embOS MPU on CortexM

With embOS-MPU different memory regions with separate access rights and memory attributes can be defined. A memory region can be added with OS_MPU_AddRegion().

OS_MPU_AddRegion()

OS_MPU_AddRegion() has the following prototype:

void OS_MPU_AddRegion(OS_TASK* pTask,
                      OS_U32   BaseAddr,
                      OS_U32   Size,
                      OS_U32   Permissions,
                      OS_U32   Attributes);

ARMv7-M Memory Attributes

embOS-MPU includes defines for the permissions (e.g. OS_MPU_READONLY), but not for the attributes since they are core specific.

The Cortex-M memory attributes include the following bits:

Bufferable	Write to memory can be carried out by a write buffer while the processor continues on next instruction execution.
Cacheable	Data obtained from memory read can be copied to a memory cache so that next time it is accessed the value can be obtained from the cache to speed up the program execution.
Sharable	Data in this memory region could be shared by multiple bus masters. Memory system needs to ensure coherency of data between different bus masters in shareable memory region.
TEX	Type Extension field

These bits are implemented in the Cortex-M MPU Region Base Attribute and Size Register (0xE000EDA0):

31:29       Reserved
28          XN            R/W         — Instruction Access Disable (1 = disable instruction fetch from this region; an attempt to do so will result in a memory management fault)
27          Reserved
26:24       AP            R/W         — Data Access Permission field
23:22       Reserved
21:19       TEX           R/W         — Type Extension field
18          S             R/W         — Shareable
17          C             R/W         — Cacheable
16          B             R/W         — Bufferable
15:8        SRD           R/W         — Subregion disable
7:6         Reserved
5:1         REGION SIZE   R/W         — MPU Protection Region size
0           ENABLE        R/W         — Region enable

Possible values are:

Settings					Resulting attributes
TEX	C	B	S		Memory Type	Shareability	Other attributes
000	0	0	0		Strongly ordered	Shareable	-
			1
		1	0		Device
			1
	1	0	0		Normal	Not shareable	Outer write through, no write allocate Inner write through, no write allocate
			1			Shareable
		1	0			Not shareable	Outer write back, no write allocate Inner write back, no write allocate
			1			Shareable
001	0	0	0			Not shareable	Outer noncacheable Inner noncacheable
			1			Shareable
		1	0		Reserved encoding
			1
	1	0	0		Implementation defined encoding
			1
		1	0		Normal	Not shareable	Outer write back, write and read allocate Inner write back, write and read allocate
			1			Shareable
010	0	0	0		Device	Not shareable	-
			1
		1	0		Reserved encoding
			1
	1	0	0
			1
		1	0
			1
011	0	0	0
			1
		1	0
			1
	1	0	0
			1
		1	0
			1
100	0	0	0		Normal	Not shareable	Outer noncacheable Inner noncacheable
			1			Shareable
		1	0			Not shareable	Outer noncacheable Inner write back, write and read allocate
			1			Shareable
	1	0	0			Not shareable	Outer noncacheable Inner write through, no write allocate
			1			Shareable
		1	0			Not shareable	Outer noncacheable Inner write back, no write allocate
			1			Shareable
101	0	0	0			Not shareable	Outer write back, write and read allocate Inner noncacheable
			1			Shareable
		1	0			Not shareable	Outer write back, write and read allocate Inner write back, write and read allocate
			1			Shareable
	1	0	0			Not shareable	Outer write back, write and read allocate Inner write through, no write allocate
			1			Shareable
		1	0			Not shareable	Outer write back, write and read allocate Inner write back, no write allocate
			1			Shareable
110	0	0	0			Not shareable	Outer write through, no write allocate Inner noncacheable
			1			Shareable
		1	0			Not shareable	Outer write through, no write allocate Inner write back, write and read allocate
			1			Shareable
	1	0	0			Not shareable	Outer write through, no write allocate Inner write through, no write allocate
			1			Shareable
		1	0			Not shareable	Outer write through, no write allocate Inner write back, no write allocate
			1			Shareable
111	0	0	0			Not shareable	Outer write back, no write allocate Inner noncacheable
			1			Shareable
		1	0			Not shareable	Outer write back, no write allocate Inner write back, write and read allocate
			1			Shareable
	1	0	0			Not shareable	Outer write back, no write allocate Inner write through, no write allocate
			1			Shareable
		1	0	Not shareable		Outer write back, no write allocate Inner write back, no write allocate
			1	Shareable

With embOS-MPU Cortex-M the Attributes parameter is shifted by 16 bits and set in the Cortex-M Region Base Attribute and Size Register.

Example

Setting the memory attribute of a region to Write back, no write allocate:

#define TEX_100    (4u << 3)
#define CACHEABLE  (1u << 1)
#define BUFFERABLE (1u << 0)

OS_MPU_AddRegion(&HPTask, 0x00, 0x2000, OS_MPU_READONLY, TEX_100 | BUFFERABLE | CACHEABLE);