PIC32MZ Exception Processor Initialization

Last modified by Microchip on 2023/11/10 11:08

Starting Up

From a software perspective, reset is almost the same as a general exception, although one from which we're not going to return.

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) responds to reset by entering the Bootstrap mode, starting by fetching instructions from 0xBFC00000. This corresponds (via the Memory Management Unit (MMU)) to the physical address 0x1FC00000 in the uncached KSEG1 region.

Following this, only enough of the CPUs control register state (CP0 registers) is defined so that the CPU can execute uncached instructions.

"Enough state" is interpreted minimally, i.e. only three things are guaranteed in the CP0 Status register:

  • The CPU is in Kernel mode (StatusEXL=1).
  • Interrupt exceptions are disabled (StatusIE=0).
  • Bootstrap exceptions (i.e. exceptions occurring during reset) will vector through uncached entry points (StatusBEV=1).

Furthermore, the caches will be in a random, unusable state, as will the MMU.

MPLAB® XC32 C/C++ Compiler Start-Up Code

The job of modifying this initial CPU state to a state that will run your main() code falls to a small assembly language code stub that is automatically inserted by the MPLAB XC32 compiler.

Information

crt0.S - C Run-time Startup Code

Initializes objects and CPU state to prepare to run the main() function, then calls main() itself:

  • Jump to _nmi_handler, if an NMI occurred.
  • Initialize the stack pointer.
  • Initialize the Global Pointer in all register sets available on the selected target device.
  • Call the _on_reset procedure.
  • Call the _pic32_init_cache procedure to initialize the L1 cache on target devices that feature an L1 cache.
  • Call the _pic32_tlb_init_ebi_sqi procedure to initialize the TLB on target devices that use pre-mapped EBI and SQI external memory regions.
  • Clear uninitialized small bss sections.
  • Initialize data using the linker-generated data-initialization template.
  • If the target device features a bus matrix and the application uses a RAM function, initialize the bus matrix for execution from data memory.
  • Initialize the CP0 registers.
  • Enable the DSPr2 engine on target devices that feature it.
  • Call the _on_bootstrap procedure.
  • Change the location of exception vectors.
  • For C++, call the C++ initialization code to invoke all constructors for file-scope static storage objects.
  • Call main().

Review chapter 14.3 of the MPLAB XC32 User Guide for full details on each step.

Information

On Windows® PCs, crt0.S is located in C:\Program Files\Microchip\xc32\<version>\pic32-libs\libpic32\startup.

CPU State on Entry to main()

PIC32MZ CP0 and Interrupt Controller registers are initialized by hardware and MPLAB XC32 Compiler start-up code placing the CPU in the following state upon entry to your main() function:

  • Ebase = _ebase_address (= 0x9D000000 for PIC32MZ2048ECG100).
  • OFFx registers are initialized by start-up code based on the defined ISRs in your project.
  • StatusBEV = 0 (Exception vector entry points changed from the "bootstrap" location to the "normal" location).
    • General Exceptions: Ebase (=0x9D000000) + 0x180.
    • Interrupt Exceptions: Ebase + OFFx.
  • StatusIE = 0 (Interrupt Exceptions Disabled).
  • StatusIPL<2:0> = 0 (CPU running at priority level 0).
  • INTCONMVEC = 0 (Interrupt controller configured for single-vector mode).

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Information

Configuring for Speed:

Although the L1 cache is configured/enabled by default, you should (at minimum) perform the following additional initialization to get the most work out of your PIC32MZ CPU:

  • Flash PM Wait States: MZ Flash runs at two wait states @ 200 MHz for PIC32MZ2048EFG100
    • PRECONbits.PFMWS = 2;
  • Prefetch-cache: Enable prefetch for PFM (any PFM instructions or data)
    • PRECONbits.PREFEN = 3;

Other items to consider include the peripheral bus clock settings as well as compiler settings.