Glossary

Stride

The stride field, FPSCR[21:20], specifies the increment applied to register addresses in short

 

vector operations. A stride of 00, specifying an increment of +1, causes a short vector operation

 

to increment each vector register by +1 for each iteration, while a stride of 11 specifies an

 

increment of +2.

Subnormal value

A value in the range (–2Emin< x < 2Emin), except for 0. In the IEEE 754 standard format for

 

single-precision and double-precision operands, a subnormal value has a zero exponent and a

 

nonzero fraction field. The IEEE 754 standard requires that the generation and manipulation of

 

subnormal operands be performed with the same precision as normal operands.

Support code

Software that must be used to complement the hardware to provide compatibility with the IEEE

 

754 standard. The support code has a library of routines that performs supported functions, such

 

as divide with unsupported inputs or inputs that might generate an exception, and as well as

 

operations beyond the scope of the hardware. The support code has a set of exception handlers

 

to process exceptional conditions in compliance with the IEEE 754 standard.

Synchronization primitive

The memory synchronization primitive instructions are those instructions that are used to ensure

 

 

memory synchronization. That is, the LDREX, STREX, SWP, and SWPB instructions.

Tag

The upper portion of a block address used to identify a cache line within a cache. The block

 

address from the CPU is compared with each tag in a set in parallel to determine if the

 

corresponding line is in the cache. If it is, it is said to be a cache hit and the line can be fetched

 

from cache. If the block address does not correspond to any of the tags, it is said to be a cache

 

miss and the line must be fetched from the next level of memory.

 

See also Cache terminology diagram on the last page of this glossary.

TAP

See Debug test access port.

Thumb state

A processor that is executing Thumb (16-bit and 32-bit) instructions is operating in Thumb

 

state.

Tightly coupled memory (TCM)

An area of low latency memory that provides predictable instruction execution or data load timing in cases where deterministic performance is required. TCMs are suited to holding:

 

critical routines (such as for interrupt handling)

 

scratchpad data

 

data types whose locality is not suited to caching

 

critical data structures (such as interrupt stacks).

Tiny

A nonzero result or value that is between the positive and negative minimum normal values for

 

the destination precision.

Trace port

A port on a device, such as a processor or ASIC, used to output trace information.

Trap

A exceptional condition that has the respective exception enable bit set in the FPSCR register.

 

The user trap handler is executed.

Unaligned

A data item stored at an address that is not divisible by the number of bytes that defines the data

 

size is said to be unaligned. For example, a word stored at an address that is not divisible by four.

Undefined

Indicates an instruction that generates an Undefined instruction trap. See the ARM Architecture

 

Reference Manual for more information on ARM exceptions.

UNP

See Unpredictable.

Unpredictable

The result of an instruction or control register field value that cannot be relied upon.

 

Unpredictable instructions or results must not represent security holes, or halt or hang the

 

processor, or any parts of the system.

ARM DDI 0363E

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ARM R4F, r1p3 manual Increment of +2, See Debug test access port, Destination precision, User trap handler is executed