@c @c COPYRIGHT (c) 1988-2002. @c On-Line Applications Research Corporation (OAR). @c All rights reserved. @c @c $Id$ @c @chapter Miscellaneous @section 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: @example void _CPU_Fatal_halt( unsigned32 _error ); @end example @section 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. @subsection 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. @example #define CPU_BIG_ENDIAN TRUE #define CPU_LITTLE_ENDIAN FALSE @end example @subsection Optional Endian Conversion Routines In a networked environment, each program communicating must agree on the format of data passed between the various systems in the networked application. Routines such as ntohl() and htonl() are used to convert between the common network format and the native format used on this particular host system. Although RTEMS has a portable implementation of these endian conversion routines, it is often possible to implement these routines more efficiently in a processor specific fashion. The CPU_HAS_OWN_HOST_TO_NETWORK_ROUTINES is set to TRUE when the port provides its own implementation of the network to host and host to network family of routines. This set of routines include the following: @itemize @bullet @item XXX list of routines in bullets @end itemize The following example illustrates how this macro should be set when the generic, portable implementation of this family of routines is to be used by this port: @example #define CPU_HAS_OWN_HOST_TO_NETWORK_ROUTINES FALSE @end example @section Extra Stack for MPCI Receive Thread 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. @example #define CPU_MPCI_RECEIVE_SERVER_EXTRA_STACK 0 @end example @subsection 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. @example 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 ); @} @end example 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: @example swap least significant two bytes with 16-bit rotate swap upper and lower 16-bits swap most significant two bytes with 16-bit rotate @end example 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. @example #define CPU_swap_u16( value ) \ (((value&0xff) << 8) | ((value >> 8)&0xff)) @end example