Nios II Classic Processor Reference Guide

ID 683620
Date 10/28/2016
Public
Document Table of Contents

3.7.4. Reset Exceptions

When a processor reset signal is asserted, the Nios® II processor performs the following steps:
  1. Sets status.RSIE to 1, and clears all other fields of the status register.
  2. Invalidates the instruction cache line associated with the reset vector.
  3. Begins executing the reset handler, located at the reset vector.
Note: All noninterrupt exception handlers must run in the normal register set.

Clearing the status.PIE field disables maskable interrupts. If the MMU or MPU is present, clearing the status.U field forces the processor into supervisor mode.

Note: Nonmaskable interrupts (NMIs) are not affected by status.PIE, and can be taken while processing a reset exception.

Invalidating the reset cache line guarantees that instruction fetches for reset code comes from uncached memory.

Aside from the instruction cache line associated with the reset vector, the contents of the cache memories are indeterminate after reset. To ensure cache coherency after reset, the reset handler located at the reset vector must immediately initialize the instruction cache. Next, either the reset handler or a subsequent routine should proceed to initialize the data cache.

The reset state is undefined for all other system components, including but not limited to:

  • General-purpose registers, except for zero (r0) in the normal register set, which is permanently zero.
  • Control registers, except for status. status.RSIE is reset to 1, and the remaining fields are reset to 0.
  • Instruction and data memory.
  • Cache memory, except for the instruction cache line associated with the reset vector.
  • Peripherals. Refer to the appropriate peripheral data sheet or specification for reset conditions.
  • Custom instruction logic
  • Nios II C-to-hardware (C2H) acceleration compiler logic.

For more information refer to the Nios II Custom Instruction User Guide for reset conditions.