Interrupts, Counter and Timers

Interrupts (1)
Interrupt-driven I/O uses the
processors interrupt system to
interrupt normal program flow to
allow execution of an I/O service
routine
An interrupt is like a hardware-
initiated subroutine call
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Interrupts (2)
Advantages
Immediate response to I/O service
request
Normal execution continues until it is
known that I/O service is needed
Disadvantages
Coding complexity for interrupt
service routines
Extra hardware needed
Processors interrupt system I/O
device must generate an interrupt
request

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Basic Steps for an Interrupt (1)
An interrupt cycle begins at the next
fetch cycle if:
Interrupts are enable (GIE = 1)
Interrupt request is active (I=1)
Program counter (PC) is saved on the
stack
PC is loaded with address of interrupt
service routine (ISR)
Different schemes for determining this
address
Fixed location 0x0004 on the PIC
processor

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Basic Steps for an Interrupt (2)
Interrupt service routine executes
Saves any registers that will be
altered so that normal program flow
is not disturbed
Performs input and/or output
operations to clear the interrupt
request
Restores saved registers
Returns
Normal execution resumes

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Program Flow for an Interrupt
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Example Pseudo code for an ISR
ISR: save register(s)
if (IN_RDY == 1)
input data
if (OUT_RDY == 1)
output data
restore register(s)
return

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Example Error if Registers are not
Saved before Executing ISR
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16F84 INTCON Register
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16F84 Interrupt Structure
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Outline of 16F84 Interrupt Structure
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16F84 Timer/Counter
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16F84 OPTION Register
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Relationship between TMR0 and Prescaler
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Timing Diagram of TMRO Interrupt
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Determining Timer Settings
Consider the wait for 500ms for LED
problem
Fosc = 4 MHz, internal timer can be driven
by Fosc/4 = 1MHz
To have a 500ms interrupt on overflow
interval, desired scale = 500ms/1s =
500,000
Maximum scale provided by Timer0 is
256*256=65,536
Probably we can set up an interrupt
interval shorter than 500ms, say M ms,
then toggle the LED after every N
interrupts, where M*N = 500.
The possible value of M has constraints. It is helpful to
express the needed scale in terms of its prime factors,
then allocate these among the prescaler, PR and the
TMR0 register.
lets try M=4 and N=125 for this example.
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Initialize the Timer0
Desired scale for 4ms timing is
4ms/1s = 4,000.
Play with the math we have
32*125 =4,000
In order to get an exact 4 ms timing, well need to set
the timer as follows:
PS2 PS1 PS0 =100 ; set prescaler to 32
TMR0 = 256-125 =131 ; initialize TMR0
T0IF = 0 ; clear timer0 interrupt flag
TOIE =1 ; enable timer0 interrupt
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Timer0 Initialization Code
InitTmr0
bcf STATUS, RP1 ;select bank 1
bsf STATUS, RP0
movlw B11010100 ; set up OPTION, prescaler and
timer0 resources
movwf OPTION
bcf STATUS, RP0 ; select bank 0
movlw D131
movwf TMR0 ; initialize TMR0
bcf INTCON, T0IF ; clear Timer0 interrupt flag
bsf INTCON, T0IE ; enable Timer0 interrupt
source
bsf INTCON, GIE ; enable global interrupts
return
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Wait for 500ms --- Use Timer
Since our Timer is set to overflow every 4ms, waiting 4ms
really means waiting until the timer overflows. We will write
an interrupt service routine to handle the timer overflow in a
future class. Now we assume that in the interrupt service
routine (ISR), BLNKCNT is decremented by 1 each time an
overflow occurs.
Waiting 500ms means waiting timer overflow 125 times,
which is counted by BLNKCNT.
Five00Ms
movlw 124 ; initialize BLNKCNT to 124,
why???
movwf BLNKCNT ; BLNKCNT is a variable
wait500
btfss BLNKCNT, 7 ; wait for 00000000 to
11111111 change
goto wait500 ; wait if not
return ; and return if yes
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Put it All Together
- The Mainline Program
Mainline
call Initial ; Initialize PortB
call InitTmr0 ; Initialize Timer0
MainLoop
call Blink ; Blink LED
call Five00ms ; Insert 500ms
delay
goto MainLoop

Note: BLNKCNT will be
decremented in the interrupt
service routine which we will talk
about in the future!
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Watchdog Timer
Free running counter with its own oscillator
Can be enabled or disabled through special
directives in the program
Usually used to reset the controller if the
program gets stuck or works incorrectly
Programmer needs to be careful when using it
so that it does not cause problems

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