AT91_C-Startup.pptVIP

AT91 C-startup Why a C-startup code ? For reasons of modularity and portability most application code for an embedded application is written in C The application entry point must perform some initialization before it can call any C code The C-startup is the first file executed at power on and Performs initialization of the microcontroller from the reset vector up to the calling of application main routine. Exception vectors, critical peripherals, stacks and variables C-startup sequence (1/3) Major consideration in the design of an embedded ARM application is the layout of the memory map In particular the memory at address 0x0. The ARM processor starts to fetch instructions from address 0x0 at reset. For an embedded system, this requires NVM at address 0x0, at least initially Because of ROM limitations, the speed of execution handling is affected and the exception vectors cannot be modified Therefore, ROM must be located at address 0x0 at power-up to assure a valid reset vector. A common strategy is to remap ROM to RAM and copy the exception vectors from ROM to RAM C-startup sequence (2/3) Many applications written for ARM-based systems are embedded applications that are contained in ROM and execute on Reset Remapping ROM to RAM, to improve execution speed Initializing the execution environment, such as exception vectors, stacks, I/O peripherals Initializing the application Linking an embedded executable image to place code and data in specific locations in memory For an embedded application, the code in ROM must provide a way for the application to initialize itself and start executing C-startup sequence (3/3) The initialization code, located at address zero after reset, must: Mark the entry point for the initialization code Set-up exception vectors Initialize the memory system Initialize any critical I/O devices Initialize the stack pointer registers Enable interrupts Change processor mode if necessary After, the sequence continues with the application ini