RM4	Cortex-M7 implementation

This course covers the Cortex-M7 V7E-M compliant CPU

Objectives This course is split into 3 important parts: Cortex-M7 architecture Cortex-M7 software implementation and debug Cortex-M7 hardware implementation. Through a tutorial, the Cortex-M7 low level programming is explained, particularly the ARM linker parameterizing and some tricky assembly instructions. Note that attendees can replay these labs after the training. The course also indicates how to use caches and TCMs which are new units with regard to Cortex-M4. The course also details the hardware implementation and provides some guidelines to design a SoC based on Cortex-M7, taking benefit of concurrent AXI/AHB transactions. An overview of the Coresight specification is provided prior to describing the debug related units. A more detailed course description is available on request at training@ac6-training.com

Prerequisites and related courses Our course reference RI0 - AXI3 / AXI4 INTERCONNECT course details the operation of AXI4 bus. Contents can adapted when attendees have already the knowledge of Cortex-M4.

FIRST DAY - ARCHITECTURE INTRODUCTION TO ARM CORTEX-M7 Memory interfaces: TCMs, caches and AHB peripheral port Fixed memory map Configuration options Lock-step implementation ARM CORTEX-M7 CORE Highlighting the new features of the V7E-M architecture In-order superscalar pipeline Dynamic branch prediction Bit-banding System timer System control block Detail of Data Processing Unit Load Store Unit, store buffering CACHES AND TCMS Caches Cortex-M7 cache implementation Cache maintenance operations Dynamic read allocate mode, recovering from errors Store buffer merging L1 Caches error correcting code TCMs Benefit of implementing two separate D-TCM ports Implementing external ECC for TCMs SECOND DAY - ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE OF A SOC BASED ON CORTEX-M7 Internal bus matrix Accessing ROM Accessing SRAM Connecting peripherals Sharing resources between Cortex-M7 and other CPUs STM32F7 architecture EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND LOW POWER MODES Atomicity in single processor multiple thread systems Operation of the Local monitor Wait For Interrupt Events EXCEPTIONS Exception behavior Exception-continuable instructions Non-maskable exceptions Fault handling MPU faults, external faults Priority boosting Reset sequence, initialization requirements INTERRUPTS Interrupt entry / exit, timing diagrams Tail chaining NVIC registers Interrupt prioritization Interrupt handlers Wake-up Interrupt Controller THIRD DAY – OPTIONAL UNITS, HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION MEMORY PROTECTION UNIT Device and normal memory ordering Memory type access restrictions Memory ordering restrictions Memory protection overview, ARM v7 PMSA Fault status and address registers Region overview, memory type and access control, sub-regions Region overlapping Setting up the MPU FLOATING POINT UNIT Introduction to IEEE754, Floating point arithmetic Cortex-M7 single and double precision FPU Hardware support for denormals and all IEEE rounding modes Improving the performance by selection flush-to-zero mode and default NaN mode Extension of AAPCS to include FP registers Lazy floating-point context save Highlighting the new features of FPv5 AXI IMPLEMENTATION Overview of AXI bus specification, explaining ordering rules AXI attributes and transactions Restrictions on AXI transfers

AHB IMPLEMENTATION Overview of AHB-Lite protocol AHBP AHBS AHB CORTEX-M7 HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION Pinout Clocking and reset, power management Using an external Wake-up Interrupt Controller (WIC) L2C-310 LEVEL 2 CACHE Cache configurability AXI interface characteristics Understanding through sequences how cacheable information is copied from memory to level 1 and level 2 caches Transient operations, utilization of line buffers LFBs, LRBs, EBs and STBs Power management Cache event monitoring Cache lockdown Interrupt management FOURTH DAY – DEBUG, SOFTWARE DESIGN INVASIVE DEBUG Coresight debug infrastructure, DAP Cortex-M7 debug features Halt mode Vector catching Monitor mode Debug event sources Flash patch and breakpoint features Data watchpoint and trace AHB-lite Debug interface ROM table NON-INVASIVE DEBUG Basic ETM operation Instruction trace principles Instrumentation Trace Macrocell DWT trace packets Time-stamping packets Instruction tracing, branch packets, exception tracing packets TPIU components Embedded Trace Buffer CROSS-TRIGGER INTERFACE Purpose of this debug unit Trigger signals to CTI and Trigger signals from CTI EMBEDDED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT WITH CORTEX-M7 Embedded development process Application startup Placing code, data, stack and heap in the memory map, scatterloading Reset and initialisation Placing a minimal vector table Further memory map considerations, 8-byte stack alignment in handlers Building and debugging your image Long branch veneers Coding guidelines when a cache is used C/C++ COMPILER HINTS AND TIPS FOR Cortex-M7 ARM compiler optimisations, tail-call optimization, inlining of functions Mixing C/C++ and assembly Coding with ARM compiler Measuring stack usage Unaligned accesses Local and global data issues, alignment of structures Further optimisations, linker feedback THUMB-2 INSTRUCTION SET Data processing instructions Branch and control flow instructions Exception generating instructions If…then conditional blocks Stack in operation Memory barriers and synchronization CORTEX-M7 DSP INSTRUCTION SET Multiply instructions Packing / unpacking instructions V6 ARM SIMD packed add / sub instructions SIMD combined add/sub instructions Multiply and multiply accumulate instructions SIMD sum absolute difference instructions SIMD select instruction Saturation instructions

 

Duration	Cost	Calendar
4 days	2610 € HT
Last update: 14 March 2022
This course can be provided either remotely or in our Paris training center or, worldwide, on your premises. Scheduled classes are confirmed as soon as there is a confirmed booking.
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