Flexible architecture for an embedded interrupt controller
AssigneeAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc.
InventorsKenny Kok-Hoong Chiu, Michael S. Quimby
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A programmable interrupt controller arrangement is provided including a multiple number of selectably enabled programmable interrupt controllers along with a multi-channel switch matrix. A scalable number of interrupt sources can be routed to any particular interrupt request line. In addition, from the same architecture, multiple interrupt sources are allowed to share any one of the interrupt request lines. Interrupt signals are routed via the switch matrix under software control. PC/AT compatibility is achieved by selectively disabling certain of the programmable interrupt controllers.
Claims39
An interrupt routing device, comprising:
- a programmable router to route interrupt signals from a plurality of interrupt sources to a plurality of interrupt request lines;
- a plurality of programmable interrupt controllers coupled to the programmable router by the interrupt request lines, a first set of programmable interrupt controllers of the plurality of programmable interrupt controllers being disabled in a PC/AT-compatible mode and a second set of programmable interrupt controllers of the plurality of programmable interrupt controllers being enabled in a non-PC/AT-compatible mode.
A method of configuring a programmable interrupt controller, the method comprising the steps of:
- enabling a master programmable interrupt controller;
- selectively enabling none, one or more slave programmable interrupt controllers of a plurality of slave programmable interrupt controllers to generate a desired number of interrupt channels.
A flexible PC/AT-compatible microcontroller, comprising:
- an x86-compatible processor;
- a processor bus coupled to the x86-compatible processor;
- a general purpose bus;
- a general purpose bus controller coupled between the processor bus and the general purpose bus, the general purpose bus controller, comprising:
- a means for configuring the general purpose bus to emulate an industry standard architecture-compatible bus;
- a plurality of PC/AT peripheral devices;
- a programmable router to route interrupt signals from a plurality of interrupt sources to a plurality of interrupt request lines;
- and
- a plurality of programmable interrupt controllers coupled to the programmable router by the interrupt request lines, a first set of programmable interrupt controllers of the plurality of programmable interrupt controllers being disabled in a PC/AT-compatible mode and a second set of programmable interrupt controllers of the plurality of programmable interrupt controllers being enabled in a non-PC/AT-compatible mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.