Karthi,
> In R4000 & descendent processors, interrupt number 7
> is being used for internal timer interrupt. From this
> i understand that the timer interrupt is also maskable
> when the IE bit in status register is cleared. If
> somebody mask this interrupt for a long time
> erroneously, then won't there be a problem in
> maintaining the system time?
Yes, there may be a long delay. So the standard way of using the
onchip counter to generate a periodic interrupt is that the counter
itself is allowed to free-run, keeping accurate time.
The 'Compare' register is then incremented by a fixed amount.
So long as the interrupt is not delayed by a whole tick, this keeps
perfect time.
I'm sure this is described in "See MIPS Run" - do you have a copy?
--
Dominic Sweetman
MIPS Technologies Inc
|