ARM DDI 0301H
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Glossary-1
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Glossary
This glossary describes some of the terms used in ARM manuals. Where terms can have several
meanings, the meaning presented here is intended.
Abort
A mechanism that indicates to a core that the value associated with a memory access is invalid. An
abort can be caused by the external or internal memory system as a result of attempting to access
invalid instruction or data memory. An abort is classified as either a Prefetch or Data Abort, and an
internal or External Abort.
See also
Data Abort, External Abort and Prefetch Abort.
Abort model
An abort model is the defined behavior of an ARM processor in response to a Data Abort exception.
Different abort models behave differently with regard to load and store instructions that specify
base register write-back.
Addressing modes
A mechanism, shared by many different instructions, for generating values used by the instructions.
For four of the ARM addressing modes, the values generated are memory addresses, the traditional
role of an addressing mode. A fifth addressing mode generates values to be used as operands by
data-processing instructions.
Advanced eXtensible Interface (AXI)
A bus protocol that supports separate address/control and data phases, unaligned data transfers
using byte strobes, burst-based transactions with only start address issued, separate read and write
data channels to enable low-cost DMA, ability to issue multiple outstanding addresses, out-of-order
transaction completion, and easy addition of register stages to provide timing closure.The AXI
protocol also includes optional extensions to cover signaling for low-power operation.
AXI is targeted at high performance, high clock frequency system designs and includes a number
of features that make it very suitable for high speed sub-micron interconnect.