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ECE459 Advanced Computer System Design Lab

Chapter 4

EXPERIMENT 4

CPU Design with Support for External Interrupts

4.1   Objective

The objective of this experiment is to design, simulate, and build a microcoded CPU capable of servicing external interrupt requests. Interrupts will be employed to initiate memory-mapped I/O. Firmware in the microcode will implement polling to determine the type of interrupt request.

The CPU implementation should use the Altera UP 1 Education Board. Onboard or additional push buttons should be used to initiate interrupts.

 

4.2   Introduction

The system specifications follow:

• The CPU will have three major sections. The execution unit which will contain the ALU, the registers, the 1-bit zero flag (Z), the 8-bit CPU address bus, and the 4-bit CPU data bus. The microcode unit to produce control signals. Finally, the I/O decode and interrupt unit.
   

• 128 4-bit words of ROM starting at address 0 and 128 4-bit words of RAM starting at address 128 (decimal). This arrangement will require an 8-bit program counter (PC), an 8-bit memory-address register (MAR), a 4-bit memory-data register (MDR), an 8-bit system address bus, and a 4-bit system data bus.
   

• The CPU should be able to access a minimum of two 4-bit input ports (namely, IP0, IP1, IP2, and IP3) and an output port (OP0).  A 4-bit interrupts-pending status register (IPEN) also should be included to denote the type (in this case, ID number) of pending interrupts.
   

• The CPU should have a minimum of two program-addressable 4-bit registers: an Accumulator (AC) and a general-purpose Data Register (DR).
   

• The 1-bit zero flag (Z) in the CPU will be set by instructions as shown in Table 4.1.
   

• The CPU should have two interrupt-related modes, corresponding to interrupts enabled and interrupts disabled, respectively. While executing user code, interrupts should be enabled. While servicing an interrupt (i.e., while executing an interrupt service routine - ISR), the CPU should disable itself for the processing of any additional interrupts. Additional interrupts should still be recorded, but not processed until the current interrupt is completely serviced. Interrupts should be enabled at the end of the ISR. Therefore, nested interrupts will not be allowed.
   

• To support interrupts, a 1-bit interrupt-request flag (IRQ) and a 1-bit interrupt-enable flag (IEN) are needed. The CPU should check for pending interrupts at the end of each instruction cycle. Pending interrupts are never serviced by CPUs before complete execution of the current instruction; otherwise, the information stored automatically when entering the ISR may not be complete to resume reliable execution of the user program.
   

• When entering the ISR, the CPU should automatically save the user program counter (PC) and the zero flag (Z). The PC and Z flag should be automatically restored when returning from the ISR. The AC and DR must also be saved in the beginning and restored at the end of the ISR.
   

• The CPU instruction set is shown in the upper half of Table 4.1. Note that LOAD, STORE, and JUMPZ are 3-word instructions with a 4-bit opcode and an 8-bit address. NOP, MOVE, SUB, AND, and RETINT are 1-word instructions having just an opcode.

• Optional instructions for extra credit are listed in the lower half of Table 4.1. These include 1-word and 2-word instructions. These instructions can be implemented with very little or no additional hardware in the execution unit.
   

• Hardware to support three or four different interrupts.
   

• The action taken by the ISR depends each time on the type of interrupt. All possible actions are described in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2. Interrupt service routine (ISR) actions.
Interrupt	Action
A	Output the value of memory location $F4 to the 4-bit LEDs (i.e., OP0)
B	Input a 4-bit value from input port IP0 and write that data to location $F5 in memory
C	Input the low-order nibble of a memory address from input port IP1 and output the data at that location to output port OP0. Assume that the high-order nibble of the address is $F
Optional	Action
D	Input an 8-bit memory address from input ports IP2 and IP3 and output the data at that location to output port OP0. If interrupt D is implemented, interrupt C is optional. Both may be implemented for extra credit.

4.4   Experiment

Pre-Lab Assignment

Design the above CPU in block diagram form. Write the microcode. Design the hardware which is external to the CPU.

Lab Assignment

Use  Max+PLUS II to implement and simulate your design for the set of required instructions. For extra credit, your code also should demonstrate the optional features of the CPU.

Demonstrate the simulator and the hardware implementation to the instructor.

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