2 system management mode support – Intel 386 User Manual

Page 445

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Intel386™ EX EMBEDDED MICROPROCESSOR USER’S MANUAL

14-10

14.3.2 System Management Mode Support

The processor supports four operating modes: system management mode (SMM), protected, real
and virtual-86 mode. In order for a system to operate correctly in SMM, it must meet several re-
quirements. The CSU provides support for some of these requirements. To use SMM, you must
set aside a partition of memory, called SMRAM, for the SMM driver. SMRAM must meet the
following conditions:

Located at 38000H–3FFFFH (32 Kbytes)

Accessible only when the processor is in SMM during normal operation

Accessible during system initialization when the processor is not in SMM

The CSU allows you to specify an address block and control whether or not the chip-select is ac-
tivated while the processor is in SMM. While in SMM (with CASMM=1), the chip-select is ac-
tive only when the processor is the bus master, such as when the processor is not in a hold state.

Refer to Chapter 7 (“Programming Considerations” on page 7-16) for a code example of pro-
gramming chip-selects to support SMM.

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