Avago Technologies LSI53C876E - Manual (Page 34)

2-12 Functional Description
largest possible while not exceeding the cache line size, as the next burst
size. This stepping process continues until the chip reaches the cache
line size boundary or runs out of data. Once a cache line boundary is
reached, the chip uses the cache line size as the burst size from then
on, except in the case of multiples (explained below). The alignment
process is finished at this point.
Example: Cache Line Size = 16, Current Address = 0x01 – The chip
is not aligned to a 4 Dword cache boundary (the stepping threshold), so
it issues four single Dword transfers (the first is a 3-byte transfer). At
address 0x10, the chip is aligned to a 4-Dword boundary, but not aligned
to any higher burst size boundaries that are less than the cache line size.
So, the part issues a burst of 4. At this point, the address is 0x20, and
the chip evaluates that it is aligned not only to a 4 Dword boundary, but
also to an 8 Dword boundary. It selects the highest, 8, and bursts
8 Dwords. At this point, the address is 0x40, which is a cache line size
boundary. Alignment stops, and the burst size from then on is switched
to 16.
2.1.4.3 Memory Move Misalignment
The LSI53C876 does not operate in a cache alignment mode when a
Memory Move instruction type is issued and the read and write
addresses are different distances from the nearest cache line boundary.
For example, if the read address is 0x21F and the write address is 0x42F,
and the cache line size is 8, the addresses are byte aligned, but they are
not the same distance from the nearest cache boundary. The read
address is 1 byte from the cache boundary 0x220 and the write address
is 17 bytes from the cache boundary 0x440. In this situation, the chip
does not align to cache boundaries.