Acknowledging Interrupts (Acking)

4.3 Acknowledging Interrupts (Acking)

The ThunderLAN controllers have been designed to minimize the code neces- sary to acknowledge interrupts. This is accomplished by matching the HOST_INT register's bits to the corresponding bits in the HOST_CMD regis- ter. Also, the HOST_INT's two LSBs are set to 0 so that it forms a table-offset vector, which can be used in a jump table. This allows for quick branching to the appropriate interrupt service routine.

To acknowledge interrupts:

-Disable all interrupts.

-Create a jump vector from the value read in HOST_INT.

-Use a jump table or a conditional branch structure to branch to the ISR.

-Execute the appropriate commands for the particular interrupt.

-Load the Ack_Count register with the number of interrupts to be acknowl- edged. This is useful if several EOF interrupts are acknowledged at once.

-Write to HOST_CMD. You may assert the GO bit (Ack and GO com- mands), if desired.

Interrupts can be disabled by writing to the HOST_INT register. One quick and easy way of doing this is by writing the contents of HOST_INT back after read- ing it at the start of the interrupt routine.

A jump table contains the starting address of the individual interrupt routines. Offsets to this table can be easily created from the HOST_INT vector read. It may be necessary to shift the vector read in order to factor out bits 1 and 0 (They are read as 0 always). Using this table or a conditional branching struc- ture, the appropriate jump to the interrupt routine is easy to find.

The interrupt routine that is branched to performs the commands for the inter- rupt call. In some cases, this involves loading Ack_Count with a value greater than 1. This is particularly true when acknowledging Tx EOF with the Ld_Thr register loaded.

To acknowledge the interrupt, write the HOST_INT vector into HOST_CMD. The bit values in HOST_INT have a one-to-one correspondence with HOST_CMD. This simplifies the driver code and saves programming time. In- terrupts should be reenabled when exiting the interrupt routine. Acknowledg- ing interrupts to HOST_INT achieves this goal.

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Texas Instruments TNETE110A, TNETE211, TNETE100A manual Acknowledging Interrupts Acking
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