Vector interrupt controller supporting multi-layer interrupt priority level control

Abstract

The invention discloses a vector interrupt controller supporting multi-layer interrupt priority level control. The vector interrupt controller comprises an interrupt receiving unit, a first-layer interrupt priority level unit, a second-layer interrupt priority level unit, a first-layer interrupt priority level arbiter and a second-layer interrupt priority level arbiter, and further comprises a third-layer interrupt priority level unit, a third-layer interrupt priority level arbiter and an interrupt processing unit, wherein the third-layer interrupt priority level unit comprises an interrupt threshold priority level; the third-layer interrupt priority level arbiter is used for comparing whether the priority level of a second interrupt source request is higher than an interrupt threshold priority level or not; if the comparison result shows that the priority level of the second interrupt source request is higher than the interrupt threshold priority level, the second interrupt source request is output as an effective interrupt seizing request, or else the interrupt seizing request is invalid; the interrupt processing unit is used for processing the interrupt seizing request and used for updating the priority level of the interrupt seizing request which is processed at present in the second-layer interrupt priority level unit by using the priority level of the answered interrupt seizing request. By adopting the vector interrupt controller, dynamic variation of interrupt priority levels is supported with relatively small hardware cost, and good stability and timeliness can be achieved.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to the field of processors and relates to a vector interrupt controller. Background technique [0002] In order to improve the real-time performance of interrupt response, the existing interrupt controller allows higher priority interrupt preemption. Therefore, the vector interrupt controller needs to support the interrupt nesting function. Changes in environmental factors exist in interrupt nesting responses, such as shared resources between interrupt sources or low-priority interrupts that have not received interrupt responses for a long time. In order to solve this problem, the vectored interrupt controller supports the dynamic change of interrupt priority, that is, the priority of the interrupt source is raised or lowered. For example, there are three interrupt source requests A, B, and C, their priority initialization is set to A<B<C, and the order of interrupt source requests is A>B>C; in this way, the vector in...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, since the priority of the new interrupt source needs to be compared with the priority of all nested interrupts, this will introduce relatively large hardware overhead and increase hardware cost

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