This file describes the format of the register map based on XML, version 2.0.
1) Overview
-----------
1.1) Nodes and instances
------------------------
This specification is based on the concept of "nodes". Nodes are containers
which can contain other nodes and/or a register. Each node can have one or more
addresses (addresses are always relative to the parent node). The idea is that
this hierarchy of nodes generates a number of addresses recursively. The example
below outlines this idea:
N
A
X
B
Y
This example creates one node named N and two instances named A and B,
at respective addresses X and Y. This means that all subnodes of this node will
have two copies: one relative to X, which path will be prefixed by "A", and
one relative to Y, which path will be prefixed by "B".
This example below explores this idea in details:
S_N
C
U
D
V
In this example, N generates two copies of the sub-node S_N.
The sub-node S_N generates two instances C and D. The whole hierarchy thus generates
four instances:
- A.C at X+U
- A.D at X+V
- B.C at Y+U
- B.D at Y+V
As a note for later, notice that there really are two hierarchies in parallel:
- the node hierarchy: it is composed of N and N.S_N
- the instance hierarchy: it is made up of A, B, A.C, A.D, B.C and B.D
1.2) Ranges
-----------
To make things more useful, in particular in case of multiple copies of a register,
we introduce the concept of range addresses with an example:
N
A
1
5
0x1000
0x100
NN
E
0x4
A range describes a contiguous set of adresses, indexed by a number. One can
specify the first number in the range, and the number of copies. In the case
of a regular pattern (base + n * stride), we can specify a stride
to compute the address of the next copy. In this example, the top-level
nodes generates five copies which path is A[1], A[2], ..., A[5]
and which addresses are 0x1000+1*0x100, 0x1000+2*0x100, ..., 0x1000+5*0x100.
If we add the sub-node to the picture, for each copy we create a instance E
we offset 0x4 from the parent. Overall this generates 5 instances:
- A[1].E at 0x1000+1*0x100+0x4 = 0x1104
- A[2].E at 0x1000+2*0x100+0x4 = 0x1204
- A[3].E at 0x1000+3*0x100+0x4 = 0x1304
- A[4].E at 0x1000+4*0x100+0x4 = 0x1404
- A[5].E at 0x1000+5*0x100+0x4 = 0x1504
Note that the intermediate path also define instances, so there are 5 additional
instances in reality:
- A[1] at 0x1100
- A[2] at 0x1200
- A[3] at 0x1300
- A[4] at 0x1400
- A[5] at 0x1500
For the record, there is a more general way of specifying a range when it does
not follow a nice regular pattern. One can specify a formula where the parameter
is the index. There are no restrictions on the formula except that it must use
usual arithmetic operators. The example below illustrate such a use:
N
F
0
4
0x50+(n/2)*0x100+(n%2)*0x10
In the case when the addresses do not follow a regular pattern or a formula would
be too complicated, it is always possible to specify the addresses as a list:
N
F
0
0x50
0x60
0x90
0x110
In this example we generate four nodes F[0], ..., F[3] with a formula. Here "/"
is the euclidian division and "%" is the modulo operator. Note the use of an
attribute to specify which variable represents the index. The generated addresses
are:
- F[0] at 0x50+(0/2)*0x100+(0%2)*0x10 = 0x50
- F[1] at 0x50+(1/2)*0x100+(1%2)*0x10 = 0x50+0x10 = 0x60
- F[2] at 0x50+(2/2)*0x100+(2%2)*0x10 = 0x50+0x100 = 0x150
- F[3] at 0x50+(3/2)*0x100+(3%2)*0x10 = 0x50+0x100+0x10 = 0x160
1.3) Node description
---------------------
For documentation purposes, node can of course carry some description, as well
as instances. More precisely, nodes can have a title, that is a short description
very much like a chapter title, and a description, this is a free form and potentially
lengthy description of the node. Instances too can have a title and a description.
The following example illustrates this:
icoll
DMA Controller
The DMA controller provides uniform DMA facilities to transfer data from
and to peripherals. It uses memory-mapped tables and support chained
transfers.
AHB_DMAC
0x80000000
AHB DMA Controller
The AHB DMA controller provides DMA facilities for the peripherals
on the AHB bus like the SSP and PIX engines.
APB_DMAC
0x8001000
APB DMA Controller
The APB DMA controller provides DMA facilities for the peripherals
on the APB bus like the I2C and PCM engines.
1.4) Register description
--------------------------
The goal of the register description is of course to describe registers!
To see how registers relate to the node hierarchy, see 1.5, this section focuses
only the description only.
A register carries a lot of information, which is organise logically. A register
can have a width, in bits. By default registers are assumed to be 32-bit wide.
The most useful feature of register description is to describe the fields of
the registers. Each field has a name, a start position and a width. Fields
can also carry a description. Finally, each field can specify enumerated values,
that is named values, for convenience. Enumerated values have a name, a value
and an optional description. The example below illustrates all these concepts:
8
This register controls the parameters of the interrupt: priority, IRQ/FIQ and enable
MODE
Interrupt mode
0
2
DISABLED
Interrupt is disabled
0
ENABLED
Interrupt is enabled
1
NMI
Interrupt is non-maskable
2
PRIORITY
Interrupt priority, lower values are more prioritized.
2
2
ARM_MODE
Select between ARM's FIQ and IRQ mode
4
1
IRQ
0
FIQ
1
set
0x4
In this example, the 8-bit registers has three fields:
- MODE(1:0): it has three named values DISABLED(0), ENABLED(1) and NMI(2)
- PRIORITY(2:1): it has no named values
- ARM_MODE(3): it has two named values IRQ(0) and FIQ(1)
1.5) Register inheritance
-------------------------
The node hierarchy specifies instances, that is pairs of (path,address),
and the register description describes the internal of a register. The placement
of the register descriptions in the node hierarchy will specify which registers
can be found at each address. More precisely, if a node contains a register
description, it means that this node's and all sub-nodes' instances are registers
following the description. It is forbidden for a node to contain a register
description if one of its parents already contains one. The example below
will make this concept clearer (for readability, we omitted some of the tags):
dma
DMAC0x80000000
PCM_CHAN0x0
I2C_CHAN0x10
sct
SET0x4
CLR0x8
TOG0xC
This example describes one register (let's call it blabla) and 9 instances:
- DMAC at 0x80000000, no register
- DMAC.PCM_CHAN at 0x80000000, register blabla
- DMAC.PCM_CHAN.SET at 0x80000004, register blabla
- DMAC.PCM_CHAN.CLR at 0x80000008, register blabla
- DMAC.PCM_CHAN.TOG at 0x8000000C, register blabla
- DMAC.I2C_CHAN at 0x80000010, register blabla
- DMAC.I2C_CHAN.SET at 0x80000014, register blabla
- DMAC.I2C_CHAN.CLR at 0x80000018, register blabla
- DMAC.I2C_CHAN.TOG at 0x8000001C, register blabla
1.6) Soc description
--------------------
The description file must also specify some information about the system-on-chip
itself. The entire description, including nodes, is contained in a "soc" tag
which must at least specify the soc name. It can optionally specify the title
and description, as well as the author(s) of the description, the ISA and
the version.
vsoc
Virtual SOC
Virtual SoC is a nice and powerful chip.
Amaury Pouly
ARM
0.5
2) Specification
----------------
Root
----
As any XML document, the content of the file should be enclosed in a "xml" tag.
The root element must be "soc" tag.
Example:
Element: soc
------------
It must contain the following tags:
- name: name of soc, only made of alphanumerical characters
It can contain at most one of each of the following tags:
- title: one line description of the soc
- desc: free form description of the soc
- isa: instruction set assembly
- version: version of the description
It can contain any number of the following tags:
- author: author of the description
- node: node description
Element: node
-------------
It must contain the following tags:
- name: name of node, only made of alphanumerical characters
It can contain at most one of each of the following tags:
- title: one line description of the node
- desc: free form description of the node
- register: register description
It can contain any number of the following tags:
- instance: author of the description
- node: node description
Element: instance
-----------------
It must contain the following tags:
- name: name of instance, only made of alphanumerical characters
It can contain at most one of each of the following tags:
- title: one line description of the instance
- desc: free form description of the instance
- address: address for a single instance (non-negative number)
- range: address range for multiple instances
Note that address and range are mutually exclusive, and at least one of them
must exists.
Element: range
--------------
It must contain the following tags:
- first: index of the first instance (non-negative number)
- count: number of instances (positive number)
It can contain at most one of each of the following tags:
- base: base address (non-negative number)
- stride: stride (number)
- formula: free-form formula, must have a "variable" attribute
Note that stride and formula are mutually exclusive, and at least one of them
must exists. If stride is specified and base is omitted, it is taken to be 0.
Element: register
-----------------
It can contain at most one of each of the following tags:
- width: width in bits (positive number)
It can contain any number of the following tags:
- desc: free form description of the register
- field: field description
- variant: variant description
Element: variant
--------------
It must contain the following tags:
- type: name of type, only made of alphanumerical characters
- offset: offset with respect to register address
Element: field
--------------
It must contain the following tags:
- name: name of field, only made of alphanumerical characters
- position: least significant bit
It can contain at most one of each of the following tags:
- desc: free form description of the instance
- width: width in bits
It can contain any number of the following tags:
- enum: enumerated value
If the width is not specified, it is assumed to be 1.
Element: enum
-------------
It must contain the following tags:
- name: name of field, only made of alphanumerical characters
- value: value (non-negative, must fit into the field's width)
It can contain at most one of each of the following tags:
- desc: free form description of the instance