Software Compatibility
1-11
Introduction
1.6
Software Compatibility
Code compatibility with future OMAP59x devices is only possible if driver
writers adhere to the conventions detailed in Section 1.6.1.
1.6.1
OMAP Driver Compatibility Conventions
All locations marked as reserved or unused in the documentation are written
as zero, and, in general, values read from reserved locations are not used.
In practice, read-mask-update operations can be applied to registers that
include reserved bits, provided the register is initialized by writing 0 to all
reserved bits when the register is first used.
These conventions allow use of reserved bits to enable new features in future
implementations. Initialization of the complete register, including reserved
bits, is required to avoid problems in these future devices when a new driver
uses (sets) some of the previously reserved bits. In this case, a following
legacy driver must clear the bits.
All software that comes into contact with hardware registers in OMAP devices
must follow these conventions.