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Semiconductor Group
95
On-Chip Peripheral Components
The compare interrupt can be used very effectively to change the contents of the compare registers
or to determine the level of the port outputs for the next "compare match". The principle is, that the
internal compare signal (generated at a match between timer count and register contents) not only
manipulates the compare output but also sets the corresponding interrupt request flag. Thus, the
current task of the CPU is interrupted - of course provided the priority of the compare interrupt is
higher than the present task priority - and the corresponding interrupt service routine is called. This
service routine then sets up all the necessary parameters for the next compare event.
Some advantages in using compare interrupts:
Firstly, there is no danger of unintentional overwriting a compare register before a match has been
reached. This could happen when the CPU writes to the compare register without knowing about
the actual timer 2 count.
Secondly, and this is the most interesting advantage of the compare feature, the output pin is
exclusively controlled by hardware therefore completely independent from any service delay which
in real time applications could be disastrous. The compare interrupt in turn is not sensitive to such
delays since it loads the parameters for the next event. This in turn is supposed to happen after a
sufficient space of time.
Please note two special cases where a program using compare interrupts could show a "surprising"
behavior:
The first configuration has already been mentioned in the description of compare mode 1. The fact
that the compare interrupts are transition activated becomes important when driving timer 2 with a
slow external clock. In this case it should be carefully considered that the compare signal is active
as long as the timer 2 count is equal to the contents of the corresponding compare register, and that
the compare signal has a rising and a falling edge. Furthermore, the "shadow latches" used in
compare mode 1 are transparent while the compare signal is active.
Thus, with a slow input clock for timer 2, the comparator signal is active for a long time (= high
number of machine cycles) and therefore a fast interrupt controlled reload of the compare register
could not only change the "shadow latch" - as probably intended - but also the output buffer.
When using the CRC , you can select whether an interrupt should be generated when the compare
signal goes active or inactive, depending on the status of bit I3FR in T2CON (see figure 8-5).
Initializing the interrupt to be negative transition triggered is advisive in the above case. Then the
compare signal is already inactive and any write access to the port latch just changes the contents
of the "shadow-latch".
Please note that for CC registers 1 to 3 an interrupt is always requested when the compare signal
goes active.
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Summary of Contents for SAB 80515 Series
Page 9: ...Semiconductor Group 9 Introduction Figure 1 2 Block Diagram ...
Page 12: ...Semiconductor Group 12 Fundamental Structure Figure 2 1 Detailed Block Diagram ...
Page 18: ...Semiconductor Group 18 Central Processing Unit Figure 3 1 Fetch Execute Sequence ...
Page 73: ...Semiconductor Group 73 On Chip Peripheral Components Figure 7 25 A D Converter Block Diagram ...
Page 83: ...Semiconductor Group 83 On Chip Peripheral Components Figure 7 33 a Timer 2 Block Diagram ...
Page 215: ...Device Specifications Semiconductor Group 215 ...
Page 217: ...Device Specifications Semiconductor Group 217 Pin Configuration P LCC 68 ...
Page 219: ...Device Specifications Semiconductor Group 219 Logic Symbol ...
Page 226: ...Device Specifications Semiconductor Group 226 Figure 1 Block Diagram ...
Page 229: ...Device Specifications Semiconductor Group 229 Figure 2 Memory Address Spaces ...
Page 239: ...Device Specifications Semiconductor Group 239 Figure 4 Block Diagram of the A D Converter ...
Page 241: ...Device Specifications Semiconductor Group 241 Figure 5 Interrupt Request Sources ...
Page 242: ...Device Specifications Semiconductor Group 242 Figure 6 Interrupt Priority Level Structure ...