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

Permissible values are:

TEX  C B Description Region                                                         Shareability
b000 0 0 Strongly ordered (transfers carry out and complete in programmed order)    Shareable
b000 0 1 Shared device (write can be buffered)                                      Shareable
b000 1 0 Outer and inner write-through; no write allocate                           [S]
b000 1 1 Outer and inner write-back; no write allocate                              [S]
b001 0 0 Outer and inner non cacheable                                              [S]
b001 0 1 Reserved                                                                   Reserved
b001 1 0 Implementation defined                                                     –
b001 1 1 Outer and inner write-back; write and read allocate                        [S]
b010 0 0 Nonshared device Not shared
b010 0 1 Reserved                                                                   Reserved
b010 1 X Reserved                                                                   Reserved
b1BB A A Cached memory; BB = outer policy, AA = inner policy                        [S]

with the following encoding of Inner and Outer Cache Policy, when Most Significant Bit of TEX Is Set to 1:

Memory Attribute Encoding (AA and BB) Cache Policy
00                                    Noncacheable
01                                    Write back, write, and read allocate
10                                    Write through, no write allocate
11                                    Write back, no write allocate

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);