Developer’s Manual
January, 2004
29
Intel XScale® Core
Developer’s Manual
Programming Model
2.3.2
New Page Attributes
The Intel XScale
®
core extends the page attributes defined by the C and B bits in the page
descriptors with an additional X bit. This bit allows four more attributes to be encoded when X=1.
These new encodings include allocating data for the mini-data cache and write-allocate caching. A
full description of the encodings can be found in
Section 3.2.2, “Memory Attributes” on page 3-38
.
The Intel XScale
®
core retains ARM definitions of the C and B encoding when X = 0, which is
different than the StrongARM products. The memory attribute for the mini-data cache has been
moved and replaced with the write-through caching attribute.
When write-allocate is enabled, a store operation that misses the data cache (cacheable data only)
will generate a line fill. If disabled, a line fill only occurs when a load operation misses the data
cache (cacheable data only).
Write-through caching causes all store operations to be written to memory, whether they are
cacheable or not cacheable. This feature is useful for maintaining data cache coherency.
The Intel XScale
®
core also adds a P bit in the first level descriptors to allow an ASSP to identify a
new memory attribute. Refer to the Intel XScale
®
core implementation option section of the ASSP
architecture specification to find out how the P bit has been defined. Bit 1 in the Control Register
(coprocessor 15, register 1, opcode=1) is used to assigned the P bit memory attribute for memory
accesses made during page table walks.
These attributes are programmed in the translation table descriptors, which are highlighted in
Table 2-8, “First-level Descriptors” on page 2-30
,
Table 2-9, “Second-level Descriptors for Coarse
Page Table” on page 2-30
and
Table 2-10, “Second-level Descriptors for Fine Page Table” on
page 2-30
. Two second-level descriptor formats have been defined for the core, one is used for the
coarse page table and the other is used for the fine page table.