AB-12 Designing a Mailbox Memory for Two 80C31 Microcontrollers Using PLDs

Very often, complex systems involve two or more microcontrollers to fulfill the requirements defined by a given objective. Since the nature of microcontrollers does not allow for easy dual-port memory design (no ``READY'' input; no ``HOLD/HLDA'' interface; port-oriented I/O etc.), design engineers are faced with the problem of interchanging information (data and status) between those microcontrollers. This application brief describes the design of a mailbox for exchanging information between two 80C31s, using a 5C060 PLD as a ``back-to-back'' register, and a 5C032 PLD as an arbitration vehicle to control the actions of the CPUs.

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