Nios® V Processor Reference Manual

ID 683632
Date 10/02/2023
Public

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4.3.9. Interrupt Controller

The Nios® V/g processor implementation supports the following interrupts:
  • Platform interrupts with 16 level-sensitive interrupt request (IRQ) inputs.
  • Internally-generated Timer and Software interrupt. You can access the timer interrupt register using the Timer and Software interrupt module interface by connecting to the data bus.

During an interrupt, the core writes the program counter of the attached instruction into the machine exception program counter (mepc) register. An interrupt is usually attached to the instruction in E-stage or in the preceding F-stage or D-stage pipeline. Because the M-stage initiates the general-purpose register, the core is not capable of retracting a memory instruction in the M-stage. If an instruction in M-stage flags an exception while an interrupt is pending and ready to be serviced, the core fetches and executes the exception instruction. If a memory or multicycle instruction is pending in the M-stage, for example, the core is waiting for the response, the core does not flag an interrupt until it receives a response for that instruction. Pending interrupts are flagged by their corresponding bits in Machine Interrupt-Pending (mip) register.

An interrupt is taken only when Machine Status Register (mstatus) bit 3 is asserted and bits corresponding to its pending interrupt in Machine Interrupt-pending (mip) register is asserted.

Table 71.  Interrupt Control and Status Registers/Bits
Register Status Registers/Bits Description
mstatus mstatus[3]/Machine Interrupt-Enable (MIE) field Global interrupt-enable bit for machine mode
mie mie[31:16]/Platform interrupt-enable field Platform interrupt-enable bit for 16 hardware interrupts
mie[7]/Machine Timer Interrupt-Enable (MTIE) field Timer interrupt-enable bit for machine mode
mie[3]/Machine Software Interrupt-enable (MSIE) field Software interrupt-enable bit for machine mode
mip mip[31:16]/Platform interrupt-pending field Platform interrupt-pending bit for 16 hardware interrupts
mip[7]/Machine Timer Interrupt-Pending (MTIP) field Timer interrupt-pending bit for machine mode
mip[3]/Machine Software Interrupt-Pending (MSIP) field Software interrupt-pending bit for machine mode