Nios II Classic Processor Reference Guide

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

3.7.9.2. Exception Flow with the EIC Interface

If the EIC interface is present, interrupt processing differs markedly from noninterrupt exception processing. The EIC interface provides the following information to the Nios® II processor for each interrupt request:
  • RHA—The requested handler address for the interrupt handler assigned to the requested interrupt.
  • RRS—The requested register set to be used when the interrupt handler executes. If shadow register sets are not implemented, RRS must always be 0.
  • RIL—The requested interrupt level specifies the priority of the interrupt.
  • RNMI—The requested NMI flag specifies whether to treat the interrupt as nonmaskable.

    For further information about the RHA, RRS, RIL and RNMI, refer to “The Nios II/f Core” in the Nios II Core Implementation Details chapter of the Nios II Processor Reference Handbook.

When the EIC interface presents an interrupt to the Nios® II processor, the processor uses several criteria, as follows, to determine whether to take the interrupt:

  • Nonmaskable interrupts—The processor takes any NMI as long as it is not processing a previous NMI.
  • Maskable interrupts—The processor takes a maskable interrupt if maskable interrupts are enabled, and if the requested interrupt level is higher than that of the interrupt currently being processed (if any). However, if shadow register sets are implemented, the processor takes the interrupt only if the interrupt requests a register set different from the current register set, or if the register set interrupt enable flag (status.RSIE) is set.
    Table 42.  Conditions Required to Take External Interrupt
    RNMI == 1 RNMI == 0
    status.NMI == 0 status.NMI == 1 status.PIE == 0 status.PIE == 1
    RIL <= status.IL RIL > status.IL
    Processor Has Shadow Register Sets No Shadow Register Sets
    RRS == status.CRS RRS != status.CRS
    status.RSIE == 0 status.RSIE == 1
    Yes No No No No 13 Yes Yes Yes

The Nios® II processor supports fast nested interrupts with shadow register sets, as described in  the "Shadow Register Set" section of this chapter.

Keeping status.PIE set allows higher level interrupts to be taken immediate, without requiring the interrupt handler to set status.PIE to 1.

The processor disables maskable interrupts when taking an exception, just as it does without shadow register sets. An individual interrupt handler can re-enable interrupts by setting status.PIE to 1, if desired.

13 Nested interrupts using the same register set are allowed only if system software has explicitly permitted them by setting status.RSIE. This restriction ensures that such interrupts are taken only if the handler is coded to save the register context.