18.3 VIS INSTRUCTION
18.0 Interrupts (Continued)
The general interrupt service routine, which starts at address
00FF Hex, must be capable of handling all types of inter-
rupts. The VIS instruction, together with an interrupt vector
table, directs the device to the specific interrupt handling
routine based on the cause of the interrupt.
enabled; if the pending bit is already set, it will immediately
trigger an interrupt. A maskable interrupt is active if its asso-
ciated enable and pending bits are set.
An interrupt is an asychronous event which may occur be-
fore, during, or after an instruction cycle. Any interrupt which
occurs during the execution of an instruction is not acknowl-
edged until the start of the next normally executed instruc-
tion. If the next normally executed instruction is to be
skipped, the skip is performed before the pending interrupt is
acknowledged.
VIS is a single-byte instruction, typically used at the very
beginning of the general interrupt service routine at address
00FF Hex, or shortly after that point, just after the code used
for context switching. The VIS instruction determines which
enabled and pending interrupt has the highest priority, and
causes an indirect jump to the address corresponding to that
interrupt source. The jump addresses (vectors) for all pos-
sible interrupts sources are stored in a vector table.
At the start of interrupt acknowledgment, the following ac-
tions occur:
1. The GIE bit is automatically reset to zero, preventing any
subsequent maskable interrupt from interrupting the cur-
rent service routine. This feature prevents one maskable
interrupt from interrupting another one being serviced.
The vector table may be as long as 32 bytes (maximum of 16
vectors) and resides at the top of the 256-byte block con-
taining the VIS instruction. However, if the VIS instruction is
at the very top of a 256-byte block (such as at 00FF Hex),
the vector table resides at the top of the next 256-byte block.
Thus, if the VIS instruction is located somewhere between
00FF and 01DF Hex (the usual case), the vector table is
located between addresses 01E0 and 01FF Hex. If the VIS
instruction is located between 01FF and 02DF Hex, then the
vector table is located between addresses 02E0 and 02FF
Hex, and so on.
2. The address of the instruction about to be executed is
pushed onto the stack.
3. The program counter (PC) is loaded with 00FF Hex,
causing a jump to that program memory location.
The device requires seven instruction cycles to perform the
actions listed above.
If the user wishes to allow nested interrupts, the interrupts
service routine may set the GIE bit to 1 by writing to the PSW
register, and thus allow other maskable interrupts to interrupt
the current service routine. If nested interrupts are allowed,
caution must be exercised. The user must write the program
in such a way as to prevent stack overflow, loss of saved
context information, and other unwanted conditions.
Each vector is 15 bits long and points to the beginning of a
specific interrupt service routine somewhere in the 32-kbyte
memory space. Each vector occupies two bytes of the vector
table, with the higher-order byte at the lower address. The
vectors are arranged in order of interrupt priority. The vector
of the maskable interrupt with the lowest rank is located to
0yE0 (higher-order byte) and 0yE1 (lower-order byte). The
next priority interrupt is located at 0yE2 and 0yE3, and so
forth in increasing rank. The Software Trap has the highest
rand and its vector is always located at 0yFE and 0yFF. The
number of interrupts which can become active defines the
size of the table.
The interrupt service routine stored at location 00FF Hex
should use the VIS instruction to determine the cause of the
interrupt, and jump to the interrupt handling routine corre-
sponding to the highest priority enabled and active interrupt.
Alternately, the user may choose to poll all interrupt pending
and enable bits to determine the source(s) of the interrupt. If
more than one interrupt is active, the user’s program must
decide which interrupt to service.
Table 33 shows the types of interrupts, the interrupt arbitra-
tion ranking, and the locations of the corresponding vectors
in the vector table.
Within a specific interrupt service routine, the associated
pending bit should be cleared. This is typically done as early
as possible in the service routine in order to avoid missing
the next occurrence of the same type of interrupt event.
Thus, if the same event occurs a second time, even while the
first occurrence is still being serviced, the second occur-
rence will be serviced immediately upon return from the
current interrupt routine.
The vector table should be filled by the user with the memory
locations of the specific interrupt service routines. For ex-
ample, if the Software Trap routine is located at 0310 Hex,
then the vector location 0yFE and -0yFF should contain the
data 03 and 10 Hex, respectively. When a Software Trap
interrupt occurs and the VIS instruction is executed, the
program jumps to the address specified in the vector table.
The interrupt sources in the vector table are listed in order of
rank, from highest to lowest priority. If two or more enabled
and pending interrupts are detected at the same time, the
one with the highest priority is serviced first. Upon return
from the interrupt service routine, the next highest-level
pending interrupt is serviced.
An interrupt service routine typically ends with an RETI
instruction. This instruction set the GIE bit back to 1, pops
the address stored on the stack, and restores that address to
the program counter. Program execution then proceeds with
the next instruction that would have been executed had
there been no interrupt. If there are any valid interrupts
pending, the highest-priority interrupt is serviced immedi-
ately upon return from the previous interrupt.
If the VIS instruction is executed, but no interrupts are en-
abled and pending, the lowest-priority interrupt vector is
used, and a jump is made to the corresponding address in
the vector table. This is an unusual occurrence and may be
the result of an error. It can legitimately result from a change
in the enable bits or pending flags prior to the execution of
the VIS instruction, such as executing a single cycle instruc-
tion which clears an enable flag at the same time that the
pending flag is set. It can also result, however, from inad-
vertent execution of the VIS command outside of the context
of an interrupt.
Note: While executing from the Boot ROM for ISP or virtual
E2 operations, the hardware will disable interrupts from oc-
curring. The hardware will leave the GIE bit in its current
state, and if set, the hardware interrupts will occur when
execution is returned to Flash Memory. Subsequent inter-
rupts, during ISP operation, from the same interrupt source
will be lost.
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