Atmega32 Architectural Overview

CS-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick

Atmel Atmega32 highlights

An 8-bit microcontroller featuring:

3 separate on-chip memories (Harvard architecture)

2KB SRAM (for data volatile; data lost on power off) 1KB EEPROM (for persistent data storage holds data after power off) 32KB Flash (organized as 16K of 16-bit words for persistent program code)

Native data size is 1 byte (SRAM and EEPROM)

16-bit data addressing

Up to 64 KB (216 bytes) of data memory can be accessed

8-pin I/O ports named A, B, C, and D, program-configurable as:

Digital input (for reading discrete external signals on each pin (0v or 5v) as data values 0 or 1) Digital output (for writing binary data values as discrete output signals (0v or 5v) Analog input (for reading continuous external signals (0v-5v) as data values) Serial/Parallel (for reading or writing streams of bytes) Pulse accumulator (for counting #changes of external signals)
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Inside an IC package

CS-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick

Inside an IC package

CS-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick

Atmel Atmega32

Central Processing Unit

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) performs the actual arithmetic, logical, and bit-functions

Memory SRAM, EEPROM, Flash Clock circuit internal/external I/O Input/Output; video, serial, parallel, USB, SCSI, etc.

CS-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick

CS-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick

3 Separate on-chip memories

Programs are stored in 32KB Program Flash

Persistent: contents are retained when power is off

(non-volatile) Organized as 2-byte words; individual program instructions generally take 2 bytes, but some take 4 bytes Each word has a unique 16-bit address (0-0x3FFF) Fast to read; slow to write Can only write entire blocks of memory at a time

2KB SRAM for temporary data storage

Contents are lost when power is shut off (volatile) Fast read and write Native data size is 8 bits (1 byte) Each byte has a unique 16-bit address (0x60-0x85F)

1KB EEPROM for persistent data storage

Contents are retained when power is off (non-volatile) Fast read; slow write Native data size is 8 bits (1 byte) Each byte has a unique 16-bit address
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CS-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick

Flash Program Memory layout

Reset and interrupt vector section 42 words (84 bytes) $002A

There are 32KB of program memory (Flash memory)

Your programs go here!

Organized as 16K 2-byte words Because program instructions are either 2 (common) or 4 (less common) bytes long

Each word (not byte) in Flash memory has a unique address

Beginning address $0000 Ending address $3FFF

$3C00

Some Flash memory is reserved or protected

Number of bytes depends on user-definable configuration

First 42 words (reserved) Last NNN words (protected)

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CS-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick

Most general-purpose microprocessors (like in your PC) use a von Neumann Architecture
1.

Data and instructions are both stored in the same main memory

2.

The content of any part of memory is addressable by location without regard to what is stored in that location program or data
Instructions are executed sequentially. In case of accidental or intentional programming errors, data can be executed a common attack used by viruses
Data CPU

3.

+ Program
Microcontroller Components

Main Memory

The Atmega32 design is based on a Harvard Architecture:

Assigns data and program instructions to different memory spaces.

Program data occupies a different and separate memory from the program itself.

Each memory space has a separate bus, allowing:

1.

2.

3.

Different timing, size, and structure for program instructions and data Concurrent access to data and instructions (increases speed) Clear partitioning of data and instructions (better security)

Drawback: Harder to program

Microcontroller Components 10

The machine-instruction is executed by the Central Processing Unit

When the device is powered-on, the Program Counter is set to 0. The instruction at the location in Flash Memory at the address indicated by the Program Counter is fetched and placed in the Instruction Register The opcode and operands within the instruction are extracted by the Instruction Decoder The control lines from the I.D. activate the particular circuitry within the ALU that is capable of processing that particular opcode. The ALU executes the instruction. The Program Counter is automatically incremented and the cycle repeats.
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Instruction execution timing

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An Assembler converts human-readable assembly language instructions into machine-executable instruction that are stored in Program Flash Memory

Consider the assembly language instruction add rD, rS

add is a reserved assembly language instruction

mnemonic

rS and rD are operands that refer to source and

destination general-purpose registers This instruction adds the contents of register rS to register rD, storing the sum in rD. Example: Substitute any actual register (R0-R31) for rS and rD :

add r20, r5
ADD R20, R5

case is not important; the instruction can also be written as

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Lets consider the case of how the ADD instruction is represented as a machine-executable instruction
Example: ADD R20, R5 A 16-bit machine instruction is generated (by the assembler) for this particular case

Machine instructions consist of an numeric opcode and operands The opcode in this case is 000011 (3) Each register operand is represented by 5 bits

5 bits are required to represent all possible register values from 0-31 ddddd represent the 5 bits that represent the destination register value (20) rrrrr represent the 5 bits that represent the source register value (5)

0000

11rd

dddd

rrrr Note: The bits ddddd and rrrrr are split in this instruction

add r20, r5 is assembled to: 0000 1101 0100 0101

This 16-bit binary word can be expressed in hexadecimal as 0x450d (with the high byte being rightmost) CS-280
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The ALU can only directly operate on data that has been fetched into the Registers. It cannot directly operate on SRAM or EEPROM data.

In the assembly language instruction add r20, r5

We (the programmer) must first load some values into these registers. Once way of doing this is with the following instructions:
ldi r20, 2 ; load value 2 into r20 lds r5, 0x60 ; load value at SRAM addr 0x60 into r5 add r20, r5 ; add them; result is in r20
Following the add, we normally store the sum (the value in r20) someplace (like in SRAM). More on how to do that laterhow would you guess it might work?

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General Purpose Registers

There are 32 8-bit GP registers R0-R31

Used as accumulators for most math and logic

X, Y, Z are 16-bit registers that overlap R26-R31

Used as address pointers Or to contain larger values (>255)

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Special-purpose Registers can also be operated upon directly by the ALU (with certain specific instructions)
Stack pointer (SP, 16-bit)

Stores return address of subroutine/interrupt calls Storing temporary data and local variables

Program counter (PC, 16-bit) Holds address of next program instruction to be loaded and executed Automatically incremented when the ALU executes an instruction

Status Register (SREG, 8-bit) Contains information of result of most recent ALU operation
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Yet another Development System: AVRStudio

Editor (for writing programs in assembly language) Assembler (like a compiler, but much simpler) Program downloader (loads the assembled code to the Atmega32) Debugger

Monitor (remote debugging on the actual Atmega32) Simulator (local dubugging using a simulation of the running Atmega32)

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