Pin Diagram of 8086

• 8086 operates in single

processor (minimum mode)
or multi processor (maximum
mode) configurations to
achieve high performance.
• The 8086 signals can be
categorized in 3 groups.

I. Signals having common

functions in minimum as well
as maximum mode.

II. Signals which have special

functions for minimum mode.

III. Signals which have special

functions for maximum mode.
I. Signals common for both
minimum & maximum mode.

1. AD15-AD0:

These are the time multiplexed memory I/O

address & data lines.
Address remains on the lines during T1 state,
while the data is available on the data bus
during T2,T3,TW,T4.

These lines are active high, and float to a

tristate during interrupt acknowledge and
local bus hold acknowledge cycles.

2. A19/S6, A18/S4, A17/S4, A16/S3

These are the time multiplexed address and

status lines. During T1, these are the most
significant address lines for memory
operations.

During I/O operations these lines are low.

The status of the Interrupt Enable Flag (IF) bit
(displayed on S5) is updated at the beginning
of each clock cycle.
S4, S3 : together indicates which segment
register is presently being used for
memory access.
S4 S3 Indications
0 0 Alternate data
0 1 Stack
1 0 Code or none
1 1 Data

These lines float at tristate off during the local bus

hold acknowledge.
S6: It is always low.
3. BHE/S7: Bus High Enable/Status
The bus high enable signal is used to indicate the
transfer of data over the higher order (D15-D8)
data bus.
If BHE is low then D15-D8 used to transfer data.

BHE A0 Indication

0 0 Whole word i.e AD15 – AD8

0 1 Upper byte from or to i.e AD15-AD8

1 0 Lower byte from or to even address i.e AD7-

AD0
1 1 None
4. RD: Read
Read signal , when low, indicates the
peripherals that the processor is performing
a memory or I/O operation.
RD is active low & shows the state for T2,
T3, TW of any read cycle. The signal remains
tristated during the ‘hold acknowledge’.

5. READY:
This is the acknowledgement from the slow
devices or memory that they have
completed the data transfer. The signal
made available by the devices is
synchronized by the 8284A clock generator.

6. INTR: Interrupt Request:

This signal is sampled during the last clock
cycle of each instruction to determine the
availability of the request. If any interrupt
request is pending the processor enters the
interrupt acknowledge cycle.

7. TEST:
This input is examined by a ‘WAIT’
instruction. If TEST=0, execution will
continue, else processor remains in an idle
state. Input is synchronized by clock cycle.
8. NMI: Non-Maskable Interrupt
The NMI is not maskable internally by software. A
transition from low to high initiates the
interrupt response at the end of the current
instruction.

9. RESET:
This input causes to processor to terminate the
current activity and start execution from
FFFF0H i.e reinitialize the system.

10. CLK: Clock Input

The clock input provides the basic timing for
processor operation and bus control activity.

11. Vcc:
+5V power supply for the operation of the internal
circuit.

12. GND:
Ground for the internal circuit.

13. MN/MX:
This pin decides whether the processor is to
operate in either minimum or maximum mode.
II. Minimum mode operation of
8086

1.M/I/O:
This line becomes active in the previous T4 and
remains active till final T4 of the current
cycle.

2. INTA: Interrupt Acknowledge

This signal is low, the processor has accepted
the interrupt. It is active low during T2, T3,
Tw of each interrupt acknowledge cycle.

3. ALE: Address Latch Enable

This output signal indicates the availability of
the valid address on the address/data lines &
it is connected to latch enable input of
latches. This signal is active high and is never
tristated.

4. DT/R: Data transmit/Receive

This output is used to decide the direction of
data flow through the transreceivers (i.e
bidirectional buffers)

DT/R = 1 Processor sends out data

DT/R = 0 Processor receives data
DT/R = S1 in maximum mode.
5. DEN: Data Enable

This signal indicates the availability of valid

data over the address/data lines. This used
to separate data from multiplexed
address/data signals.

It is active from middle of T2 to middle of T4.

6. HOLD & HLDA: Hold/Hold

Acknowledge

Hold is high, indicates to the processor that

another master is requesting the bus
access. After receiving the HOLD request,
issues the hold acknowledge signal on HLDA
pin, in the middle of the next clock cycle
after completing the current bus cycle.

HOLD is an asynchronous input, it should be

externally synchronized .
III.Maximum mode operation of
8086
1.S2, S1, S0: Status lines
These lines active during T4 of the previous
cycle & remain active during T1 & T2 of the
current bus cycle.

2. LOCK:
This output pin indicates that other system bus
masters will be prevented from gaining the
system bus, while the LOCK=0. The LOCK
signal is activated by the LOCK prefix
instruction and remains active until the
completion of the next instruction. This floats
to tri-state off during ‘hold acknowledge’.
3. QS1, QS0 : Queue status
These lines give information about the status
of the code-prefetch queue.
These are active during the CLK cycle after
which the queue operation is performed.
The 8086 architecture has a 6-byte instruction
pre-fetch queue.

4. RQ/GT0, RQ/GT1: Request/Grant

These pins are used by other local bus
masters, in maximum mode, to force the
processor to release the local bus at the end of
the processor’s current bus cycle.
Each of the pins is bidirectional with RQ/GT0
having higher priority than RQ/GT1.
 Memory Interfacing to 8086

Static RAM Interfacing

The general procedure of static memory

interfacing with 8086

• Arrange the available memory chips so as

to obtain 16-bit data bus width. The upper 8-bit
bank is called ‘odd address memory bank’ and
lower 8-bit bank is called ‘even address memory
bank’.

• Connect available memory address lines

of memory chips with those of the
microprocessor and also connect the memory RD
and WR inputs to the corresponding processor
control signals. Connect the 16-bit data bus of
the memory bank with that of the
microprocessor 8086.

• The remaining address lines of the

microprocessor, BHE and A0 are used for
decoding the required chip select signals for the
odd and even memory banks. The CS of memory
is derived from the O/P of the decoding circuit.
 Need for DMA

• In the applications where the

microprocessor/CPU is to transfer bulk
data, it may be a waste of time to
transfer the data from source to
destination using program controlled data
transfer or Interrupt driven data transfer.
• The alternate way of transferring the bulk
data is the Direct Memory Access (DMA)
technique in which the data is transferred
under the control of a DMA controller,
after it is properly initialized by the
microprocessor/CPU.
• A DMA controller is designed to complete
the bulk data transfer task much faster
than the CPU.
• A DMA controller may also be used to
transfer data from the system memory to
a video RAM of a CRT display.
• Data transfer between CPU & FDC may be
controlled using DMA controller.
 8257 DMA Controller

• The DMA mode of data transfer is the

fastest amongst all the modes of
data transfer.
• In this mode, the device may transfer
data directly to/from memory without
any interference from the
CPU/microprocessor.
• The device requests the CPU through
a DMA controller to hold its data,
address & control bus, so that the
device may transfer data directly
to/from memory.
• The DMA data transfer is initiated
only after receiving HLDA signal from
the CPU.
• For facilitating DMA type of data
transfer between several device, a
DMA Controller may be used.
• Intel’s 8257 is a 4 channel DMA controller
designed to be interfaced with their family of
microprocessors.
• The 8257, on behalf of the devices, requests
the CPU for bus access using local bus
request input i.e HOLD in minimum mode. In
maximum mode RQ/GT pin is used as bus
request input.
• On receiving the HLDA signal from the CPU,
the requesting device gets the access of the
bus, and it completes the required no. of
DMA cycles for the data transfer and then
hands over the control of the bus back to the
CPU.

Internal Architecture of 8257

• Four I/O devices can independently request
for DMA data transfer through four channels
at a time.

• Each of the four channels of 8257 has a pair

of two 16-bit registers, viz. DMA address
register and terminal count register.
There are two common registers for all the
channels, namely, mode set register and
status register. Thus there are a total of 10
registers. The CPU selects one of these ten
register using address lines A0-A3
 •DMA Address Registers
The function of this register is to store the
address of the starting memory location, which
will be accessed by the DMA channel.

•Terminal Count Register (TC)

This 16-bit register is used for ascertaining
that the data transfer through a DMA channel
ceases or stops after the required no. of DMA
cycles. The low order 14-bits of the TC register
are initialised with the binary equivalent of the
number of required DMA cycles minus one. After
each DMA cycle, the TC content will be
decremented by one and finally it becomes zero
after the required no. of DMA cycles are over.
The bits 14 & 15 of this register indicate the
type of the DMA operation.

•Mode Set Register

The function of the mode set register is to
enable the DMA channels individually and also
to set the various modes of operation (after
initializing the DMA address and TC registers
appropriately).
Bit 15 Bit 14 Type of DMA operation
0 0 Verify DMA Cycle
0 1 Write DMA Cycle
1 0 Read DMA Cycle
1 1 (Illegal)
The bits D0-D3 enable one of
the four DMA channels of
8257.