FEATURES & FUNCTIONAL BLOCK DIAGRAM OF 8259 PROCESSOR

1. It is programmed to work with either 8085 or 8086 processor. 

2. It manage 8-interrupts according to the instructions written into its control registers.

3.  In  8086  processor,  it  supplies  the  type  number  of  the  interrupt  and  the  type  number  is programmable.  In  8085  processor,  the  interrupt  vector  address  is  programmable.  The priorities of the interrupts are programmable.

4. The interrupts can be masked or unmasked individually.

5. The 8259s can be cascaded to accept a maximum of 64 interrupts.

FUNCTIONAL BLOCK DIAGRAM OF 8259:

•    It has eight functional blocks. They are,

1.   Control logic

2.   Read Write logic

3.   Data bus buffer

4.   Interrupt Request Register (IRR)

5.   In-Service Register (ISR)

6.   Interrupt Mask Register (IMR)

7.   Priority Resolver (PR)

8.   Cascade buffer.

The data bus and its buffer are used for the following activities.

1.   The processor sends control word to data bus buffer through D0-D7.

2.   The processor read status word from data bus buffer through D0-D7.

3.  From the  data  bus  buffer  the  8259  send  type  number  (in  case  of  8086)  or  the  call opcode and    address (in case of 8085) through D0-D7 to the processor.

•    The processor uses the RD (low), WR (low) and A0 to read or write 8259.

•    The 8259 is selected by CS (low).

•    The  IRR  has  eight  input  lines  (IR0-IR7)  for  interrupts.  When  these  lines  go  high,  the request is stored in IRR. It registers a request only if the interrupt is unmasked.

•    Normally  IR0  has  highest  priority  and  IR7  has  the  lowest  priority.  The  priorities  of  the interrupt request input are also programmable.

•    First  the  8259  should  be  programmed  by  sending  Initialization  Command  Word  (ICW)
and Operational Command Word (OCW). These command words will inform 8259 about the following,

* Type of interrupt signal (Level triggered / Edge triggered).
* Type of processor (8085/8086).
* Call address and its interval (4 or 8)
* Masking of interrupts.
* Priority of interrupts.
* Type of end of interrupts.


•    The  interrupt  mask  register  (IMR)  stores  the  masking  bits  of  the  interrupt  lines  to  be masked. The relevant information is send by the processor through OCW.

•    The in-service register keeps track of which interrupt is currently being serviced.

•    The  priority  resolver  examines  the  interrupt  request,  mask  and  in-service  registers  and determines whether INT signal should be sent to the processor or not.

•    The cascade buffer/comparator is used to expand the interrupts of 8259.

•    In cascade connection one 8259 will be directly interrupting 8086 and it is called master
8259.

•    To  each  interrupt  request  input  of  master  8259  (IR0-IR7),  one  slave  8259  can  be connected. The 8259s interrupting the master 8259 are called slave 8259s.

•    Each 8259 has its own addresses so that each 8259 can be programmed independently by sending command words and independently the status bytes can be read from it.

•    The  cascade  pins  (CAS0,  CAS1   and  CAS2)  from  the  master  are  connected  to  the corresponding pins of the slave.

•    For the slave 8259, the SP (low) / EN (low) pin is tied low to let the device know that it is
a slave.

•    The SP (low) / EN (low) pin can be used as input or output signal.

•    In non-buffered mode it is used as input signal and tied to logic-I in master 8259 and logic-0 in slave 8259.

•    In buffered mode it  is used as output signal to disable the data buffers while data is transferred from 8259A to the CPU.

Cascade Connection of 8059