ATmega8(L)
• Bit 2 – PGWRT: Page Write
If this bit is written to one at the same time as SPMEN, the next SPM instruction within four clock
cycles executes page write, with the data stored in the temporary buffer. The page address is
taken from the high part of the Z-pointer. The data in R1 and R0 are ignored. The PGWRT bit
will auto-clear upon completion of a page write, or if no SPM instruction is executed within four
clock cycles. The CPU is halted during the entire page write operation if the NRWW section is
addressed.
• Bit 1 – PGERS: Page Erase
If this bit is written to one at the same time as SPMEN, the next SPM instruction within four clock
cycles executes page erase. The page address is taken from the high part of the Z-pointer. The
data in R1 and R0 are ignored. The PGERS bit will auto-clear upon completion of a page erase,
or if no SPM instruction is executed within four clock cycles. The CPU is halted during the entire
page write operation if the NRWW section is addressed.
• Bit 0 – SPMEN: Store Program Memory Enable
This bit enables the SPM instruction for the next four clock cycles. If written to one together with
either RWWSRE, BLBSET, PGWRT’ or PGERS, the following SPM instruction will have a spe-
cial meaning, see description above. If only SPMEN is written, the following SPM instruction will
store the value in R1:R0 in the temporary page buffer addressed by the Z-pointer. The LSB of
the Z-pointer is ignored. The SPMEN bit will auto-clear upon completion of an SPM instruction,
or if no SPM instruction is executed within four clock cycles. During page erase and page write,
the SPMEN bit remains high until the operation is completed.
Writing any other combination than “10001”, “01001”, “00101”, “00011” or “00001” in the lower
five bits will have no effect.
Addressing the
Flash During Self-
Programming
The Z-pointer is used to address the SPM commands.
Bit
15
Z15
Z7
7
14
Z14
Z6
6
13
Z13
Z5
5
12
Z12
Z4
4
11
Z11
Z3
3
10
Z10
Z2
2
9
Z9
Z1
1
8
Z8
Z0
0
ZH (R31)
ZL (R30)
Since the Flash is organized in pages (see Table 89 on page 218), the Program Counter can be
treated as having two different sections. One section, consisting of the least significant bits, is
addressing the words within a page, while the most significant bits are addressing the pages.
This is shown in Figure 103 on page 208. Note that the page erase and page write operations
are addressed independently. Therefore it is of major importance that the Boot Loader software
addresses the same page in both the page erase and page write operation. Once a program-
ming operation is initiated, the address is latched and the Z-pointer can be used for other
operations.
The only SPM operation that does not use the Z-pointer is Setting the Boot Loader Lock Bits.
The content of the Z-pointer is ignored and will have no effect on the operation. The LPM
instruction does also use the Z-pointer to store the address. Since this instruction addresses the
Flash byte by byte, also the LSB (bit Z0) of the Z-pointer is used.
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2486AA–AVR–02/2013
ATMEL [ ATMEL ]
