MC9S08JM16 Datasheet, PDF (63/386 Pages) Freescale Semiconductor, Inc – Microcontrollers

Chapter 5 Resets, Interrupts, and System Configuration
5.5 Interrupts
Interrupts provide a way to save the current CPU status and registers, execute an interrupt service routine
(ISR), and then restore the CPU status so processing resumes where it left off before the interrupt. Other
than the software interrupt (SWI), which is a program instruction, interrupts are caused by hardware events
such as an edge on the IRQ pin or a timer-overflow event. The debug module can also generate an SWI
under certain circumstances.
If an event occurs in an enabled interrupt source, an associated read-only status flag will become set. The
CPU will not respond until and unless the local interrupt enable is a logic 1 to enable the interrupt. The
I bit in the CCR is 0 to allow interrupts. The global interrupt mask (I bit) in the CCR is initially set after
reset which masks (prevents) all maskable interrupt sources. The user program initializes the stack pointer
and performs other system setup before clearing the I bit to allow the CPU to respond to interrupts.
When the CPU receives a qualified interrupt request, it completes the current instruction before responding
to the interrupt. The interrupt sequence obeys the same cycle-by-cycle sequence as the SWI instruction
and consists of:
• Saving the CPU registers on the stack
• Setting the I bit in the CCR to mask further interrupts
• Fetching the interrupt vector for the highest-priority interrupt that is currently pending
• Filling the instruction queue with the first three bytes of program information starting from the
address fetched from the interrupt vector locations
While the CPU is responding to the interrupt, the I bit is automatically set to avoid the possibility of
another interrupt interrupting the ISR itself (this is called nesting of interrupts). Normally, the I bit is
restored to 0 when the CCR is restored from the value stacked on entry to the ISR. In rare cases, the I bit
may be cleared inside an ISR (after clearing the status flag that generated the interrupt) so that other
interrupts can be serviced without waiting for the first service routine to finish. This practice is not
recommended for anyone other than the most experienced programmers because it can lead to subtle
program errors that are difficult to debug.
The interrupt service routine ends with a return-from-interrupt (RTI) instruction which restores the CCR,
A, X, and PC registers to their pre-interrupt values by reading the previously saved information off the
stack.
NOTE
For compatibility with the M68HC08, the H register is not automatically
saved and restored. Push H onto the stack at the start of the interrupt service
routine (ISR) and restore it immediately before the RTI that is used to return
from the ISR.
If two or more interrupts are pending when the I bit is cleared, the highest priority source is serviced first
(see Table 5-1).
MC9S08JM16 Series Data Sheet, Rev. 2
Freescale Semiconductor
63