Host Bridges (EHB) by Renesas play a critical system role acting as a hub between the host processor, the system memory, and the system input/output (I/O). The host processor and the system I/O both use the host bridge to access common system memory. In addition, the system controller and host processor use the host bridge to configure and manage system I/O.
Renesas offers host bridges that service high-end discrete processors as well as bridges that are optimized for embedded integrated controllers.
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PowerSpan II™
The PowerSpan II is a multi-port PCI bus switch that bridges PCI to the PowerQUICC™ II (MPC8260), MPC7xx, PowerPC® 7xx, and PMC-Sierra WinPath™ processors. The bridge defines a new level of PCI bus switch flexibility.
The PowerSpan II has a switched PCI architecture, which maximizes transfer concurrency and improves the efficiency and burst performance on the PCI and processor buses. Along with a revolutionary switched PCI architecture, the PowerSpan II features integrated PCI-to-PCI bridging, concurrent prefetch read capability, multi-port Direct Memory Access (DMA) operation, and CompactPCI Hot Swap support. The PowerSpan II is available in single or dual PCI variants. The single PCI PowerSpan II is a two-port device that has a PCI interface and a PowerPC bus interface. The dual PCI variant is a three-port device that has two PCI interfaces and a PowerPC bus interface.
The PowerSpan II in conjunction with the PowerPro, a PowerPC memory controller, provides a 100MHz PowerPC interconnect solution. This flexible offering allows designers to leverage the PowerSpan II and PowerPro devices across many different system architectures with a common investment in software.
QSpan II™
The QSpan II is an industry-proven, Freescale™ Semiconductor processor-to-PCI system interconnect device. The QSpan II enables board designers to bring PCI-based embedded products to market faster, for less cost, and with high performance.
The QSpan II is designed to gluelessly bridge the Freescale PowerQUICC™ and QUICC™ (MC68360) processors to the PCI bus. The QSpan II is backward compatible with the QSpan 1.2.