Multi-Processor Interrupt Controller (MPIC)
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EOI Register
Each processor has a private EOI register which is used to signal the end
of processing for a particular interrupt event. I f m ultiple nested interrupts
are in service, the EOI command terminates the interrupt service of the
highest priority source. Once an interrupt is acknowledged, only sources
of higher priority will be allowed to interrupt the processor until the EOI
command is received. This register should always be written with a value
of zero which is the nonspecific EOI command.
Interrupt Acknowledge Register
Upon receipt of an interrupt signal, the processor may read this registe r to
retrieve the vector of the interrupt source which caused the interrupt.
8259 Mode
The 8259 mode bits control the use of an external 8259 pair for PC-AT
compatibility. Following reset, this mode is set for pass through which
essentially disables the advanced controller and passes an 8259 input on
external interrupt source 0 directly through to processor zero. During
interrupt controller initialization, this ch a nnel should be programmed for
mixed mode in order to take advantage of the interrupt delivery modes.
Current Task Priority Level
Each processor has a separate Current Task P riority Level register. The
system software uses this register to indicate the relative p riority of the task
running on the corresponding processor. The interrupt controller will not
deliver an interrupt to a processor unless it has a priority level which is
greater than the current task priority level of that processor. This value is
also used in determining the destination for interrupts which are delivered
using the distributed deliver mode.