, which is
described in Chapter 7, “Core Card Design” on page 49. Also worth noting is that most Core Boards generate their
own clock, independently of the PCI clock. Nothing on Malta is synchronized to the Core Board clock—the CBUS
protocol is asynchronous by nature. The CBUS allows the CPU to access peripherals, which either have to be avail-
able before the PCI bus has been configured (for example, the Flash memory from which it boots) or those that
require simple, low-latency access (for example, the debug LEDs and ASCII display, the tty2 port. and so on).
The PCI bus is 32-bit, 33 MHz PCI standard version 2.2 compliant (Reference [1]), and allows devices on the bus
DMA access to the DRAM on the Core Board. Four 5V PCI slots are provided on Malta to allow insertion of optional
peripherals (for example, a video controller), and also to provide a way of monitoring traffic on this bus. The PCI bus
contains the following components:
• Core Board connector for connection to the system controller on the Core Board.
• Intel PIIX4E South Bridge, 82371E (U9).
• AMD Ethernet controller, Am79C973 (U41).
• Crystal Audio controller, CS4281 (U23).
• Four 5V, 32 bit PCI connectors (J12-J15) that can be used for debug / trace purposes or for installation of a
PCI board.
The Malta Board has a PC-like structure with a South Bridge. An ISA bus is attached to the South Bridge for connec-
tion with the Super I/O (U11). The Super I/O contains the following components:
• PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse (J7).
• 1284 parallel port (J6).
• Two serial ports tty0 and tty1 (J6).
• Floppy drive, only drive A supported (J21).
The Monitor Flash is used to boot the system.
In addition to the YAMON monitor, the Malta Board includes a sample Linux port. BSPs for Microsoft® Windows®
CE, Nucleus Plus, and Windriver Systems VxWorks are also available.
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