This component models the ARM7 Thumb processor.
This component models a simplified ARM7 Thumb processor.
It does not model floating point instructions.
It models supervisory functions such as exceptions/traps in order to be able to run an operating system.
| Behaviors | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| initialization |
The CPU performs a power-on-reset style of operation when the reset! pin is driven. Other mode settings may be controlled by pins and/or attributes: endian-set!/endian to set endianness, start-pc-set! to set the PC. These are useful if the standard powerup state of the CPU needs to be changed for running a program that expects an initialized environment. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| execution |
The component executes zero or more instructions when the step! pin is driven. You can specify the maximum number of instructions to be executed via the step-insn-count attribute. If the yield pin is driven in a reentrant fashion while the instruction loop is active, the loop will be exited at the next opportunity. At the end of the loop, the step-cycles output pin is driven with the number of instructions actually executed, though this value is clamped to be at least 1. The insn-count attribute accumulates the total number of instructions executed since reset. Each instruction is first fetched from memory via the insn-memory accessor, and its decoding traced if the trace-extract? attribute is set to a true value. The decoded form may be cached indefinitely afterwards, although this cache is flushed when the flush-icache pin is driven. The engine-type attribute specifies whether the "scache" ("semantic cache") or "pbb" ("pseudo basic block") dispatching mechanism is used during execution. The "scache" mode executes each instruction in isolation and checks all triggerpoints after each. If the enable-step-trap? attribute is set, after each instruction, a single-stepping trap is signalled as described in the exceptions/traps behavior below. The "pbb" mode executes a series of sequential instructions in one uninterruptible sequence, and is thus faster. However, it cannot handle triggerpoints or single-stepping, nor can it respond to icache flushing as quickly. The "pbb" mode is temporarily and transparently downgraded to the "scache" mode when needed. During the execution of an instruction, this component may make accesses using the data-memory accessor, may update its simulated registers, and may trigger an exception/trap. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| tracing |
The component can be configured to perform certain kinds of tracing as target programs execute. These are controlled by the family of trace-* boolean attributes. By default, trace output is directed to the standard output stream. The trace-filename attribute allows the user to specify the name of a file where trace output will be collected. A special filename of "-" is used to represent standard output. Trace output files are not appended, but overwritten each time they are opened. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| exceptions/traps |
When encountering exception/trap conditions such as memory access errors or software interrupts, this component signals the event using the trap pin. (For some traps, the trap-code pin is driven with extra information just beforehand.) An external component may interpret the values in the table below, and declare a disposition for the condition. In the absence of input, the condition will be treated as the hardware would, that is by dispatching to exception vectors, switching processor modes, etc. The trap codes sent on the trap output pin are:
The disposition codes returned on the trap input pin are:
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| hardware interrupts |
Hardware interrupts are signalled by driving the pins nfiq or nirq with a zero value. Incoming interrupts are queued and are processed when the step! pin is next invoked. Note that this may not be the next instruction if the step-insn-count attribute is greater than one. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| register access |
All 16 general purpose registers are accessible as attribute r0 through r15. pc is an alias of r15. The CPSR register is accessible as cpsr, and also as cpsr-flags for a decoded textual form. The current endianness is available as attribute endian. The current cpsr mode is available as attribute/pin nm. The current thumb/arm bit is available as attribute/pin tbit. Banked registers (e.g. r14_svc, spsr_und) are also exposed as read/write attributes. This component exports a number of attributes for use by the sw-debug-gdb component. These are the gdb-* attributes, in the "debugger" category. The gdb-register-N group access all registers in gdb's indexing scheme, in raw target byte order. The gdb-register-pc is a special watchable value with no associated attribute. The gdb-num-registers attribute provides the limit for N. The gdb-exp-registers attribute provides a semicolon-separated list of "expedited" register numbers. The debugger-bus bus provides access to the target program's address space, and is used by gdb to access target memory. The gdb-breakpoint-big and gdb-breakpoint-little attributes, if present, are used as memory images of software breakpoint instructions for the appropriate run-time endianness mode. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SID Conventions | ||
|---|---|---|
| functional | supported | - |
| save/restore | supported | - |
| triggerpoints | supported | Triggerpoints are supported for CPU registers. |
| inhibit-recursion | supported | It prevents harmful recursion from the step! input pin. |
Related components:
CPUs connect to many components: memory to store data and instructions, a scheduler to provide step! signals, software trap emulators, debugger interfaces. The step-cycles output pin may be used as a N-event-control input for a target scheduler to track an estimate of consumed target time.
Host system:Some error conditions are signalled by messages to standard error. These include some illegal CPU states caused by the simulated program.
| pins | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| name | direction | legalvalues | behaviors |
| endian-set! | in | 1 (big) / 2 (little) | initialization |
| start-pc-set! | in | any value | initialization |
| reset! | in | 0 or 1 | initialization |
| trap | inout | enum values | exceptions/traps |
| trap-code | out | various values | exceptions/traps |
| step-cycles | out | 1..step-insn-count | execution |
| step! | in | any value | execution |
| yield | in | any | execution |
| flush-icache | in | any | execution |
| nreset | in | 0 or 1 | execution |
| nm | out | 0 or 1 | register access |
| tbit | out | 0 or 1 | register access |
| nfiq | in | 0 or 1 | hardware interrupts |
| nirq | in | 0 or 1 | hardware interrupts |
| buses | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| name | addresses | accesses | behaviors |
| debugger-bus | any | any | debugger access |
| accessors | ||
|---|---|---|
| name | accesses | behaviors |
| data-memory | any | execution |
| insn-memory | typically 4-byte accesses | execution |
ARM
Arm Architecture Reference Manual, ARM DDI 0100B