:orphan:
.. COMMENT: %**end of header
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1989-2013.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
.. COMMENT: Master file for the Porting Guide
.. COMMENT: Joel's Questions
.. COMMENT: 1. Why does paragraphindent only impact makeinfo?
.. COMMENT: 2. Why does paragraphindent show up in HTML?
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
.. COMMENT: The following determines which set of the tables and figures we will use.
.. COMMENT: We default to ASCII but if available TeX or HTML versions will
.. COMMENT: be used instead.
.. COMMENT: @clear use-html
.. COMMENT: @clear use-tex
.. COMMENT: The following variable says to use texinfo or html for the two column
.. COMMENT: texinfo tables. For somethings the format does not look good in html.
.. COMMENT: With our adjustment to the left column in TeX, it nearly always looks
.. COMMENT: good printed.
.. COMMENT: Custom whitespace adjustments. We could fiddle a bit more.
.. COMMENT: variable substitution info:
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.. COMMENT: NOTE: don't use underscore in the name
.. COMMENT: Title Page Stuff
.. COMMENT: I don't really like having a short title page. -joel
.. COMMENT: @shorttitlepage RTEMS Porting Guide
===================
RTEMS Porting Guide
===================
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2015.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
.. COMMENT: The following puts a space somewhere on an otherwise empty page so we
.. COMMENT: can force the copyright description onto a left hand page.
COPYRIGHT © 1988 - 2015.
On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
The authors have used their best efforts in preparing
this material. These efforts include the development, research,
and testing of the theories and programs to determine their
effectiveness. No warranty of any kind, expressed or implied,
with regard to the software or the material contained in this
document is provided. No liability arising out of the
application or use of any product described in this document is
assumed. The authors reserve the right to revise this material
and to make changes from time to time in the content hereof
without obligation to notify anyone of such revision or changes.
The RTEMS Project is hosted at http://www.rtems.org. Any
inquiries concerning RTEMS, its related support components, or its
documentation should be directed to the Community Project hosted athttp://www.rtems.org.
Any inquiries for commercial services including training, support, custom
development, application development assistance should be directed tohttp://www.rtems.com.
.. COMMENT: This prevents a black box from being printed on "overflow" lines.
.. COMMENT: The alternative is to rework a sentence to avoid this problem.
RTEMS Porting Guide
###################
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1989-2011.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
Preface
#######
The purpose of this manual is to provide a roadmap to those people porting
RTEMS to a new CPU family. This process includes a variety of activities
including the following:
- targeting the GNU development tools
- porting the RTEMS executive code
- developing a Board Support Package
- writing an RTEMS CPU Supplement manual for the completed port.
This document focuses on the process of actually porting the RTEMS
executive code proper. Each of the data structures, routines, and macro
definitions required of a port of RTEMS is described in this document.
Porting any operating system, including RTEMS, requires knowledge of the
operating system, target CPU architecture, and debug environment. It is
very desirable to have a CPU simulator or hardware emulator when debugging
the port. This manual assumes that the user is familiar with building and
using RTEMS, the C programming language, and the target CPU architecture.
It is desirable to be familiar with the assembly language for the target
CPU family but since only a limited amount of assembly is required to port
RTEMS.
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
Development Tools
#################
When porting RTEMS to a new CPU architecture, one will have to have a
development environment including compiler, assembler, linker, and
debugger. The GNU development tool suite used by RTEMS supports most
modern CPU families. Often all that is required is to add RTEMS
configurations for the target CPU family. RTEMS targets for the GNU tools
usually start life as little more than aliases for existing embedded
configurations. At this point in time, ELF is supported on most of the
CPU families with a tool target of the form CPU-elf. If this target is
not supported by all of the GNU tools, then it will be necessary to
determine the configuration that makes the best starting point regardless
of the target object format.
Porting and retargetting the GNU tools is beyond the scope of this manual.
The best advice that can be offered is to look at the existing RTEMS
targets in the tool source and use that as a guideline.
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
Source Code Organization
########################
This section describes the organization of the source code within RTEMS
that is CPU family and CPU model dependent.
Introduction
============
The CPU family dependent files associated with a port of the RTEMS
executive code proper to a particular processor family are found in
cpukit/score/cpu. Support code for this port as well as processor
dependent code which may be reused across multiple Board Support Packages
is found in c/src/lib/libcpu.
XXX list the files and directories here
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
CPU Model Variations
####################
XXX enhance using portability presentation from CS595 class. See
general/portability.ppt.
Since the text in the next section was written, RTEMS view of
portability has grown to distinguish totally portable, CPU
family dependent, CPU model dependent, peripheral chip dependent
and board dependent. This text was part of a larger paper that
did not even cover portability completely as it existed when this
was written and certainly is out of date now. :)
Overview of RTEMS Portability
=============================
RTEMS was designed to be a highly portable, reusable software component.
This reflects the fundamental nature of embedded systems in which hardware
components, ranging from boards to peripherals to even the processor
itself, are selected specifically to meet the requirements of a particular
project.
Processor Families
------------------
Since there are a wide variety of embedded systems, there are a wide
variety of processors targeting embedded systems. RTEMS alleviates some of
the burden on the embedded systems programmer by providing a consistent,
high-performance environment regardless of the target processor. RTEMS
has been ported to a variety of microprocessor families including:
- Motorola ColdFire
- Motorola MC68xxx
- Motorola MC683xx
- Intel ix86 (i386, i486, Pentium and above)
- ARM
- MIPS
- PowerPC 4xx, 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, 8xx, and 84xx
- SPARC
- Hitachi H8/300
- Hitachi SH
- OpenCores OR32
- Texas Instruments C3x/C4x
In addition, there is a port of RTEMS to UNIX that uses standard UNIX
services to simulate the embedded environment.
Each RTEMS port supplies a well-defined set of services that are the
foundation for the highly portable RTEMS and POSIX API implementations.
When porting to a new processor family, one must provide the processor
dependent implementation of these services. This set of processor
dependent core services includes software to perform interrupt
dispatching, context switches, and manipulate task register sets.
The RTEMS approach to handling varying processor models reflects the
approach taken by the designers of the processors themselves. In each
processor family, there is a core architecture that must be implemented on
all processor models within the family to provide any level of
compatibility. Many of the modern RISC architectures refer to this as the
Architectural Definition. The Architectural Definition is intended to be
independent of any particular implementation. Additionally, there is a
feature set which is allowed to vary in a defined way amongst the
processor models. These feature sets may be defined as Optional in the
Architectural Definition, be left as implementation defined
characteristics, or be processor model specific extensions. Support for
floating point, virtual memory, and low power mode are common Optional
features included in an Architectural Definition.
The processor family dependent software in RTEMS includes a definition of
which features are present in each supported processor model. This often
makes adding support for a new processor model within a supported family
as simple as determining which features are present in the new processor
implementation. If the new processor model varies in a way previously
unaccounted for, then this must be addressed. This could be the result of
a new Optional feature set being added to the Architectural Definition.
Alternatively, this particular processor model could have a new and
different implementation of a feature left as undefined in the
Architectural Definition. This would require software to be written to
utilize that feature.
There is a relatively small set of features that may vary in a processor
family. As the number of processor models in the family grow, the
addition of each new model only requires adding an entry for the new model
to the single feature table. It does not require searching for every
conditional based on processor model and adding the new model in the
appropriate place. This significantly eases the burden of adding a new
processor model as it centralizes and logically simplifies the process.
Boards
------
Being portable both between models within a processor family and across
processor families is not enough to address the needs of embedded systems
developers. Custom board development is the norm for embedded systems.
Each of these boards is optimized for a particular project. The processor
and peripheral set have been chosen to meet a particular set of system
requirements. The tools in the embedded systems developers toolbox must
support their projects unique board. RTEMS addresses this issue via the
Board Support Package.
RTEMS segregates board specific code to make it possible for the embedded
systems developer to easily replace and customize this software. A
minimal Board Support Package includes device drivers for a clock tick,
console I/O, and a benchmark timer (optional) as well as startup and
miscellaneous support code. The Board Support Package for a project may
be extended to include the device drivers for any peripherals on the
custom board.
Applications
------------
One important design goal of RTEMS was to provide a bridge between the
application software and the target hardware. Most hardware dependencies
for real-time applications can be localized to the low level device
drivers which provide an abstracted view of the hardware. The RTEMS I/O
interface manager provides an efficient tool for incorporating these
hardware dependencies into the system while simultaneously providing a
general mechanism to the application code that accesses them. A well
designed real-time system can benefit from this architecture by building a
rich library of standard application components which can be used
repeatedly in other real-time projects. The following figure illustrates
how RTEMS serves as a buffer between the project dependent application
code and the target hardware.
Coding Issues
=============
XXX deal with this as it applies to score/cpu. Section name may
be bad.
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
CPU Initialization
##################
This section describes the general CPU and system initialization sequence
as it pertains to the CPU dependent code.
Introduction
============
XXX general startup sequence description rewritten to make it more
applicable to CPU depdent code in executive
Initializing the CPU
====================
The _CPU_Initialize routine performs processor dependent initialization.
.. code:: c
void _CPU_Initialize(
void (\*thread_dispatch) /* may be ignored \*/
)
The thread_dispatch argument is the address of the entry point for the
routine called at the end of an ISR once it has been decided a context
switch is necessary. On some compilation systems it is difficult to call
a high-level language routine from assembly. Providing the address of the
_Thread_ISR_Dispatch routine allows the porter an easy way to obtain this
critical address and thus provides an easy way to work around this
limitation on these systems.
If you encounter this problem save the entry point in a CPU dependent
variable as shown below:
.. code:: c
_CPU_Thread_dispatch_pointer = thread_dispatch;
During the initialization of the context for tasks with floating point,
the CPU dependent code is responsible for initializing the floating point
context. If there is not an easy way to initialize the FP context during
Context_Initialize, then it is usually easier to save an "uninitialized"
FP context here and copy it to the task’s during Context_Initialize. If
this technique is used to initialize the FP contexts, then it is important
to ensure that the state of the floating point unit is in a coherent,
initialized state.
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
Interrupts
##########
Introduction
============
Interrupt Levels
================
RTEMS is designed assuming that a CPU family has a level associated with
interrupts. Interrupts below the current interrupt level are masked and
do not interrupt the CPU until the interrupt level is lowered. This
design provides for 256 distinct interrupt levels even though most CPU
implementations support far fewer levels. Interrupt level 0 is assumed to
map to the hardware settings for all interrupts enabled.
Over the years that RTEMS has been available, there has been much
discussion on how to handle CPU families which support very few interrupt
levels such as the i386, PowerPC, and HP-PA RISC. XXX
Interrupt Level Mask
--------------------
The CPU_MODES_INTERRUPT_MASK macro defines the number of bits actually used in the interrupt field of the task mode. How those bits map to the CPU interrupt levels is defined by the routine _CPU_ISR_Set_level().
The following illustrates how the CPU_MODES_INTERRUPT_MASK is set on a CPU
family like the Intel i386 where the CPU itself only recognizes two
interrupt levels - enabled and disabled.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_MODES_INTERRUPT_MASK 0x00000001
Obtaining the Current Interrupt Level
-------------------------------------
The _CPU_ISR_Get_level function returns the current interrupt level.
.. code:: c
uint32_t _CPU_ISR_Get_level( void )
Set the Interrupt Level
-----------------------
The _CPU_ISR_Set_level routine maps the interrupt level in the Classic API
task mode onto the hardware that the CPU actually provides. Currently,
interrupt levels that do not map onto the CPU in a generic fashion are
undefined. Someday, it would be nice if these were "mapped" by the
application via a callout. For example, the Motorola m68k has 8 levels 0
- 7, and levels 8 - 255 are currently undefined. Levels 8 - 255 would be
available for bsp/application specific meaning. This could be used to
manage a programmable interrupt controller via the rtems_task_mode
directive.
The following is a dummy implementation of the _CPU_ISR_Set_level routine:
.. code:: c
#define _CPU_ISR_Set_level( new_level ) \\
{ \\
}
The following is the implementation from the Motorola M68K:
.. code:: c
XXX insert m68k implementation here
Disable Interrupts
------------------
The _CPU_ISR_Disable routine disable all external interrupts. It returns
the previous interrupt level in the single parameter _isr_cookie. This
routine is used to disable interrupts during a critical section in the
RTEMS executive. Great care is taken inside the executive to ensure that
interrupts are disabled for a minimum length of time. It is important to
note that the way the previous level is returned forces the implementation
to be a macro that translates to either inline assembly language or a
function call whose return value is placed into _isr_cookie.
It is important for the porter to realize that the value of _isr_cookie
has no defined meaning except that it is the most convenient format for
the _CPU_ISR_Disable, _CPU_ISR_Enable, and _CPU_ISR_Disable routines to
manipulate. It is typically the contents of the processor status
register. It is NOT the same format as manipulated by the
_CPU_ISR_Get_level and _CPU_ISR_Set_level routines. The following is a
dummy implementation that simply sets the previous level to 0.
.. code:: c
#define _CPU_ISR_Disable( _isr_cookie ) \\
{ \\
(_isr_cookie) = 0; /* do something to prevent warnings \*/ \\
}
The following is the implementation from the Motorola M68K port:
.. code:: c
XXX insert m68k port here
Enable Interrupts
-----------------
The _CPU_ISR_Enable routines enables interrupts to the previous level
(returned by _CPU_ISR_Disable). This routine is invoked at the end of an
RTEMS critical section to reenable interrupts. The parameter _level is
not modified but indicates that level that interrupts should be enabled
to. The following illustrates a dummy implementation of the
_CPU_ISR_Enable routine:
.. code:: c
#define _CPU_ISR_Enable( _isr_cookie ) \\
{ \\
}
The following is the implementation from the Motorola M68K port:
.. code:: c
XXX insert m68k version here
Flash Interrupts
----------------
The _CPU_ISR_Flash routine temporarily restores the interrupt to _level
before immediately disabling them again. This is used to divide long
RTEMS critical sections into two or more parts. This routine is always
preceded by a call to _CPU_ISR_Disable and followed by a call to
_CPU_ISR_Enable. The parameter _level is not modified.
The following is a dummy implementation of the _CPU_ISR_Flash routine:
.. code:: c
#define _CPU_ISR_Flash( _isr_cookie ) \\
{ \\
}
The following is the implementation from the Motorola M68K port:
.. code:: c
XXX insert m68k version here
Interrupt Stack Management
==========================
Hardware or Software Managed Interrupt Stack
--------------------------------------------
The setting of the CPU_HAS_SOFTWARE_INTERRUPT_STACK indicates whether the
interrupt stack is managed by RTEMS in software or the CPU has direct
support for an interrupt stack. If RTEMS is to manage a dedicated
interrupt stack in software, then this macro should be set to TRUE and the
memory for the software managed interrupt stack is allocated in``_ISR_Handler_initialization``. If this macro is set to FALSE, then
RTEMS assumes that the hardware managed interrupt stack is supported by
this CPU. If the CPU has a hardware managed interrupt stack, then the
porter has the option of letting the BSP allcoate and initialize the
interrupt stack or letting RTEMS do this. If RTEMS is to allocate the
memory for the interrupt stack, then the macro
CPU_ALLOCATE_INTERRUPT_STACK should be set to TRUE. If this macro is set
to FALSE, then it is the responsibility of the BSP to allocate the memory
for this stack and initialize it.
If the CPU does not support a dedicated interrupt stack, then the porter
has two options: (1) execute interrupts on the stack of the interrupted
task, and (2) have RTEMS manage a dedicated interrupt stack.
NOTE: If CPU_HAS_SOFTWARE_INTERRUPT_STACK is TRUE, then the macro
CPU_ALLOCATE_INTERRUPT_STACK should also be set to TRUE.
Only one of CPU_HAS_SOFTWARE_INTERRUPT_STACK and
CPU_HAS_HARDWARE_INTERRUPT_STACK should be set to TRUE. It is possible
that both are FALSE for a particular CPU. Although it is unclear what
that would imply about the interrupt processing procedure on that CPU.
Allocation of Interrupt Stack Memory
------------------------------------
Whether or not the interrupt stack is hardware or software managed, RTEMS
may allocate memory for the interrupt stack from the Executive Workspace.
If RTEMS is going to allocate the memory for a dedicated interrupt stack
in the Interrupt Manager, then the macro CPU_ALLOCATE_INTERRUPT_STACK
should be set to TRUE.
NOTE: This should be TRUE is CPU_HAS_SOFTWARE_INTERRUPT_STACK is TRUE.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_ALLOCATE_INTERRUPT_STACK TRUE
If the CPU_HAS_SOFTWARE_INTERRUPT_STACK macro is set to TRUE, then RTEMS automatically allocates the stack memory in the initialization of the Interrupt Manager and the switch to that stack is performed in ``_ISR_Handler`` on the outermost interrupt. The _CPU_Interrupt_stack_low and _CPU_Interrupt_stack_high variables contain the addresses of the the lowest and highest addresses of the memory allocated for the interrupt stack. Although technically only one of these addresses is required to switch to the interrupt stack, by always providing both addresses, the port has more options avaialble to it without requiring modifications to the portable parts of the executive. Whether the stack grows up or down, this give the CPU dependent code the option of picking the version it wants to use.
.. code:: c
SCORE_EXTERN void \*_CPU_Interrupt_stack_low;
SCORE_EXTERN void \*_CPU_Interrupt_stack_high;
NOTE: These two variables are required if the macro
CPU_HAS_SOFTWARE_INTERRUPT_STACK is defined as TRUE.
Install the Interrupt Stack
---------------------------
The _CPU_Install_interrupt_stack routine XXX
This routine installs the hardware interrupt stack pointer.
NOTE: It need only be provided if CPU_HAS_HARDWARE_INTERRUPT_STAC is TRUE.
.. code:: c
void _CPU_Install_interrupt_stack( void )
ISR Installation
================
Install a Raw Interrupt Handler
-------------------------------
The _CPU_ISR_install_raw_handler XXX
.. code:: c
void _CPU_ISR_install_raw_handler(
unsigned32 vector,
proc_ptr new_handler,
proc_ptr \*old_handler
)
This is where we install the interrupt handler into the "raw" interrupt
table used by the CPU to dispatch interrupt handlers.
Interrupt Context
-----------------
Maximum Number of Vectors
-------------------------
There are two related macros used to defines the number of entries in the
_ISR_Vector_table managed by RTEMS. The macro
CPU_INTERRUPT_NUMBER_OF_VECTORS is the actual number of vectors supported
by this CPU model. The second macro is the
CPU_INTERRUPT_MAXIMUM_VECTOR_NUMBER. Since the table is zero-based, this
indicates the highest vector number which can be looked up in the table
and mapped into a user provided handler.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_INTERRUPT_NUMBER_OF_VECTORS 32
#define CPU_INTERRUPT_MAXIMUM_VECTOR_NUMBER \\
(CPU_INTERRUPT_NUMBER_OF_VECTORS - 1)
Install RTEMS Interrupt Handler
-------------------------------
The _CPU_ISR_install_vector routine installs the RTEMS handler for the
specified vector.
XXX Input parameters:
vector - interrupt vector number
old_handler - former ISR for this vector number
new_handler - replacement ISR for this vector number
.. code:: c
void _CPU_ISR_install_vector(
unsigned32 vector,
proc_ptr new_handler,
proc_ptr \*old_handler
)
.. code:: c
*old_handler = _ISR_Vector_table[ vector ];
If the interrupt vector table is a table of pointer to isr entry points,
then we need to install the appropriate RTEMS interrupt handler for this
vector number.
.. code:: c
_CPU_ISR_install_raw_handler( vector, new_handler, old_handler );
We put the actual user ISR address in _ISR_vector_table. This will be
used by the ``_ISR_Handler`` so the user gets control.
.. code:: c
_ISR_Vector_table[ vector ] = new_handler;
Interrupt Processing
====================
Interrupt Frame Data Structure
------------------------------
When an interrupt occurs, it is the responsibility of the interrupt
dispatching software to save the context of the processor such that an ISR
written in a high-level language (typically C) can be invoked without
damaging the state of the task that was interrupted. In general, this
results in the saving of registers which are NOT preserved across
subroutine calls as well as any special interrupt state. A port should
define the ``CPU_Interrupt_frame`` structure so that application code can
examine the saved state.
.. code:: c
typedef struct {
unsigned32 not_preserved_register_1;
unsigned32 special_interrupt_register;
} CPU_Interrupt_frame;
Interrupt Dispatching
---------------------
The ``_ISR_Handler`` routine provides the RTEMS interrupt management.
.. code:: c
void _ISR_Handler()
This discussion ignores a lot of the ugly details in a real implementation
such as saving enough registers/state to be able to do something real.
Keep in mind that the goal is to invoke a user’s ISR handler which is
written in C. That ISR handler uses a known set of registers thus
allowing the ISR to preserve only those that would normally be corrupted
by a subroutine call.
Also note that the exact order is to a large extent flexible. Hardware
will dictate a sequence for a certain subset of ``_ISR_Handler`` while
requirements for setting the RTEMS state variables that indicate the
interrupt nest level (``_ISR_Nest_level``) and dispatching disable
level (``_Thread_Dispatch_disable_level``) will also
restrict the allowable order.
Upon entry to ``_ISR_Handler``, ``_Thread_Dispatch_disable_level`` is
zero if the interrupt occurred while outside an RTEMS service call.
Conversely, it will be non-zero if interrupting an RTEMS service
call. Thus, ``_Thread_Dispatch_disable_level`` will always be
greater than or equal to ``_ISR_Nest_level`` and not strictly
equal.
Upon entry to the "common" ``_ISR_Handler``, the vector number must be
available. On some CPUs the hardware puts either the vector number or the
offset into the vector table for this ISR in a known place. If the
hardware does not provide this information, then the assembly portion of
RTEMS for this port will contain a set of distinct interrupt entry points
which somehow place the vector number in a known place (which is safe if
another interrupt nests this one) and branches to ``_ISR_Handler``.
.. code:: c
save some or all context on stack
may need to save some special interrupt information for exit
#if ( CPU_HAS_SOFTWARE_INTERRUPT_STACK == TRUE )
if ( _ISR_Nest_level == 0 )
switch to software interrupt stack
#endif
_ISR_Nest_level++;
_Thread_Dispatch_disable_level++;
(\*_ISR_Vector_table[ vector ])( vector );
--_ISR_Nest_level;
if ( _ISR_Nest_level )
goto the label "exit interrupt (simple case)"
#if ( CPU_HAS_SOFTWARE_INTERRUPT_STACK == TRUE )
restore stack
#endif
if ( _Thread_Dispatch_disable_level )
goto the label "exit interrupt (simple case)"
if ( _Thread_Dispatch_necessary )
call _Thread_Dispatch() or prepare to return to _ISR_Dispatch
prepare to get out of interrupt
return from interrupt (maybe to _ISR_Dispatch)
LABEL "exit interrupt (simple case):
prepare to get out of interrupt
return from interrupt
Some ports have the special routine ``_ISR_Dispatch`` because
the CPU has a special "interrupt mode" and RTEMS must switch back
to the task stack and/or non-interrupt mode before invoking``_Thread_Dispatch``. For example, consider the MC68020 where
upon return from the outermost interrupt, the CPU must switch
from the interrupt stack to the master stack before invoking``_Thread_Dispatch``. ``_ISR_Dispatch`` is the special port
specific wrapper for ``_Thread_Dispatch`` used in this case.
ISR Invoked with Frame Pointer
------------------------------
Does the RTEMS invoke the user’s ISR with the vector number and a pointer
to the saved interrupt frame (1) or just the vector number (0)?
.. code:: c
#define CPU_ISR_PASSES_FRAME_POINTER 0
NOTE: It is desirable to include a pointer to the interrupt stack frame as
an argument to the interrupt service routine. Eventually, it would be
nice if all ports included this parameter.
Pointer to _Thread_Dispatch Routine
-----------------------------------
With some compilation systems, it is difficult if not impossible to call a
high-level language routine from assembly language. This is especially
true of commercial Ada compilers and name mangling C++ ones. This
variable can be optionally defined by the CPU porter and contains the
address of the routine _Thread_Dispatch. This can make it easier to
invoke that routine at the end of the interrupt sequence (if a dispatch is
necessary).
.. code:: c
void (\*_CPU_Thread_dispatch_pointer)();
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
Task Context Management
#######################
Introduction
============
XXX
Task Stacks
===========
XXX
Direction of Stack Growth
-------------------------
The CPU_STACK_GROWS_UP macro is set based upon the answer to the following
question: Does the stack grow up (toward higher addresses) or down (toward
lower addresses)? If the stack grows upward in memory, then this macro
should be set to TRUE. Otherwise, it should be set to FALSE to indicate
that the stack grows downward toward smaller addresses.
The following illustrates how the CPU_STACK_GROWS_UP macro is set:
.. code:: c
#define CPU_STACK_GROWS_UP TRUE
Minimum Task Stack Size
-----------------------
The CPU_STACK_MINIMUM_SIZE macro should be set to the minimum size of each
task stack. This size is specified as the number of bytes. This minimum
stack size should be large enough to run all RTEMS tests. The minimum
stack size is chosen such that a "reasonable" small application should not
have any problems. Choosing a minimum stack size that is too small will
result in the RTEMS tests "blowing" their stack and not executing
properly.
There are many reasons a task could require a stack size larger than the
minimum. For example, a task could have a very deep call path or declare
large data structures on the stack. Tasks which utilize C++ exceptions
tend to require larger stacks as do Ada tasks.
The following illustrates setting the minimum stack size to 4 kilobytes
per task.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_STACK_MINIMUM_SIZE (1024*4)
Stack Alignment Requirements
----------------------------
The CPU_STACK_ALIGNMENT macro is set to indicate the byte alignment
requirement for the stack. This alignment requirement may be stricter
than that for the data types alignment specified by CPU_ALIGNMENT. If the
CPU_ALIGNMENT is strict enough for the stack, then this should be set to
0.
The following illustrates how the CPU_STACK_ALIGNMENT macro should be set
when there are no special requirements:
.. code:: c
#define CPU_STACK_ALIGNMENT 0
NOTE: This must be a power of 2 either 0 or greater than CPU_ALIGNMENT. \[XXX is this true?]
Task Context
============
Associated with each task is a context that distinguishes it from other
tasks in the system and logically gives it its own scratch pad area for
computations. In addition, when an interrupt occurs some processor
context information must be saved and restored. This is managed in RTEMS
as three items:
- Basic task level context (e.g. the Context_Control structure)
- Floating point task context (e.g. Context_Control_fp structure)
- Interrupt level context (e.g. the Context_Control_interrupt
structure)
The integer and floating point context structures and the routines that
manipulate them are discussed in detail in this section, while the
interrupt level context structure is discussed in the XXX.
Additionally, if the GNU debugger gdb is to be made aware of RTEMS tasks
for this CPU, then care should be used in designing the context area.
.. code:: c
typedef struct {
unsigned32 special_interrupt_register;
} CPU_Interrupt_frame;
Basic Context Data Structure
----------------------------
The Context_Control data structure contains the basic integer context of a
task. In addition, this context area contains stack and frame pointers,
processor status register(s), and any other registers that are normally
altered by compiler generated code. In addition, this context must
contain the processor interrupt level since the processor interrupt level
is maintained on a per-task basis. This is necessary to support the
interrupt level portion of the task mode as provided by the Classic RTEMS
API.
On some processors, it is cost-effective to save only the callee preserved
registers during a task context switch. This means that the ISR code
needs to save those registers which do not persist across function calls.
It is not mandatory to make this distinctions between the caller/callee
saves registers for the purpose of minimizing context saved during task
switch and on interrupts. If the cost of saving extra registers is
minimal, simplicity is the choice. Save the same context on interrupt
entry as for tasks in this case.
The Context_Control data structure should be defined such that the order
of elements results in the simplest, most efficient implementation of XXX.
A typical implementation starts with a definition such as the following:
.. code:: c
typedef struct {
unsigned32 some_integer_register;
unsigned32 another_integer_register;
unsigned32 some_system_register;
} Context_Control;
Initializing a Context
----------------------
The _CPU_Context_Initialize routine initializes the context to a state
suitable for starting a task after a context restore operation.
Generally, this involves:
- setting a starting address,
- preparing the stack,
- preparing the stack and frame pointers,
- setting the proper interrupt level in the context, and
- initializing the floating point context
This routine generally does not set any unnecessary register in the
context. The state of the "general data" registers is undefined at task
start time. The _CPU_Context_initialize routine is prototyped as follows:
.. code:: c
void _CPU_Context_Initialize(
Context_Control \*_the_context,
void \*_stack_base,
unsigned32 _size,
unsigned32 _isr,
void \*_entry_point,
unsigned32 _is_fp
);
The ``is_fp`` parameter is TRUE if the thread is to be a floating point
thread. This is typically only used on CPUs where the FPU may be easily
disabled by software such as on the SPARC where the PSR contains an enable
FPU bit. The use of an FPU enable bit allows RTEMS to ensure that a
non-floating point task is unable to access the FPU. This guarantees that
a deferred floating point context switch is safe.
The ``_stack_base`` parameter is the base address of the memory area
allocated for use as the task stack. It is critical to understand that``_stack_base`` may not be the starting stack pointer for this task.
On CPU families where the stack grows from high addresses to lower ones,
(i.e. ``CPU_STACK_GROWS_UP`` is FALSE) the starting stack point
will be near the end of the stack memory area or close to``_stack_base`` + ``_size``. Even on CPU families where the stack
grows from low to higher addresses, there may be some required
outermost stack frame that must be put at the address ``_stack_base``.
The ``_size`` parameter is the requested size in bytes of the stack for
this task. It is assumed that the memory area ``_stack_base``
is of this size.
XXX explain other parameters and check prototype
Performing a Context Switch
---------------------------
The _CPU_Context_switch performs a normal non-FP context switch from the
context of the current executing thread to the context of the heir thread.
.. code:: c
void _CPU_Context_switch(
Context_Control \*run,
Context_Control \*heir
);
This routine begins by saving the current state of the
CPU (i.e. the context) in the context area at ``run``.
Then the routine should load the CPU context pointed to
by ``heir``. Loading the new context will cause a
branch to its task code, so the task that invoked``_CPU_Context_switch`` will not run for a while.
When, eventually, a context switch is made to load
context from ``*run`` again, this task will resume
and ``_CPU_Context_switch`` will return to its caller.
Care should be exercise when writing this routine. All
registers assumed to be preserved across subroutine calls
must be preserved. These registers may be saved in
the task’s context area or on its stack. However, the
stack pointer and address to resume executing the task
at must be included in the context (normally the subroutine
return address to the caller of ``_Thread_Dispatch``.
The decision of where to store the task’s context is based
on numerous factors including the capabilities of
the CPU architecture itself and simplicity as well
as external considerations such as debuggers wishing
to examine a task’s context. In this case, it is
often simpler to save all data in the context area.
Also there may be special considerations
when loading the stack pointers or interrupt level of the
incoming task. Independent of CPU specific considerations,
if some context is saved on the task stack, then the porter
must ensure that the stack pointer is adjusted *BEFORE*
to make room for this context information before the
information is written. Otherwise, an interrupt could
occur writing over the context data. The following is
an example of an *INCORRECT* sequence:
.. code:: c
save part of context beyond current top of stack
interrupt pushes context -- overwriting written context
interrupt returns
adjust stack pointer
Restoring a Context
-------------------
The _CPU_Context_restore routine is generally used only to restart the
currently executing thread (i.e. self) in an efficient manner. In many
ports, it can simply be a label in _CPU_Context_switch. It may be
unnecessary to reload some registers.
.. code:: c
void _CPU_Context_restore(
Context_Control \*new_context
);
Restarting the Currently Executing Task
---------------------------------------
The _CPU_Context_Restart_self is responsible for somehow restarting the
currently executing task. If you are lucky when porting RTEMS, then all
that is necessary is restoring the context. Otherwise, there will need to
be a routine that does something special in this case. Performing a
_CPU_Context_Restore on the currently executing task after reinitializing
that context should work on most ports. It will not work if restarting
self conflicts with the stack frame assumptions of restoring a context.
The following is an implementation of _CPU_Context_Restart_self that can
be used when no special handling is required for this case.
.. code:: c
#define _CPU_Context_Restart_self( _the_context ) \\
_CPU_Context_restore( (_the_context) )
XXX find a port which does not do it this way and include it here
Floating Point Context
======================
CPU_HAS_FPU Macro Definition
----------------------------
The CPU_HAS_FPU macro is set based on the answer to the question: Does the
CPU have hardware floating point? If the CPU has an FPU, then this should
be set to TRUE. Otherwise, it should be set to FALSE. The primary
implication of setting this macro to TRUE is that it indicates that tasks
may have floating point contexts. In the Classic API, this means that the
RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT task attribute specified as part of rtems_task_create
is supported on this CPU. If CPU_HAS_FPU is set to FALSE, then no tasks
or threads may be floating point and the RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT task
attribute is ignored. On an API such as POSIX where all threads
implicitly have a floating point context, then the setting of this macro
determines whether every POSIX thread has a floating point context.
The following example illustrates how the CPU_HARDWARE_FP (XXX macro name
is varying) macro is set based on the CPU family dependent macro.
.. code:: c
#if ( THIS_CPU_FAMILY_HAS_FPU == 1 ) /* where THIS_CPU_FAMILY \*/
/* might be M68K \*/
#define CPU_HARDWARE_FP TRUE
#else
#define CPU_HARDWARE_FP FALSE
#endif
The macro name THIS_CPU_FAMILY_HAS_FPU should be made CPU specific. It
indicates whether or not this CPU model has FP support. For example, the
definition of the i386ex and i386sx CPU models would set I386_HAS_FPU to
FALSE to indicate that these CPU models are i386’s without an i387 and
wish to leave floating point support out of RTEMS when built for the
i386_nofp processor model. On a CPU with a built-in FPU like the i486,
this would be defined as TRUE.
On some processor families, the setting of the THIS_CPU_FAMILY_HAS_FPU
macro may be derived from compiler predefinitions. This can be used when
the compiler distinguishes the individual CPU models for this CPU family
as distinctly as RTEMS requires. Often RTEMS needs to need more about the
CPU model than the compiler because of differences at the system level
such as caching, interrupt structure.
CPU_ALL_TASKS_ARE_FP Macro Setting
----------------------------------
The CPU_ALL_TASKS_ARE_FP macro is set to TRUE or FALSE based upon the
answer to the following question: Are all tasks RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT tasks
implicitly? If this macro is set TRUE, then all tasks and threads are
assumed to have a floating point context. In the Classic API, this is
equivalent to setting the RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT task attribute on all
rtems_task_create calls. If the CPU_ALL_TASKS_ARE_FP macro is set to
FALSE, then the RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT task attribute in the Classic API is
honored.
The rationale for this macro is that if a function that an application
developer would not think utilize the FP unit DOES, then one can not
easily predict which tasks will use the FP hardware. In this case, this
option should be TRUE. So far, the only CPU families for which this macro
has been to TRUE are the HP PA-RISC and PowerPC. For the HP PA-RISC, the
HP C compiler and gcc both implicitly use the floating point registers to
perform integer multiplies. For the PowerPC, this feature macro is set to
TRUE because the printf routine saves a floating point register whether or
not a floating point number is actually printed. If the newlib
implementation of printf were restructured to avoid this, then the PowerPC
port would not have to have this option set to TRUE.
The following example illustrates how the CPU_ALL_TASKS_ARE_FP is set on
the PowerPC. On this CPU family, this macro is set to TRUE if the CPU
model has hardware floating point.
.. code:: c
#if (CPU_HARDWARE_FP == TRUE)
#define CPU_ALL_TASKS_ARE_FP TRUE
#else
#define CPU_ALL_TASKS_ARE_FP FALSE
#endif
NOTE: If CPU_HARDWARE_FP is FALSE, then this should be FALSE as well.
CPU_USE_DEFERRED_FP_SWITCH Macro Setting
----------------------------------------
The CPU_USE_DEFERRED_FP_SWITCH macro is set based upon the answer to the
following question: Should the saving of the floating point registers be
deferred until a context switch is made to another different floating
point task? If the floating point context will not be stored until
necessary, then this macro should be set to TRUE. When set to TRUE, the
floating point context of a task will remain in the floating point
registers and not disturbed until another floating point task is switched
to.
If the CPU_USE_DEFERRED_FP_SWITCH is set to FALSE, then the floating point
context is saved each time a floating point task is switched out and
restored when the next floating point task is restored. The state of the
floating point registers between those two operations is not specified.
There are a couple of known cases where the port should not defer saving
the floating point context. The first case is when the compiler generates
instructions that use the FPU when floating point is not actually used.
This occurs on the HP PA-RISC for example when an integer multiply is
performed. On the PowerPC, the printf routine includes a save of a
floating point register to support printing floating point numbers even if
the path that actually prints the floating point number is not invoked.
In both of these cases, deferred floating point context switches can not
be used. If the floating point context has to be saved as part of
interrupt dispatching, then it may also be necessary to disable deferred
context switches.
Setting this flag to TRUE results in using a different algorithm for
deciding when to save and restore the floating point context. The
deferred FP switch algorithm minimizes the number of times the FP context
is saved and restored. The FP context is not saved until a context switch
is made to another, different FP task. Thus in a system with only one FP
task, the FP context will never be saved or restored.
The following illustrates setting the CPU_USE_DEFERRED_FP_SWITCH macro on
a processor family such as the M68K or i386 which can use deferred
floating point context switches.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_USE_DEFERRED_FP_SWITCH TRUE
Note that currently, when in SMP configuration, deferred floating point
context switching is unavailable.
Floating Point Context Data Structure
-------------------------------------
The Context_Control_fp contains the per task information for the floating
point unit. The organization of this structure may be a list of floating
point registers along with any floating point control and status registers
or it simply consist of an array of a fixed number of bytes. Defining the
floating point context area as an array of bytes is done when the floating
point context is dumped by a "FP save context" type instruction and the
format is either not completely defined by the CPU documentation or the
format is not critical for the implementation of the floating point
context switch routines. In this case, there is no need to figure out the
exact format – only the size. Of course, although this is enough
information for RTEMS, it is probably not enough for a debugger such as
gdb. But that is another problem.
.. code:: c
typedef struct {
double some_float_register;
} Context_Control_fp;
On some CPUs with hardware floating point support, the Context_Control_fp
structure will not be used.
Size of Floating Point Context Macro
------------------------------------
The CPU_CONTEXT_FP_SIZE macro is set to the size of the floating point
context area. On some CPUs this will not be a "sizeof" because the format
of the floating point area is not defined – only the size is. This is
usually on CPUs with a "floating point save context" instruction. In
general, though it is easier to define the structure as a "sizeof"
operation and define the Context_Control_fp structure to be an area of
bytes of the required size in this case.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_CONTEXT_FP_SIZE sizeof( Context_Control_fp )
Start of Floating Point Context Area Macro
------------------------------------------
The _CPU_Context_Fp_start macro is used in the XXX routine and allows the initial pointer into a floating point context area (used to save the floating point context) to be at an arbitrary place in the floating point context area. This is necessary because some FP units are designed to have their context saved as a stack which grows into lower addresses. Other FP units can be saved by simply moving registers into offsets from the base of the context area. Finally some FP units provide a "dump context" instruction which could fill in from high to low or low to high based on the whim of the CPU designers. Regardless, the address at which that floating point context area pointer should start within the actual floating point context area varies between ports and this macro provides a clean way of addressing this.
This is a common implementation of the _CPU_Context_Fp_start routine which
is suitable for many processors. In particular, RISC processors tend to
use this implementation since the floating point context is saved as a
sequence of store operations.
.. code:: c
#define _CPU_Context_Fp_start( _base, _offset ) \\
( (void \*) _Addresses_Add_offset( (_base), (_offset) ) )
In contrast, the m68k treats the floating point context area as a stack
which grows downward in memory. Thus the following implementation of
_CPU_Context_Fp_start is used in that port:
.. code:: c
XXX insert m68k version here
Initializing a Floating Point Context
-------------------------------------
The _CPU_Context_Initialize_fp routine initializes the floating point
context area passed to it to. There are a few standard ways in which to
initialize the floating point context. The simplest, and least
deterministic behaviorally, is to do nothing. This leaves the FPU in a
random state and is generally not a suitable way to implement this
routine. The second common implementation is to place a "null FP status
word" into some status/control register in the FPU. This mechanism is
simple and works on many FPUs. Another common way is to initialize the
FPU to a known state during _CPU_Initialize and save the context (using
_CPU_Context_save_fp_context) into the special floating point context
_CPU_Null_fp_context. Then all that is required to initialize a floating
point context is to copy _CPU_Null_fp_context to the destination floating
point context passed to it. The following example implementation shows
how to accomplish this:
.. code:: c
#define _CPU_Context_Initialize_fp( _destination ) \\
{ \\
\*((Context_Control_fp \*) \*((void \**) _destination)) = \\
_CPU_Null_fp_context; \\
}
The _CPU_Null_fp_context is optional. A port need only include this variable when it uses the above mechanism to initialize a floating point context. This is typically done on CPUs where it is difficult to generate an "uninitialized" FP context. If the port requires this variable, then it is declared as follows:
.. code:: c
Context_Control_fp _CPU_Null_fp_context;
Saving a Floating Point Context
-------------------------------
The _CPU_Context_save_fp_context routine is responsible for saving the FP
context at \*fp_context_ptr. If the point to load the FP context from is
changed then the pointer is modified by this routine.
Sometimes a macro implementation of this is in cpu.h which dereferences
the \** and a similarly named routine in this file is passed something like
a (Context_Control_fp \*). The general rule on making this decision is to
avoid writing assembly language.
.. code:: c
void _CPU_Context_save_fp(
void \**fp_context_ptr
)
Restoring a Floating Point Context
----------------------------------
The _CPU_Context_restore_fp_context is responsible for restoring the FP
context at \*fp_context_ptr. If the point to load the FP context from is
changed then the pointer is modified by this routine.
Sometimes a macro implementation of this is in cpu.h which dereferences
the \** and a similarly named routine in this file is passed something like
a (Context_Control_fp \*). The general rule on making this decision is to
avoid writing assembly language.
.. code:: c
void _CPU_Context_restore_fp(
void \**fp_context_ptr
);
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
IDLE Thread
###########
Does Idle Thread Have a Floating Point Context?
===============================================
The setting of the macro CPU_IDLE_TASK_IS_FP is based on the answer to the
question: Should the IDLE task have a floating point context? If the
answer to this question is TRUE, then the IDLE task has a floating point
context associated. This is equivalent to creating a task in the Classic
API (using rtems_task_create) as a RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT task. If
CPU_IDLE_TASK_IS_FP is set to TRUE, then a floating point context switch
occurs when the IDLE task is switched in and out. This adds to the
execution overhead of the system but is necessary on some ports.
If FALSE, then the IDLE task does not have a floating point context.
NOTE: Setting CPU_IDLE_TASK_IS_FP to TRUE negatively impacts the time
required to preempt the IDLE task from an interrupt because the floating
point context must be saved as part of the preemption.
The following illustrates how to set this macro:
.. code:: c
#define CPU_IDLE_TASK_IS_FP FALSE
CPU Dependent Idle Thread Body
==============================
CPU_PROVIDES_IDLE_THREAD_BODY Macro Setting
-------------------------------------------
The CPU_PROVIDES_IDLE_THREAD_BODY macro setting is based upon the answer
to the question: Does this port provide a CPU dependent IDLE task
implementation? If the answer to this question is yes, then the
CPU_PROVIDES_IDLE_THREAD_BODY macro should be set to TRUE, and the routine
_CPU_Thread_Idle_body must be provided. This routine overrides the
default IDLE thread body of _Thread_Idle_body. If the
CPU_PROVIDES_IDLE_THREAD_BODY macro is set to FALSE, then the generic
_Thread_Idle_body is the default IDLE thread body for this port.
Regardless of whether or not a CPU dependent IDLE thread implementation is
provided, the BSP can still override it.
This is intended to allow for supporting processors which have a low power
or idle mode. When the IDLE thread is executed, then the CPU can be
powered down when the processor is idle.
The order of precedence for selecting the IDLE thread body is:
# BSP provided
# CPU dependent (if provided)
# generic (if no BSP and no CPU dependent)
The following illustrates setting the CPU_PROVIDES_IDLE_THREAD_BODY macro:
.. code:: c
#define CPU_PROVIDES_IDLE_THREAD_BODY TRUE
Implementation details of a CPU model specific IDLE thread body are in the
next section.
Idle Thread Body
----------------
The _CPU_Thread_Idle_body routine only needs to be provided if the porter
wishes to include a CPU dependent IDLE thread body. If the port includes
a CPU dependent implementation of the IDLE thread body, then the
CPU_PROVIDES_IDLE_THREAD_BODY macro should be defined to TRUE. This
routine is prototyped as follows:
.. code:: c
void \*_CPU_Thread_Idle_body( uintptr_t );
As mentioned above, RTEMS does not require that a CPU dependent IDLE
thread body be provided as part of the port. If
CPU_PROVIDES_IDLE_THREAD_BODY is defined to FALSE, then the CPU
independent algorithm is used. This algorithm consists of a "branch to
self" which is implemented in a routine as follows.
.. code:: c
void \*_Thread_Idle_body( uintptr_t ignored )
{
while( 1 ) ;
}
If the CPU dependent IDLE thread body is implementation centers upon using
a "halt", "idle", or "shutdown" instruction, then don’t forget to put it
in an infinite loop as the CPU will have to reexecute this instruction
each time the IDLE thread is dispatched.
.. code:: c
void \*_CPU_Thread_Idle_body( uintptr_t ignored )
{
for( ; ; )
/* insert your "halt" instruction here \*/ ;
}
Be warned. Some processors with onboard DMA have been known to stop the
DMA if the CPU were put in IDLE mode. This might also be a problem with
other on-chip peripherals. So use this hook with caution.
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
Priority Bitmap Manipulation
############################
Introduction
============
The RTEMS chain of ready tasks is implemented as an array of FIFOs with
each priority having its own FIFO. This makes it very efficient to
determine the first and last ready task at each priority. In addition,
blocking a task only requires appending the task to the end of the FIFO
for its priority rather than a lengthy search down a single chain of all
ready tasks. This works extremely well except for one problem. When the
currently executing task blocks, there may be no easy way to determine
what is the next most important ready task. If the blocking task was the
only ready task at its priority, then RTEMS must search all of the FIFOs
in the ready chain to determine the highest priority with a ready task.
RTEMS uses a bitmap array to efficiently solve this problem. The state of
each bit in the priority map bit array indicates whether or not there is a
ready task at that priority. The bit array can be efficiently searched to
determine the highest priority ready task. This family of data type and
routines is used to maintain and search the bit map array.
When manipulating the bitmap array, RTEMS internally divides the
8 bits of the task priority into "major" and "minor" components.
The most significant 4 bits are the major component, while the least
significant are the minor component. The major component of a priority
value is used to determine which 16-bit wide entry in the``_Priority_Bit_map`` array is associated with this priority.
Each element in the ``_Priority_Bit_map`` array has a bit
in the ``_Priority_Major_bit_map`` associated with it.
That bit is cleared when all of the bits in a particular``_Priority_Bit_map`` array entry are zero.
The minor component of a priority is used to determine
specifically which bit in ``_Priority_Bit_map[major]``
indicates whether or not there is a ready to execute task
at the priority.
_Priority_bit_map_Control Type
==============================
The ``_Priority_Bit_map_Control`` type is the fundamental data type of the
priority bit map array used to determine which priorities have ready
tasks. This type may be either 16 or 32 bits wide although only the 16
least significant bits will be used. The data type is based upon what is
the most efficient type for this CPU to manipulate. For example, some
CPUs have bit scan instructions that only operate on a particular size of
data. In this case, this type will probably be defined to work with this
instruction.
Find First Bit Routine
======================
The _CPU_Bitfield_Find_first_bit routine sets _output to the bit number of
the first bit set in ``_value``. ``_value`` is of CPU dependent type``Priority_bit_map_Control``. A stub version of this routine is as follows:
.. code:: c
#define _CPU_Bitfield_Find_first_bit( _value, _output ) \\
{ \\
(_output) = 0; /* do something to prevent warnings \*/ \\
}
There are a number of variables in using a "find first bit" type
instruction.
# What happens when run on a value of zero?
# Bits may be numbered from MSB to LSB or vice-versa.
# The numbering may be zero or one based.
# The "find first bit" instruction may search from MSB or LSB.
RTEMS guarantees that (1) will never happen so it is not a concern.
Cases (2),(3), (4) are handled by the macros _CPU_Priority_mask() and
_CPU_Priority_bits_index(). These three form a set of routines which must
logically operate together. Bits in the ``_value`` are set and cleared based
on masks built by CPU_Priority_mask(). The basic major and minor values
calculated by _Priority_Major() and _Priority_Minor() are "massaged" by
_CPU_Priority_bits_index() to properly range between the values returned
by the "find first bit" instruction. This makes it possible for
_Priority_Get_highest() to calculate the major and directly index into the
minor table. This mapping is necessary to ensure that 0 (a high priority
major/minor) is the first bit found.
This entire "find first bit" and mapping process depends heavily on the
manner in which a priority is broken into a major and minor components
with the major being the 4 MSB of a priority and minor the 4 LSB. Thus (0
<< 4) + 0 corresponds to priority 0 – the highest priority. And (15 <<
4) + 14 corresponds to priority 254 – the next to the lowest priority.
If your CPU does not have a "find first bit" instruction, then there are
ways to make do without it. Here are a handful of ways to implement this
in software:
- a series of 16 bit test instructions
- a "binary search using if’s"
- the following algorithm based upon a 16 entry lookup table. In this pseudo-code, bit_set_table[16] has values which indicate the first bit set:
.. code:: c
_number = 0 if _value > 0x00ff
_value >>=8
_number = 8;
if _value > 0x0000f
_value >=8
_number += 4
_number += bit_set_table[ _value ]
The following illustrates how the CPU_USE_GENERIC_BITFIELD_CODE macro may
be so the port can use the generic implementation of this bitfield code.
This can be used temporarily during the porting process to avoid writing
these routines until the end. This results in a functional although lower
performance port. This is perfectly acceptable during development and
testing phases.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_USE_GENERIC_BITFIELD_CODE TRUE
#define CPU_USE_GENERIC_BITFIELD_DATA TRUE
Eventually, CPU specific implementations of these routines are usually
written since they dramatically impact the performance of blocking
operations. However they may take advantage of instructions which are not
available on all models in the CPU family. In this case, one might find
something like this stub example did:
.. code:: c
#if (CPU_USE_GENERIC_BITFIELD_CODE == FALSE)
#define _CPU_Bitfield_Find_first_bit( _value, _output ) \\
{ \\
(_output) = 0; /* do something to prevent warnings \*/ \\
}
#endif
Build Bit Field Mask
====================
The _CPU_Priority_Mask routine builds the mask that corresponds to the bit
fields searched by _CPU_Bitfield_Find_first_bit(). See the discussion of
that routine for more details.
The following is a typical implementation when the
_CPU_Bitfield_Find_first_bit searches for the most significant bit set:
.. code:: c
#if (CPU_USE_GENERIC_BITFIELD_CODE == FALSE)
#define _CPU_Priority_Mask( _bit_number ) \\
( 1 << (_bit_number) )
#endif
Bit Scan Support
================
The ``_CPU_Priority_bits_index`` routine translates the bit numbers
returned by ``_CPU_Bitfield_Find_first_bit()`` into something
suitable for use as a major or minor component of a priority.
The find first bit routine may number the bits in a
way that is difficult to map into the major and minor components
of the priority. For example, when finding the first bit set in
the value 0x8000, a CPU may indicate that bit 15 or 16 is set
based on whether the least significant bit is "zero" or "one".
Similarly, a CPU may only scan 32-bit values and consider the
most significant bit to be bit zero or one. In this case, this
would be bit 16 or 17.
This routine allows that unwieldy form to be converted
into a normalized form that is easier to process and use
as an index.
.. code:: c
#if (CPU_USE_GENERIC_BITFIELD_CODE == FALSE)
#define _CPU_Priority_bits_index( _priority ) \\
(_priority)
#endif
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
Code Tuning Parameters
######################
Inline Thread_Enable_dispatch
=============================
Should the calls to _Thread_Enable_dispatch be inlined?
If TRUE, then they are inlined.
If FALSE, then a subroutine call is made.
Basically this is an example of the classic trade-off of size versus
speed. Inlining the call (TRUE) typically increases the size of RTEMS
while speeding up the enabling of dispatching.
[NOTE: In general, the _Thread_Dispatch_disable_level will only be 0 or 1
unless you are in an interrupt handler and that interrupt handler invokes
the executive.] When not inlined something calls _Thread_Enable_dispatch
which in turns calls _Thread_Dispatch. If the enable dispatch is inlined,
then one subroutine call is avoided entirely.]
.. code:: c
#define CPU_INLINE_ENABLE_DISPATCH FALSE
Inline Thread_queue_Enqueue_priority
====================================
Should the body of the search loops in _Thread_queue_Enqueue_priority be
unrolled one time? In unrolled each iteration of the loop examines two
"nodes" on the chain being searched. Otherwise, only one node is examined
per iteration.
If TRUE, then the loops are unrolled.
If FALSE, then the loops are not unrolled.
The primary factor in making this decision is the cost of disabling and
enabling interrupts (_ISR_Flash) versus the cost of rest of the body of
the loop. On some CPUs, the flash is more expensive than one iteration of
the loop body. In this case, it might be desirable to unroll the loop.
It is important to note that on some CPUs, this code is the longest
interrupt disable period in RTEMS. So it is necessary to strike a balance
when setting this parameter.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_UNROLL_ENQUEUE_PRIORITY TRUE
Structure Alignment Optimization
================================
The following macro may be defined to the attribute setting used to force
alignment of critical RTEMS structures. On some processors it may make
sense to have these aligned on tighter boundaries than the minimum
requirements of the compiler in order to have as much of the critical data
area as possible in a cache line. This ensures that the first access of
an element in that structure fetches most, if not all, of the data
structure and places it in the data cache. Modern CPUs often have cache
lines of at least 16 bytes and thus a single access implicitly fetches
some surrounding data and places that unreferenced data in the cache.
Taking advantage of this allows RTEMS to essentially prefetch critical
data elements.
The placement of this macro in the declaration of the variables is based
on the syntactically requirements of the GNU C "__attribute__" extension.
For another toolset, the placement of this macro could be incorrect. For
example with GNU C, use the following definition of
CPU_STRUCTURE_ALIGNMENT to force a structures to a 32 byte boundary.
#define CPU_STRUCTURE_ALIGNMENT __attribute__ ((aligned (32)))
To benefit from using this, the data must be heavily used so it will stay
in the cache and used frequently enough in the executive to justify
turning this on. NOTE: Because of this, only the Priority Bit Map table
currently uses this feature.
The following illustrates how the CPU_STRUCTURE_ALIGNMENT is defined on
ports which require no special alignment for optimized access to data
structures:
.. code:: c
#define CPU_STRUCTURE_ALIGNMENT
Data Alignment Requirements
===========================
Data Element Alignment
----------------------
The CPU_ALIGNMENT macro should be set to the CPU’s worst alignment
requirement for data types on a byte boundary. This is typically the
alignment requirement for a C double. This alignment does not take into
account the requirements for the stack.
The following sets the CPU_ALIGNMENT macro to 8 which indicates that there
is a basic C data type for this port which much be aligned to an 8 byte
boundary.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_ALIGNMENT 8
Heap Element Alignment
----------------------
The CPU_HEAP_ALIGNMENT macro is set to indicate the byte alignment
requirement for data allocated by the RTEMS Code Heap Handler. This
alignment requirement may be stricter than that for the data types
alignment specified by CPU_ALIGNMENT. It is common for the heap to follow
the same alignment requirement as CPU_ALIGNMENT. If the CPU_ALIGNMENT is
strict enough for the heap, then this should be set to CPU_ALIGNMENT. This
macro is necessary to ensure that allocated memory is properly aligned for
use by high level language routines.
The following example illustrates how the CPU_HEAP_ALIGNMENT macro is set
when the required alignment for elements from the heap is the same as the
basic CPU alignment requirements.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_HEAP_ALIGNMENT CPU_ALIGNMENT
NOTE: This does not have to be a power of 2. It does have to be greater
or equal to than CPU_ALIGNMENT.
Partition Element Alignment
---------------------------
The CPU_PARTITION_ALIGNMENT macro is set to indicate the byte alignment
requirement for memory buffers allocated by the RTEMS Partition Manager
that is part of the Classic API. This alignment requirement may be
stricter than that for the data types alignment specified by
CPU_ALIGNMENT. It is common for the partition to follow the same
alignment requirement as CPU_ALIGNMENT. If the CPU_ALIGNMENT is strict
enough for the partition, then this should be set to CPU_ALIGNMENT. This
macro is necessary to ensure that allocated memory is properly aligned for
use by high level language routines.
The following example illustrates how the CPU_PARTITION_ALIGNMENT macro is
set when the required alignment for elements from the RTEMS Partition
Manager is the same as the basic CPU alignment requirements.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_PARTITION_ALIGNMENT CPU_ALIGNMENT
NOTE: This does not have to be a power of 2. It does have to be greater
or equal to than CPU_ALIGNMENT.
.. COMMENT: COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002.
.. COMMENT: On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR).
.. COMMENT: All rights reserved.
Miscellaneous
#############
Fatal Error Default Handler
===========================
The ``_CPU_Fatal_halt`` routine is the default fatal error handler. This
routine copies _error into a known place – typically a stack location or
a register, optionally disables interrupts, and halts/stops the CPU. It
is prototyped as follows and is often implemented as a macro:
.. code:: c
void _CPU_Fatal_halt(
unsigned32 _error
);
CPU Context Validation
======================
The test case ``sptests/spcontext01`` ensures that the context switching and
interrupt processing works. This test uses two support functions provided by
the CPU port. These two functions are only used for this test and have no
other purpose.
.. code:: c
void _CPU_Context_volatile_clobber( uintptr_t pattern );
void _CPU_Context_validate( uintptr_t pattern );
The ``_CPU_Context_volatile_clobber()`` function clobbers all volatile
registers with values derived from the pattern parameter. This makes sure that
the interrupt prologue code restores all volatile registers of the interrupted
context.
The ``_CPU_Context_validate()`` function initializes and validates the CPU
context with values derived from the pattern parameter. This function will not
return if the CPU context remains consistent. In case this function returns
the CPU port is broken. The test uses two threads which concurrently validate
the CPU context with a different patterns for each thread. This ensures that
the context switching code works.
Processor Endianness
====================
Endianness refers to the order in which numeric values are stored in
memory by the microprocessor. Big endian architectures store the most
significant byte of a multi-byte numeric value in the byte with the lowest
address. This results in the hexadecimal value 0x12345678 being stored as
0x12345678 with 0x12 in the byte at offset zero, 0x34 in the byte at
offset one, etc.. The Motorola M68K and numerous RISC processor families
is big endian. Conversely, little endian architectures store the least
significant byte of a multi-byte numeric value in the byte with the lowest
address. This results in the hexadecimal value 0x12345678 being stored as
0x78563412 with 0x78 in the byte at offset zero, 0x56 in the byte at
offset one, etc.. The Intel ix86 family is little endian.
Interestingly, some CPU models within the PowerPC and MIPS architectures
can be switched between big and little endian modes. Most embedded
systems use these families strictly in big endian mode.
RTEMS must be informed of the byte ordering for this microprocessor family
and, optionally, endian conversion routines may be provided as part of the
port. Conversion between endian formats is often necessary in
multiprocessor environments and sometimes needed when interfacing with
peripheral controllers.
Specifying Processor Endianness
-------------------------------
The ``CPU_BIG_ENDIAN`` and ``CPU_LITTLE_ENDIAN`` are
set to specify the endian
format used by this microprocessor. These macros should not be set to the
same value. The following example illustrates how these macros should be
set on a processor family that is big endian.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_BIG_ENDIAN TRUE
#define CPU_LITTLE_ENDIAN FALSE
The ``CPU_MPCI_RECEIVE_SERVER_EXTRA_STACK`` macro is set to the amount of
stack space above the minimum thread stack space required by the MPCI
Receive Server Thread. This macro is needed because in a multiprocessor
system the MPCI Receive Server Thread must be able to process all
directives.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_MPCI_RECEIVE_SERVER_EXTRA_STACK 0
Endian Swap Unsigned Integers
-----------------------------
The port should provide routines to swap sixteen (``CPU_swap_u16``) and
thirty-bit (``CPU_swap_u32``) unsigned integers. These are primarily used in
two areas of RTEMS - multiprocessing support and the network endian swap
routines. The ``CPU_swap_u32`` routine must be implemented as a static
routine rather than a macro because its address is taken and used
indirectly. On the other hand, the ``CPU_swap_u16`` routine may be
implemented as a macro.
Some CPUs have special instructions that swap a 32-bit quantity in a
single instruction (e.g. i486). It is probably best to avoid an "endian
swapping control bit" in the CPU. One good reason is that interrupts
would probably have to be disabled to insure that an interrupt does not
try to access the same "chunk" with the wrong endian. Another good reason
is that on some CPUs, the endian bit endianness for ALL fetches – both
code and data – so the code will be fetched incorrectly.
The following is an implementation of the ``CPU_swap_u32`` routine that will
work on any CPU. It operates by breaking the unsigned thirty-two bit
integer into four byte-wide quantities and reassemblying them.
.. code:: c
static inline unsigned int CPU_swap_u32(
unsigned int value
)
{
unsigned32 byte1, byte2, byte3, byte4, swapped;
byte4 = (value >> 24) & 0xff;
byte3 = (value >> 16) & 0xff;
byte2 = (value >> 8) & 0xff;
byte1 = value & 0xff;
swapped = (byte1 << 24) | (byte2 << 16) | (byte3 << 8) | byte4;
return( swapped );
}
Although the above implementation is portable, it is not particularly
efficient. So if there is a better way to implement this on a particular
CPU family or model, please do so. The efficiency of this routine has
significant impact on the efficiency of the multiprocessing support code
in the shared memory driver and in network applications using the ntohl()
family of routines.
Most microprocessor families have rotate instructions which can be used to
greatly improve the ``CPU_swap_u32`` routine. The most common
way to do this is to:
.. code:: c
swap least significant two bytes with 16-bit rotate
swap upper and lower 16-bits
swap most significant two bytes with 16-bit rotate
Some CPUs have special instructions that swap a 32-bit quantity in a
single instruction (e.g. i486). It is probably best to avoid an "endian
swapping control bit" in the CPU. One good reason is that interrupts
would probably have to be disabled to insure that an interrupt does not
try to access the same "chunk" with the wrong endian. Another good reason
is that on some CPUs, the endian bit endianness for ALL fetches – both
code and data – so the code will be fetched incorrectly.
Similarly, here is a portable implementation of the ``CPU_swap_u16``
routine. Just as with the ``CPU_swap_u32`` routine, the porter
should provide a better implementation if possible.
.. code:: c
#define CPU_swap_u16( value ) \\
(((value&0xff) << 8) | ((value >> 8)&0xff))
Command and Variable Index
##########################
There are currently no Command and Variable Index entries.
.. COMMENT: @printindex fn
Concept Index
#############
There are currently no Concept Index entries.
.. COMMENT: @printindex cp