Custom UART Integration with Fast Models in C++ Without sgcanvas When designing and verifying ARM-based SoCs, engineers often need to integrate custom peripherals, such as a UART, with ARM Fast Models for simulation purposes. ARM Fast Models provide a high-performance, cycle-accurate simulation environment for ARM IP and SoCs. Typically, the sgcanvas tool is used to…
AXI Interleave Depth and Reorder Depth: Definitions and Key Differences AXI (Advanced eXtensible Interface) is a critical component of ARM’s AMBA (Advanced Microcontroller Bus Architecture) protocol suite, widely used in modern SoC designs. Two of the most important concepts in AXI are interleave depth and reorder depth, which are often misunderstood or conflated. These concepts…
I2C Master Data Register (MDR) Not Updating During Data Transmission The issue at hand involves the I2C Master Data Register (MDR) on an ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller, specifically within the TM4C1294XL family, not updating as expected during I2C data transmission. The MDR is a critical register in the I2C communication protocol, responsible for holding the data…
Cortex-A53 Translation Table Setup and MMU Enable Challenges The Cortex-A53 processor, part of the ARMv8-A architecture, relies heavily on the Memory Management Unit (MMU) for virtual memory management. Enabling the MMU requires a precise configuration of translation tables, which map virtual addresses to physical addresses. A common issue arises when developers attempt to enable the…
STMDB Instruction Misbehavior and Incorrect Stack Pointer Adjustment The issue at hand involves the stmdb (Store Multiple Decrement Before) instruction on an ARM Cortex-M4 processor, specifically within the context of a SAM4L microcontroller. The stmdb instruction is intended to store multiple registers onto the stack, decrementing the stack pointer (SP) before each store operation. However,…
Systick Handler Triggered Due to Missing or Incorrect Systick ISR Implementation The core issue revolves around the Systick handler being triggered unexpectedly during the setup of a delay timer on an STM32F407 Discovery board. The user is attempting to create a simple blinking LED program but encounters a Systick_Handler interrupt, which indicates a problem with…
MMU Translation Faults During DDR ECC Error Handling in Abort Mode The core issue revolves around MMU translation faults occurring during the handling of DDR ECC uncorrectable errors in an ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core system. The system is designed to handle Data Abort and Prefetch Abort exceptions, specifically targeting asynchronous external memory aborts triggered by DDR…
ARM Trusted Firmware Bootloader Setup for Cortex-A53 Without U-Boot The process of configuring the ARM Trusted Firmware (ATF) as a bootloader for the Cortex-A53 processor on the i.MX8QM EVK involves several critical steps. The primary goal is to boot the system using only the ATF (specifically the BL31 binary) without relying on U-Boot. This setup…
Outdated ARM AArch64 Programmer’s Guide and Missing Modern Documentation The ARM AArch64 architecture, part of the ARMv8-A and ARMv9-A families, is a powerful and widely used 64-bit instruction set architecture (ISA) that powers everything from mobile devices to servers. However, developers working with AArch64 often face challenges due to outdated or incomplete documentation. The primary…
ARMv8-A AArch64 Instruction Syntax Errors in DS5 When working with ARMv8-A AArch64 assembly code in the DS5 (ARM Development Studio 5) simulation environment, developers may encounter syntax errors related to the use of the UMOV and INS instructions. Specifically, errors such as "unknown token in expression" and "unexpected token in argument list" can occur when…