Section 16.7
Review Questions
Asynchronous buses
  1. What circuit do asynchronous buses lack?
answer...
a clock
  1. Are there fixed time periods in a bus transaction in an asychronous bus?
answer...
of course not! What would set the time boundaries?
  1. What does MSYN stand for?
answer...
Master SYNchronization
  1. What does MSYN do?
answer...
it is set high by the bus initiator to alert the responder that the responder is supposed to pay attention and begin to participate in the upcoming bus transaction
  1. When the responder is done with its work, what wire does it assert?
answer...
SSYN -- Slave SYNchronization
  1. If there is no timing in an asynchronous bus, how do the components coordinate their work?
answer...
They look for the presence of certain signals on the wires and respond with other signals. The ordering of the signals is what is used to determine the sequence of events in an asynchronous bus transaction.
  1. In the following picture of a read transaction, identify the major events with a black dot on the appropriate signal line. Then interconnect the events with arrows to indicate the ordering.
answer...
  1. Which tends to be faster in completing bus transactions?
    Circle one: 
               asynchronous bus                synchronous bus
answer...
asynchronous bus
  1. Which tends to be easier to construct?
    Circle one: 
               asynchronous bus                synchronous bus
answer...
synchronous bus