Embedded Processor

Unit II
ARM7,ARM9,ARM11 processors
ARM - Introduction
 Advances RISC Machines (now known as ARM) was established
as a joint venture between Acorn, Apple and VLSI between Acorn,
Apple and VLSI in November 1990
 ARM is the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded
RISC microprocessor solutions
 The company licenses its high-performance, low-cost, power-
efficient RISC processors, peripherals, and system-chip designs
to leading international electronics companies
 ARM provides comprehensive support required in
developing a complete system

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ARM Processor Versions

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Development of the ARM Architecture
v4 v5 v6 v7
Halfword and Improved SIMD Instructions
Thumb-2
signed halfword / interworking Multi-processing
byte support CLZ v6 Memory architecture
Architecture Profiles
Saturated arithmetic Unaligned data support
System mode DSP MAC 7-A -
instructions Extensions: Applications
Thumb Thumb-2 7-R - Real-time
instruction set Extensions: (6T2) 7-M -
(v4T) Jazelle TrustZone® Microcontroller
(5TEJ) (6Z)
Multicore
(6K)
Thumb only
(6-M)
 Note that implementations of the same architecture can be
different
 Cortex-A8 - architecture v7-A, with a 13-stage pipeline
 Cortex-A9 - architecture v7-A, with an 8-stage pipeline

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ARM - Introduction
 Arm 7
– The ARM7 cell is functionally identical to the ARM6 cell in capabilities but may
be clocked faster than the ARM6
– A variant of the ARM7 cell offers an improved hardware multiply, suitable for
DSP work
 Arm 8
– Includes a five stage pipeline, a speculative instruction fetcher and internal
tweaks to the processor to allow a higher clock speed
 StrongARM
– This is the high speed variant of the ARM chip family
– Architecturally it is similar to the ARM8 core, sharing the five stage pipeline
with that processor
– A further difference is change from a unified data and instruction cache to a
split, Harvard architecture, instruction and data cache

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ARM - Introduction
 ARM9
– An incremental improvement over the ARM8 this chip features the
same five stage pipeline but is now a Harvard Architecture chip, like
the StrongARM
 ARM 10
– 300 MHz
– 400 MIPS

– 600 mWatts

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Comparisons of ARM Processor

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ARM Powered Products
Consumer
Automotive Digital Imaging
Entertainment

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ARM7 - Features
 32-bit RISC processor (32-bit data & address bus)
 Big and Little Endian operating modes
 High performance RISC (17 MIPS sustained @ 25 MHz (25 MIPS
peak) @ 3V)
 Low power consumption (0.6mA/MHz @ 3V fabricated in .8µm
CMOS)
 Fully static operation (ideal for power-sensitive applications)
 Fast interrupt response (for real-time applications)
 Virtual Memory System Support
 Excellent high-level language support
 Simple but powerful instruction set

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ARM7 - Applications
 The ARM7 is ideally suited to those applications requiring RISC
performance from a compact, power-efficient processor
– Telecomms - GSM terminal controller
– Datacomms - Protocol conversion
– Portable Computing - Palmtop computer
– Portable Instrument - Hendheld data acquisition unit
– Automotive - Engine management unit
– Information systems - Smart cards
– Imaging - JPEG controller

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ARM9 - Features
 Some of the features offered by the ARM9 processor are:
 Java acceleration
 DSP extensions
 Optional floating point unit
 Flexible local memory system with cache and exceptional Tightly
Coupled Memory (TCM) integration
 Binary compatibility with the ARM7TDMI® processor

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ARM9 - Applications
Product Type Application
Smartphones, PDA, Set top box,
Consumer PMP, Electronic toys, Digital still
cameras, Digital video cameras etc
Wireless LAN, 802.11, Bluetooth,
Networking Firewire, SCSI, 2.5G/3G Baseband
etc
Power train, ABS, Body systems,
Automotive
Navigation, Infotainment etc
USB controllers,bluetooth controllers,
Embedded
medical scanners etc
HDD controllers, solid state drives
Storage
etc
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ARM11 - Features
 Powerful ARMv6 instruction set architecture ARM Thumb® instruction
set reduces memory bandwidth and size requirements by up to 35% ARM
Jazelle® technology for efficient embedded Java execution ARM DSP
extensions SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) media processing
extensions deliver up to 2x performance for video processing ARM
TrustZone® technology for on-chip security foundation (ARM1176JZ-S and
ARM1176JZF-S processors) Thumb-2 technology (ARM1156(F)-S only) for
enhanced performance, energy efficiency and code density Low power
consumption: 0.21 mW/MHz (65G) including cache controllers
 Energy saving power-down modes address static leakage currents in
advanced processes
 High performance integer processor 8-stage integer pipeline delivers high
clock frequency (9 stages for ARM1156T2(F)-S)
 Separate load-store and arithmetic pipelines
 Branch Prediction and Return Stack
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 ARM11 - Applications

 Consumer:- Smart Phone, Home Video Security

 Wireless:-

 Automotive :-Electronic Control unit of automobiles

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ARM7 - Block Diagram
A[31:0]
AL E nEX EC
D AT A32
I B IG EN D
Address R egister n PR O G 32
c
r MCLK
e nW AIT
P m
e nR W
C n
A Address nB W
L B t
U u Increm enter e Instruction nIR Q
s r nF IQ
B Decoder &
u B nR E SE T
s u C ontrol Logic
s AB O R T
R egister B ank nO PC
(31 x 32 bit registers) nT R AN S
(6 status registers) nM R E Q
SEQ
LOCK
nC P I
B CPA
A CPB
B ooth's b
b u nM [4:0]
u M ultiplier s
s

Barrel S hifter

W rite D ata Register Instruction Pipeline & Read

Data Register
32 bit ALU

D O U T [31:0] D AT A[31:0] 15/50

ARM7 - Functional Diagram
Pro ce sso r
nM [4:0] M od e
nW AIT
C locks MCLK A[31 :0 ]

P R O G 32 D AT A[31:0]
C o nfig uratio n D AT A32
B IG E N D D O U T [31:0]

nEN O U T M em o ry
nEXE C Interface
nM R EQ
nIR Q ARM 7 SEQ
Interrup ts nF IQ nR W
nB W
nR E SE T LO C K

AL E nT R AN S M em o ry
B us C ontrols AB O R T M anag em e nt
DBE Interface
nO PC
VD D nC PI C o p ro ce ssor
Po w er V SS CPA Interface
CPB
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 ARM7 - Signal Description
 Clocks  Bus Controls
– MCLK Memory Clock Input – ALE Address latch enable
– nWAIT Not wait – DBE Data bus enable
 Configuration  Power
– PROG32 32 bit program – VDD Power supply
configuration – VSS Ground
– DATA32 32 bit data configuration  Processor Mode
– BIGEND Big Endian configuration – nM[4:0] Not processor mode
 Interrupts
– nIRQ Not interrupt request
– nFIQ Not fast interrupt request

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ARM7 - Signal Description
 Memory Interface
– A[31:0] Addresses
– DATA[31:0] Data bus in
– DOUT[31:0] Data bus out
– nENOUT Not enable data
outputs
– nMREQ Not memory request
– SEQ Sequential address
– nRW Not read/write
– nBW Not byte/word
– LOCK Locked operation
 Memory Management Interface
– nTRANS Not memory translate
– ABORT Memory abort
 Coprocessor Interface
– nOPC Not op-code fetch
– nCPI Not coprocessor
instruction
– CPA Coprocessor absent
– CPB Coprocessor busy
 Other
– nEXEC ******************
– nRESET Not reset
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ARM Core data flow

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 ARM Core data flow Contd..

Von-Neumann implementation – data items and instructions share

the same bus.
● Instruction decoder translates instructions before they are
executed.
● Load instruction: copy data from memory to register
● Store instruction: copy data from register to memory
● There are no data processing instructions that directly manipulate
data in memory.
● Data items are placed in the register file – a storage bank made
up of 32-bit registers.
● ARM instructions typically have two source registers Rn and Rm
and one destination register
Rd.
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 ARM Core data flow Contd..

● ALU and MAC (Multiply-accumulate) unit takes the register values

Rn and Rm from A and B buses and computes a result.
● Load and store instructions use the ALU to generate an address to be
held in the address
register and broadcast on the Address bus.
● The register Rm can be alternatively pre-processed in the barrel
shifter before it enters the ALU.
● For load and store instructions the incrementer updates the address
register before the core reads or writes the next register value from or
to the next sequential memory location.

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Data Sizes and Instruction Sets
 ARM is a 32-bit load / store RISC architecture
– The only memory accesses allowed are loads and stores
– Most internal registers are 32 bits wide
– Most instructions execute in a single cycle

 When used in relation to ARM cores

– Half word means 16 bits (two bytes)
– Word means 32 bits (four bytes)
– Double word means 64 bits (eight bytes)

 ARM cores implement two basic instruction sets

– ARM instruction set – instructions are all 32 bits long
– Thumb instruction set – instructions are a mix of 16 and 32 bits
• Thumb-2 technology added many extra 32- and 16-bit instructions to the original 16-bit
Thumb instruction set

 Depending on the core, may also implement other instruction sets

– VFP instruction set – 32 bit (vector) floating point instructions
– NEON instruction set – 32 bit SIMD instructions
– Jazelle-DBX - provides acceleration for Java VMs (with additional software support)
– Jazelle-RCT - provides support for interpreted languages

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 ARM7 - Programmer’s Model
 37 registers
– 31 general 32 bit registers
– 6 status registers
 16 general registers and one or two status registers are visible at
any time
 The visible registers depend on the processor mode
 The other registers (the banked registers) are switched in to
support IRQ, FIQ, Supervisor, Abort and Undefined mode
processing

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ARM7 - Registers
 R0 to R15 are directly accessible
– R0 to R14 are general purpose
– R15 holds the Program Counter (PC)
 CPSR - Current Program Status Register contains condition code
flags and the current mode bits
 5 SPSRs (Saved Program Status Registers) which are loaded with
CPSR when an exceptions occurs

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The ARM Register Set
User mode IRQ FIQ Undef Abort SVC
r0
r1
r2 ARM has 37 registers, all 32-bits long
r3
r4 A subset of these registers is accessible in each
r5 mode
r6 Note: System mode uses the User mode
r7 register set.
r8 r8
r9 r9
r10 r10
r11 r11
r12 r12
r13 (sp) r13 (sp) r13 (sp) r13 (sp) r13 (sp) r13 (sp)
r14 (lr) r14 (lr) r14 (lr) r14 (lr) r14 (lr) r14 (lr)
r15 (pc)

cpsr
spsr spsr spsr spsr spsr

Current mode Banked out registers

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ARM7 - Registers
General Registers and Program Counter Modes
User32 Fiq32 Supervisor32 Abort32 IRQ32 Undefined32
R0 R0 R0 R0 R0 R0
R1 R1 R1 R1 R1 R1
R2 R2 R2 R2 R2 R2
R3 R3 R3 R3 R3 R3
R4 R4 R4 R4 R4 R4
R5 R5 R5 R5 R5 R5
R6 R6 R6 R6 R6 R6
R7 R7 R7 R7 R7 R7
R8 R8_fiq R8 R8 R8 R8
R9 R9_fiq R9 R9 R9 R9
R10 R10_fiq R10 R10 R10 R10
R11 R11_fiq R11 R11 R11 R11
R12 R12_fiq R12 R12 R12 R12
R13 R13_fiq R13_svc R13_abt R13_irq R13_und
R14 R14_fiq R14_svc R14_abt R14_irq R14_und
R15(PC) R15(PC) R15(PC) R15(PC) R15(PC) R15(PC)

Program Status Registers

CPSR CPSR CPSR CPSR CPSR CPSR
SPSR_fiq SPSR_svc SPSR_abt SPSR_irq SPSR_und

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ARM7 - Registers
 R14 is used as the subroutine link register and receives a copy of
R15 when a Branch and Link instruction is executed
 R14_svc, R14_irq, R14_fiq, R14_abt and R14_und are used to
– hold the return values of R15 when interrupts and exceptions arise,
– when Branch and Link instructions are executed within interrupt or
exception routines
 FIQ mode has seven banked registers mapped to R8-14 (R8_fiq-
R14_fiq)
 User mode, IRQ mode, Supervisor mode, Abort mode and
Undefined mode each have two banked registers mapped to R13
and R14
 The two banked registers allow these modes to each have a
private stack pointer and link register

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ARM7 - Registers
 The N, Z, C and V are condition code flags
– may be changed as a result of arithmetic and logical operations in the
processor
– may be tested by all instructions to determine if the instruction is to be
executed
 The I and F bits are the interrupt disable bits
 The M0, M1, M2, M3 and M4 bits are the mode bits

31 30 29 28 27 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
N Z C V F I M4 M3 M2 M1 M0

O verflo w M o d e B its
C arry/B o rro w /Extend F IQ d isab le
Z ero IR Q d isab le
N eg ative/L ess T han

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ARM7 - Registers
The Mode Bits

M[4:0] Mode Accessible register set

10000 User PC R14..R0 CPSR
10001 FIQ PC R14_fiq..R8_fiq, R7..R0 CPSR, SPSR_fiq
10010 IRQ PC R14_irq..R13_irq, R12..R0 CPSR, SPSR_irq
10011 Supervisor PC R14_svc..R13_svc, R12..R0 CPSR, SPSR_svc
10111 Abort PC R14_abt..R13_abt, R12..R0 SPSR_abt
11011 Undefined PC R14_und..R13_und, R12..R0 SPSR_und

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 Processor Modes
 ARM has seven basic operating modes
– Each mode has access to its own stack space and a different subset of
registers
– Some operations can only be carried out in a privileged mode

Mode Description
Supervisor Entered on reset and when a Supervisor call
(SVC) instruction (SVC) is executed
Exception modes

Entered when a high priority (fast) interrupt is

FIQ
raised

IRQ Entered when a normal priority interrupt is raised

Privileged
modes
Abort Used to handle memory access violations

Undef Used to handle undefined instructions

Privileged mode using the same registers as User

System
mode
Mode under which most Applications / OS tasks Unprivileged
User
run mode
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ARM7 - Operating Modes

 User mode (usr): the normal program execution state

 FIQ mode (fiq): designed to support a data transfer or channel
process
 IRQ mode (irq): used for general purpose interrupt handling
 Supervisor mode (svc): a protected mode for the operating system
 Abort mode (abt): entered after a data or instruction prefetch abort
 Undefined mode (und): entered when an undefined instruction is
executed

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ARM7 - Exceptions
 Exceptions arise whenever there is a need for the normal flow of
program execution to be broken, so that the processor can be
diverted to handle an interrupt from a peripheral
 Many exceptions may arise at the same time
 When multiple exceptions arise simultaneously, a fixed priority
determines the order in which they are handled
 ARM7 handles exceptions by making use of the banked registers
to save state

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ARM7 - Exceptions
Types of Exceptions
 FIQ (Fast Interrupt reQuest)
– The FIQ exception is externally generated by taking the nFIQ input LOW.
– This input can accept asynchronous transitions, and is delayed by one
clock cycle for synchronisation before it can affect the processor
execution flow
 IRQ (Interrupt ReQuest)
– The IRQ exception is a normal interrupt caused by a LOW level on the
nIRQ input
 ABORT
– An ABORT can be signalled by the external ABORT input
– ABORT indicates that the current memory access cannot be completed

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ARM7 - Exceptions
Types of Exceptions
 Software interrupt
– The software interrupt instruction (SWI) is used for getting into
Supervisor mode, usually to request a particular supervisor function
 Undefined instruction trap
– When the ARM7 comes across an instruction which it cannot handle it
offers it to any coprocessors which may be present
– If a coprocessor can perform this instruction but is busy at that time,
ARM7 will wait until the coprocessor is ready or until an interrupt
occurs
– If no coprocessor can handle the instruction then ARM7 will take the
undefined instruction trap

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ARM7 - Exceptions
Exception Priorities
 (1) Reset (highest priority)
 (2) Data abort
 (3) FIQ
 (4) IRQ
 (5) Prefetch abort
 (6) Undefined Instruction, Software interrupt (lowest priority)

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ARM7 - Reset
 When the nRESET signal goes LOW, ARM7 abandons the
executing instruction and then continues to fetch instructions
from incrementing word addresses

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
Instruction Set Summary

31 28 19 15 11 7 3 0

Cond 0 0 I Opcode S Rn Rd Operand 2 Data Processing PSR Transfer

Cond 0 0 0 0 0 0 A S Rd Rn Rs 1 0 0 1 Rm Multiply
Cond 0 0 0 1 0 B 0 0 Rn Rd 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 Rm Single Data Swap
Cond 0 1 I P U B W L Rn Rd Offset Single Data Transfer
Cond 0 1 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 1 xxxx Undefined
Cond 1 0 0 P U S W L Rn Register list Block Data Transfer
Cond 1 0 1 L offset Branch
Cond 1 1 0 P U N W L Rn CRd CP# offset Coproc Data Transfer
Cond 1 1 1 0 CP Opc CRn CRd CP# CP 0 CRm Coproc Data Operation
Cond 1 1 1 0 CP Opc L CRn Rd CP# CP 1 CRm Coproc Register Transfer
Cond 1 1 1 1 ignored by processor Software Interrupt

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
The Condition Field

 All ARM7 instructions are conditionally executed, which means

that their execution may or may not take place depending on the
values of the N, Z, C and V flags in the CPSR
 If the always (AL) condition is specified, the instruction will be
executed irrespective of the flags
 The never (NV) class of condition codes shall not be used as they
will be redefined in future variants of the ARM architecture

31 27 0
Cond

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
31 27 0
Cond
 Condition field
– 0000 = EQ - Z set (equal)
– 0001 = NE - Z clear (not equal)
– 0010 = CS - C set (unsigned higher or same)
– 0011 = CC - C clear (unsigned lower)
– 0100 = MI - N set (negative)
– 0101 = PL - N clear (positive or zero)
– 0110 = VS - V set (overflow)
– 0111 = VC - V clear (no overflow)
– 1000 = HI - C set and Z clear (unsigned higher)
– 1001 = LS - C clear or Z set (unsigned lower or same)
– 1010 = GE - N set and V set, or N clear and V clear (greater or equal)
– 1011 = LT - N set and V clear, or N clear and V set (less than)
– 1100 = GT - Z clear, and either N set and V set, or N clear and V clear (greater than)
– 1101 = LE - Z set, or N set and V clear, or N clear and V set (less than or equal)
– 1110 = AL - always
– 1111 = NV - never

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
 MUL - Multiply Only
 MLA - Multiply and Accumulate
 B - Branch
 BL - Branch with Link

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
Data Processing
 Logical Operations

Assembler
OpCode Action
Mnemonic
AND 0000 operand1 AND operand2
EOR 0001 operand1 EOR operand2
TST 1000 as AND, but result is not written
TEQ 1001 as EOR, but result is not written
ORR 1100 operand1 OR operand2
MOV 1101 operand2 (operand1 is ignored)
BIC 1110 operand1 AND NOT operand2 Bit clear)
MVN 1111 NOT operand2 (operand1 is ignored)

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
Data Processing
 Arithmetic Operations

Assembler
OpCode Action
Mnemonic
SUB 0010 operand1-operand2
RSB 0011 operand2-operand1
ADD 0100 operand1+operand2
ADC 0101 operand1+operand2+carry
SBC 0110 operand1-operand2+carry-1
RSC 0111 operand2-operand1+carry-1
CMP 1010 as SUB, but result is not written
CMN 1011 as ADD, but result is not written

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
PSR Transfer (MRS, MSR)
 The MRS and MSR instructions are formed from a subset of the
Data Processing operations
 They are implemented using the TEQ, TST, CMN and CMP
instructions without the S flag set
 These instructions allow access to the CPSR and SPSR registers:
– The MRS instruction allows the contents of the CPSR or
SPSR_<mode> to be moved to a general register
– The MSR instruction allows the contents of a general register to be
moved to the CPSR or SPSR_<mode> register

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
Single data transfer (LDR, STR)
 The single data transfer instructions are used to load or store
single bytes or words of data
 The memory address used in the transfer is calculated by adding
an offset to or subtracting an offset from a base register

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
Block data transfer (LDM, STM)
 Block data transfer instructions are used to load (LDM) or store
(STM) any subset of the currently visible registers
 They support all possible stacking modes, maintaining full or
empty stacks which can grow up or down memory, and are very
efficient instructions for saving or restoring context, or for moving
large blocks of data around main memory

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
Single data swap (SWP)
 The data swap instruction is used to swap a byte or word quantity
between a register and external memory
 This instruction is implemented as a memory read followed by a
memory write which are “locked” together (the processor cannot
be interrupted until both operations have completed, and the
memory manager is warned to treat them as inseparable)

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
Software interrupt (SWI)
 The software interrupt instruction is used to enter Supervisor
mode in a controlled manner
 The instruction causes the software interrupt trap to be taken,
which effects the mode change

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
Coprocessor data operations (CDP)
 This class of instruction is used to tell a coprocessor to perform
some internal operation
 No result is communicated back to ARM7, and it will not wait for
the operation to complete

Coprocessor data transfers (LDC, STC)

 This class of instruction is used to load (LDC) or store (STC) a
subset of a coprocessors’s registers directly to memory
 ARM7 is responsible for supplying the memory address, and the
coprocessor supplies or accepts the data and controls the
number of words transferred

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ARM7 - Instruction Set
Coprocessor register transfers (MRC, MCR)
 This class of instruction is used to communicate information
directly between ARM7 and a coprocessor

Undefined instruction
 If the condition is true, the undefined instruction trap will be taken

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Thank You

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