ARM Generic Interrupt Controller Architecture Specification

1 Copyright 2008, 2011, 2013 ARM. All rights IHI (ID072613)ARM Generic Interrupt ControllerArchitecture version Specification iiCopyright 2008, 2011, 2013 ARM. All rights IHI Generic Interrupt ControllerCopyright 2008, 2011, 2013 ARM. All rights InformationThe following changes have been made to this of Issue of this document Issue of this document is a re-issue of issue B incorporating the updated Propriatary Notice for the document. Beyond page four of the document the only changes between issue B and issue are: Changes to the page footers to show the new version number, copyright dates, and ID code. Changed page numbering, because of the longer Propriatary Notice. A statement in Appendix C Revisions that there are no technical changes between issue B and issue NoticeARM Generic Interrupt Controller (GIC) Architecture Specification LICENCETHIS END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT ("LICENCE") IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU (EITHER A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL, OR SINGLE LEGAL ENTITY) AND ARM LIMITED ("ARM") FOR THE USE OF THE RELEVANT GIC Architecture Specification ACCOMPANYING THIS LICENCE.

2 ARM IS ONLY WILLING TO LICENSE THE RELEVANT GIC Architecture Specification TO YOU ON CONDITION THAT YOU ACCEPT ALL OF THE TERMS IN THIS LICENCE. BY CLICKING "I AGREE" OR OTHERWISE USING OR COPYING THE RELEVANT GIC Architecture Specification YOU INDICATE THAT YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ALL THE TERMS OF THIS LICENCE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENCE, ARM IS UNWILLING TO LICENSE THE RELEVANT GIC Architecture Specification TO YOU AND YOU MAY NOT USE OR COPY THE RELEVANT GIC Architecture Specification AND YOU SHOULD PROMPTLY RETURN THE RELEVANT GIC Architecture Specification TO ARM."LICENSEE" means You and your Subsidiaries."Subsidiary" means, if You are a single entity, any company the majority of whose voting shares is now or hereafter owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by You.

3 A company shall be a Subsidiary only for the period during which such control to the provisions of Clauses 2, 3 and 4, ARM hereby grants to LICENSEE a perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty free, worldwide licence and copy the relevant GIC Architecture Specification for the purpose of developing and having developed products that comply with the relevant GIC Architecture Specification ; and have manufactured products which either: (i) have been created by or for LICENSEE under the licence granted in Clause 1a; or (ii) incorporate a product(s) which has been created by a third party(s) under a licence granted by ARM in Clause 1a of such third party s ARM GIC Architecture Specification Licence; to sell, sell, supply or otherwise distribute products which have either been (i) created by or for LICENSEE under the licence granted in Clause 1a; or (ii) manufactured by or for LICENSEE under the licence granted in Clause hereby agrees that the licence granted in Clause 1 is subject to the following a product is created under Clause 1a or manufactured under Clause 1b it must contain at least one processor core which has either been (i) developed by or for ARM; or (ii) developed under licence from ARM; licences granted in Clause 1c shall not extend to any portion or function of a product that is not itself compliant with part of the relevant GIC Architecture Specification .

4 Right is granted to LICENSEE to sublicense the rights granted to LICENSEE under this HistoryDateIssueConfidentialityChange23 September 2008 ANon-ConfidentialFirst release for version June 2011 BNon-ConfidentialFirst release for version July of issue B with new Proprietary Notice ARM IHI 2008, 2011, 2013 ARM. All rights as specifically licensed in accordance with Clause 1, LICENSEE acquires no right, title or interest in any ARM technology or any intellectual property embodied therein. In no event shall the licences granted in accordance with Clause 1 be construed as granting LICENSEE, expressly or by implication, estoppel or otherwise, a licence to use any ARM technology except the relevant GIC Architecture RELEVANT GIC Architecture Specification IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITH NO WARRANTIES EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY, NONINFRINGEMENT OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR licence, express, implied or otherwise, is granted to LICENSEE, under the provisions of Clause 1, to use the ARM tradename in connection with the relevant GIC Architecture Specification or any products based thereon.

5 Nothing in Clause 1 shall be construed as authority for LICENSEE to make any representations on behalf of ARM in respect of the relevant GIC Architecture Licence shall remain in force until terminated by you or by ARM. Without prejudice to any of its other rights if LICENSEE is in breach of any of the terms and conditions of this Licence then ARM may terminate this Licence immediately upon giving written notice to Yo u . Yo u m a y t e r m i n a t e t h i s L i c e n c e a t any time. Upon expiry or termination of this Licence by You or by ARM LICENSEE shall stop using the relevant GIC Architecture Specification and destroy all copies of the relevant GIC Architecture Specification in your possession together with all documentation and related materials. Upon expiry or termination of this Licence, the provisions of clauses 6 and 7 shall validity, construction and performance of this Agreement shall be governed by English contract references: LES-PRE-20079 ARM Generic Interrupt Controller (GIC) Architecture Specification the term ARM is used it means ARM or any of its subsidiaries as appropriate.

6 Note T h e t e r m A R M c a n r e f e r t o v e r s i o n s o f the ARM Architecture , for example ARMv6 refers to version 6 of the ARM Architecture . The context makes it clear when the term is used in this way. ivCopyright 2008, 2011, 2013 ARM. All rights IHI IHI 2008, 2011, 2013 ARM. All rights Generic Interrupt Controller Architecture SpecificationPrefaceAbout this Specification .. viiiUsing this Specification .. ixConventions .. xAdditional reading .. xiFeedback .. xiiChapter the Generic Interrupt Controller Architecture .. Extensions support .. support .. 1-18 Chapter 2 GIC GIC partitioning .. Distributor .. interfaces .. 2-26 Chapter 3 Interrupt Handling and Interrupt handling and prioritization .. handling of interrupts .

7 Prioritization .. effect of Interrupt grouping on Interrupt handling .. grouping and Interrupt prioritization .. features of the GIC Security Extensions .. details of Interrupt handling and prioritization .. 3-61 ContentsviCopyright 2008, 2011, 2013 ARM. All rights IHI effect of the Virtualization Extensions on Interrupt handling .. GIC usage models .. 3-68 Chapter 4 Programmers the programmers model .. of the GIC Security Extensions on the programmers model .. register descriptions .. interface register descriptions .. and restoring GIC state .. 4-155 Chapter 5 GIC Support for implementing a GIC in a system with processor virtualization .. the GIC virtual CPU interface .. virtual interface control registers .. virtual CPU interface.

8 Virtual CPU interface registers .. 5-179 Appendix APseudocode of pseudocode functions .. A-198 Appendix BRegister register names .. name aliases .. of architectural names .. B-204 Appendix CRevisionsGlossaryARM IHI 2008, 2011, 2013 ARM. All rights preface introduces the ARM Generic Interrupt Controller Architecture Specification . It contains the following sections: About this Specification on page viii Using this Specification on page ix Conventions on page x Additional reading on page xi Feedback on page xii. Preface About this specificationviiiCopyright 2008, 2011, 2013 ARM. All rights IHI this specificationThis Specification describes the ARM Generic Interrupt Controller (GIC) this document, references to the GIC or a GIC refer to a device that implements this GIC Architecture .

9 Unless the context makes it clear that a reference is to an IMPLEMENTATION DEFINED feature of the device, these references describe the requirements of this audienceThe Specification is written for users that want to design, implement, or program the GIC in a range of ARM-compliant implementations from simple uniprocessor implementations to complex multiprocessor systems. The Specification assumes that users have some experience of ARM products. It does not assume experience of the GIC. P r e f a c e Using this specificationARM IHI 2008, 2011, 2013 ARM. All rights this specificationThis Specification is organized into the following chapters:Chapter 1 Introduction Read this for an overview of the GIC, and information about the terminology used in this 2 GIC Partitioning Read this for a description of the major interfaces and components of the GIC.

10 The chapter also introduces how they operate, in a simple 3 Interrupt Handling and Prioritization Read this for a description of the requirements for Interrupt handling, and the Interrupt priority scheme for a 4 Programmers Model Read this for a description of the Distributor and CPU interface 5 GIC Support for Virtualization Read this for a description of how the GIC Virtualization Extensions support the implementation of a GIC in a multiprocessor system that supports processor chapter includes a description of the programmers model for the virtual interface control and virtual CPU interface A Pseudocode Index Read this for an index to the pseudocode functions defined in this B Register Names Read this for a description of the differences in the register names in earlier descriptions of the GIC Architecture .