Interrupt controller

Interrupt controller The Vectored Interrupt Controller (VIC) accepts all of the interrupt request inputs and categorizes them as Fast Interrupt reQuest (FIQ), vectored Interrupt ReQuest (IRQ), and non-vectored IRQ as defined by programmable settings. The programmable assignment scheme means that priorities of interrupts from the various peripherals can be dynamically assigned and adjusted. FIQ has the highest priority. If more than one request is assigned to FIQ, the VIC combines the requests to produce the FIQ signal to the ARM processor. The fastest possible FIQ latency is achieved when only one request is classified as FIQ, because then the FIQ service routine does not need to branch into the interrupt service routine but can run from the interrupt vector location. If more than one request is assigned to the FIQ class, the FIQ service routine will read a word from the VIC that identifies which FIQ source(s) is (are) requesting an interrupt. Vectored IRQs have the middle priority. Sixteen of the interrupt requests can be assigned to this category. Any of the interrupt requests can be assigned to any of the 16 vectored IRQ slots, among which slot 0 has the highest priority and slot 15 has the lowest. Non-vectored IRQs have the lowest priority. The VIC combines the requests from all the vectored and non-vectored IRQs to produce the IRQ signal to the ARM processor. The IRQ service routine can start by reading a register from the VIC and jumping there. If any of the vectored IRQs are pending, the VIC provides the address of the highest-priority requesting IRQs service routine, otherwise it provides the address of a default routine that is shared by all the non-vectored IRQs. The default routine can read another VIC register to see what IRQs are active