Datasheet

69
SAM3X / SAM3A [DATASHEET]
Atmel-11057C-ATARM-SAM3X-SAM3A-Datasheet_23-Mar-15
10.5.6.1 Little-endian format
In little-endian format, the processor stores the least significant byte of a word at the lowest-numbered byte, and
the most significant byte at the highest-numbered byte. For example:
10.5.7 Synchronization primitives
The Cortex-M3 instruction set includes pairs of synchronization primitives. These provide a non-blocking
mechanism that a thread or process can use to obtain exclusive access to a memory location. Software can use
them to perform a guaranteed read-modify-write memory update sequence, or for a semaphore mechanism.
A pair of synchronization primitives comprises:
10.5.7.1 A Load-Exclusive instruction
Used to read the value of a memory location, requesting exclusive access to that location.
10.5.7.2 A Store-Exclusive instruction
Used to attempt to write to the same memory location, returning a status bit to a register. If this bit is:
0: it indicates that the thread or process gained exclusive access to the memory, and the write succeeds,
1: it indicates that the thread or process did not gain exclusive access to the memory, and no write is performed,
The pairs of Load-Exclusive and Store-Exclusive instructions are:
 the word instructions LDREX and STREX
 the halfword instructions LDREXH and STREXH
 the byte instructions LDREXB and STREXB.
Software must use a Load-Exclusive instruction with the corresponding Store-Exclusive instruction.
To perform a guaranteed read-modify-write of a memory location, software must:
 Use a Load-Exclusive instruction to read the value of the location.
 Update the value, as required.
 Use a Store-Exclusive instruction to attempt to write the new value back to the memory location, and tests
the returned status bit. If this bit is:
0: The read-modify-write completed successfully,
1: No write was performed. This indicates that the value returned the first step might be out of date. The
software must retry the read-modify-write sequence,
Software can use the synchronization primitives to implement a semaphores as follows:
 Use a Load-Exclusive instruction to read from the semaphore address to check whether the semaphore is
free.
 If the semaphore is free, use a Store-Exclusive to write the claim value to the semaphore address.
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