LM3S1937 Datasheet, PDF (71/673 Pages) Texas Instruments – Stellaris® LM3S1937 Microcontroller

Stellaris^® LM3S1937 Microcontroller
2.4.4
The Code, SRAM, and external RAM regions can hold programs. However, it is recommended that
programs always use the Code region because the Cortex-M3 has separate buses that can perform
instruction fetches and data accesses simultaneously.
The MPU can override the default memory access behavior described in this section. For more
information, see “Memory Protection Unit (MPU)” on page 94.
The Cortex-M3 prefetches instructions ahead of execution and speculatively prefetches from branch
target addresses.
Software Ordering of Memory Accesses
The order of instructions in the program flow does not always guarantee the order of the
corresponding memory transactions for the following reasons:
■ The processor can reorder some memory accesses to improve efficiency, providing this does
not affect the behavior of the instruction sequence.
■ The processor has multiple bus interfaces.
■ Memory or devices in the memory map have different wait states.
■ Some memory accesses are buffered or speculative.
“Memory System Ordering of Memory Accesses” on page 70 describes the cases where the memory
system guarantees the order of memory accesses. Otherwise, if the order of memory accesses is
critical, software must include memory barrier instructions to force that ordering. The Cortex-M3
has the following memory barrier instructions:
■ The Data Memory Barrier (DMB) instruction ensures that outstanding memory transactions
complete before subsequent memory transactions.
■ The Data Synchronization Barrier (DSB) instruction ensures that outstanding memory transactions
complete before subsequent instructions execute.
■ The Instruction Synchronization Barrier (ISB) instruction ensures that the effect of all completed
memory transactions is recognizable by subsequent instructions.
Memory barrier instructions can be used in the following situations:
■ MPU programming
– If the MPU settings are changed and the change must be effective on the very next instruction,
use a DSB instruction to ensure the effect of the MPU takes place immediately at the end of
context switching.
– Use an ISB instruction to ensure the new MPU setting takes effect immediately after
programming the MPU region or regions, if the MPU configuration code was accessed using
a branch or call. If the MPU configuration code is entered using exception mechanisms, then
an ISB instruction is not required.
■ Vector table
If the program changes an entry in the vector table and then enables the corresponding exception,
use a DMB instruction between the operations. The DMB instruction ensures that if the exception
is taken immediately after being enabled, the processor uses the new exception vector.
June 18, 2012
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