Nios® V Processor Reference Manual

ID 683632
Date 5/25/2025
Public

Visible to Intel only — GUID: iif1740981783911

Ixiasoft

Document Table of Contents

4.3.2.1.2. CLIC with Number of CLIC interrupt levels option

Pre-emption in CLIC enables processor to prioritize interrupts, requiring a new shadow register set to service the new interrupt. As such, each interrupt level has its own Shadow Register File (SRF) for handling interrupts, except for the Application Level, which uses the General-Purpose Register (GPR).

For example, if the processor supports 5 interrupt levels, you have:

  • Application level 0
  • Actual interrupt level 63, 127, 191 and 255

When you configure the Shadow Register Files to Number of CLIC interrupt levels, the system utilizes four SRFs and one GPR. There are five register sets, which translates to the “5” concept. The Nios® V processor allocates the shadow register set to interrupt handlers using a “first come, first serve” basis starting from SRF1, while the Application Level uses the GPR.

Figure 13. Shadow Register in CLIC with Number of CLIC interrupt levels option