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5 interlock and exception handling – NEC Network Controller uPD98502 User Manual

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CHAPTER 2 V

R

4120A

94

Preliminary User’s Manual S15543EJ1V0UM

2.3.5 Interlock and exception handling

Smooth pipeline flow is interrupted when cache misses or exceptions occur, or when data dependencies are

detected. Interruptions handled using hardware, such as cache misses, are referred to as interlocks, while those that

are handled using software are called exceptions. As shown in Figure 2-19, all interlock and exception conditions are

collectively referred to as faults.

Figure 2-19. Relationship among Interlocks, Exceptions, and Faults

Slip

Stall

Abort

Exceptions

Interlocks

Software

Hardware

Faults

At each cycle, exception and interlock conditions are checked for all active instructions.

Because each exception or interlock condition corresponds to a particular pipeline stage, a condition can be traced

back to the particular instruction in the exception/interlock stage, as shown in Table 2-23. For instance, an LDI

Interlock is raised in the Register Fetch (RF) stage.

Tables 2-24 and 2-25 describe the pipeline interlocks and exceptions listed in Table 2-23.

Table 2-23. Correspondence of Pipeline Stage to Interlock and Exception Conditions

Status

Stage

IF

RF

(IT)

EX

DC

WB

Stall

ITM

ICM

DTM

DCM

DCB

Interlock

Slip

LDI

MDI

SLI

CP0

Exception

IAErr

NMI

ITLB

IPErr

INTr

IBE

SYSC

BP

CUn

RSVD

Trap

OVF

DAErr

Reset

DTLB

TMod

DPErr

WAT

DBE

Remark

In the above table, exception conditions are listed up in higher priority order.