ATmega8(L)
can also be used as an address pointer for look up tables in Flash Program memory. These
added function registers are the 16-bit X-register, Y-register, and Z-register, described later in
this section.
The ALU supports arithmetic and logic operations between registers or between a constant and
a register. Single register operations can also be executed in the ALU. After an arithmetic opera-
tion, the Status Register is updated to reflect information about the result of the operation.
The Program flow is provided by conditional and unconditional jump and call instructions, able to
directly address the whole address space. Most AVR instructions have a single 16-bit word for-
mat. Every Program memory address contains a 16-bit or 32-bit instruction.
Program Flash memory space is divided in two sections, the Boot program section and the
Application program section. Both sections have dedicated Lock Bits for write and read/write
protection. The SPM instruction that writes into the Application Flash memory section must
reside in the Boot program section.
During interrupts and subroutine calls, the return address Program Counter (PC) is stored on the
Stack. The Stack is effectively allocated in the general data SRAM, and consequently the Stack
size is only limited by the total SRAM size and the usage of the SRAM. All user programs must
initialize the SP in the reset routine (before subroutines or interrupts are executed). The Stack
Pointer SP is read/write accessible in the I/O space. The data SRAM can easily be accessed
through the five different addressing modes supported in the AVR architecture.
The memory spaces in the AVR architecture are all linear and regular memory maps.
A flexible interrupt module has its control registers in the I/O space with an additional global
interrupt enable bit in the Status Register. All interrupts have a separate Interrupt Vector in the
Interrupt Vector table. The interrupts have priority in accordance with their Interrupt Vector posi-
tion. The lower the Interrupt Vector address, the higher the priority.
The I/O memory space contains 64 addresses for CPU peripheral functions as Control Regis-
ters, SPI, and other I/O functions. The I/O Memory can be accessed directly, or as the Data
Space locations following those of the Register File, 0x20 - 0x5F.
10
2486AA–AVR–02/2013
ATMEL [ ATMEL CORPORATION ]
