This chapter describes how interrupt concepts in the RISC‑V architecture apply to the E31 Core
Complex. The definitive resource for information about the RISC‑V interrupt architecture is
The
RISC‑V Instruction Set Manual, Volume II: Privileged Architecture, Version 1.10
.
E31 Core Complex has support for the following interrupts: local (including software and timer)
and global.
Local interrupts are signaled directly to an individual hart with a dedicated interrupt value. This
allows for reduced interrupt latency as no arbitration is required to determine which hart will ser-
vice a given request and no additional memory accesses are required to determine the cause of
the interrupt. Software and timer interrupts are local interrupts generated by the Core Local
Interruptor (CLINT).
Global interrupts, by contrast, are routed through a Platform-Level Interrupt Controller (PLIC),
which can direct interrupts to any hart in the system via the external interrupt. Decoupling global
interrupts from the hart(s) allows the design of the PLIC to be tailored to the platform, permitting
a broad range of attributes like the number of interrupts and the prioritization and routing
schemes.
This chapter describes the E31 Core Complex interrupt architecture. Chapter 6 describes the
Core Local Interruptor. Chapter 7 describes the global interrupt architecture and the PLIC
design.
The E31 Core Complex interrupt architecture is depicted in Figure 2.
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