Samsung Microphone S3C84E5 User Manual

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S3C84E5/C84E9/P84E9  
 
INTERRUPT STRUCTURE 
 
 
5-1 
5
 
INTERRUPT STRUCTURE 
OVERVIEW 
The S3C8-series interrupt structure has three basic components: levels, vectors, and sources. The SAM8 CPU 
recognizes up to eight interrupt levels and supports up to 128 interrupt vectors. When a specific interrupt level has 
more than one vector address, the vector priorities are established in hardware. A vector address can be assigned to 
one or more sources. 
Levels 
Interrupt levels are the main unit for interrupt priority assignment and recognition. All peripherals and I/O blocks can 
issue interrupt requests. In other words, peripheral and I/O operations are interrupt-driven. There are eight possible 
interrupt levels: IRQ0–IRQ7, also called level 0–level 7. Each interrupt level directly corresponds to an interrupt 
request number (IRQn). The total number of interrupt levels used in the interrupt structure varies from device to 
device. The S3C84E5/C84E9/P84E9 interrupt structure recognizes eight interrupt levels. 
The interrupt level numbers 0 through 7 do not necessarily indicate the relative priority of the levels. They are just 
identifiers for the interrupt levels that are recognized by the CPU. The relative priority of different interrupt levels is 
determined by settings in the interrupt priority register, IPR. Interrupt group and subgroup logic controlled by IPR 
settings lets you define more complex priority relationships between different levels. 
Vectors 
Each interrupt level can have one or more interrupt vectors, or it may have no vector address assigned at all. The 
maximum number of vectors that can be supported for a given level is 128 (The actual number of vectors used for 
S3C8-series devices is always much smaller). If an interrupt level has more than one vector address, the vector 
priorities are set in hardware. S3C84E5/C84E9/P84E9 uses twenty-one vectors. 
Sources 
A source is any peripheral that generates an interrupt. A source can be an external pin or a counter overflow. Each 
vector can have several interrupt sources. In the S3C84E5/C84E9/P84E9 interrupt structure, there are twenty-one 
possible interrupt sources. 
When a service routine starts, the respective pending bit should be either cleared automatically by hardware or 
cleared "manually" by program software. The characteristics of the source's pending mechanism determine which 
method would be used to clear its respective pending bit.