Laboratory Exercise 5 Solution

Using Input/Output Devices







The purpose of this exercise is to investigate the use of devices that provide input and output capabilities for a processor. There are two basic techniques for dealing with I/O devices: program-controlled polling and interrupt-driven approaches. You will use the polling approach in this exercise, writing programs in the ARM* assembly language. Your programs will be executed on the ARM processor in the DE1-SoC Computer system. Parallel port interfaces, as well as a timer module, will be used as examples of I/O hardware.




A parallel port provides for data transfer in either the input or output direction. The transfer of data is done in parallel and it may involve from 1 to 32 bits. The number of bits, n, and the type of transfer depend on the specifications of the specific parallel port being used. The parallel port interface can contain the four registers shown in Figure 1.




Address offset




(in bytes)
(n-1)
0






0
Input/Output data










(a) Data register








4
Direction control for each input/output line










(b) Direction register











Interrupt enable/disable control for each input line



Interrupt-mask register



12
Edge detection for each input line






(d) Edge-capture register






Figure 1: Registers in the parallel port interface.




Each register is n bits long. The registers have the following purpose:




Data register: holds the n bits of data that are transferred between the parallel port and the ARM processor. It can be implemented as an input, output, or a bidirectional register.




Direction register: defines the direction of transfer for each of the n data bits when a bidirectional interface is generated.




Interrupt-mask register: used to enable interrupts from the input lines connected to the parallel port.




Edge-capture register: indicates when a change of logic value is detected in the signals on the input lines connected to the parallel port. Once a bit in the edge capture register becomes asserted, it will remain asserted. An edge-capture bit can be de-asserted by writing to it using the ARM processor.







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Not all of these registers are present in some parallel ports. For example, the Direction register is included only when a bidirectional interface is specified. The Interrupt-mask and Edge-capture registers must be included if interrupt-driven input/output is used.




The parallel port registers are memory mapped, starting at a specific base address. The base address becomes the address of the Data register in the parallel port. The addresses of the other three registers have offsets of 4, 8, or 12 bytes (1, 2, or 3 words) from this base address. In the DE1-SoC Computer parallel ports are used to connect to SW slide switches, KEY pushbuttons, LEDs, and seven-segment displays.




Part I




Write an ARM assembly language program that displays a decimal digit on the seven-segment display HEX0.




The other seven-segment displays HEX5
1 should be blank.
























The DE1-SoC Computer contains a parallel port connected to the seven-segment displays HEX3
0. The port is
memory mapped at the base address 0xFF200020. A second parallel port is connected to HEX5
4, at the base
address 0xFF200030. Figure 2 shows how the display segments are connected to the parallel ports.


Address
































































































0xFF200020










































Data register










































31 30
24
23 22
16
15 14
8
7
6
0




0
















...








...








...










...




5


6
1




















































































4




2










HEX36-0


HEX26-0


HEX16-0




HEX06-0






























3














































































































Segments






































0xFF200030
31 30
24
23 22
16
15 14
8
7
6
0
Data register
















































































Unused










...










...
























































































HEX56-0




HEX46-0





















Figure 2: The parallel ports connected to the seven-segment displays HEX5 0.




Perform the following:




If KEY0 is pressed on the board, you should set the number displayed on HEX0 to 0. If KEY1 is pressed then increment the displayed number, and if KEY2 is pressed then decrement the number. Pressing KEY3 should blank the display, and pressing any other KEY after that should return the display to 0. The parallel port connected to the pushbutton KEYs has the base address 0xFF200050, as illustrated in Figure 3. In your program, use polled I/O to read the Data register to see when a button is being pressed. When you are not pressing any KEY the Data register provides 0, and when you press KEYi the Data register provides the value 1 in bit position i. Once a button-press is detected, be sure that your program waits until the button is released. You should not use the Interruptmask or Edgecapture registers for this part of the exercise.



Create a new folder to hold your solution for this part. Create a file called part1.s and type your assembly language code into this file. You may want to refer to discussions, and examples of assembly-language code, about displaying numbers on seven-segment displays in previous lab exercises.















2




Address
31 30
. . .
4


3
2
1
0
























0xFF200050


Unused






KEY3-0


Data register
Unused




Unused
































0xFF200058


Unused






Mask bits


Interruptmask register






















0xFF20005C


Unused






Edge bits


Edgecapture register






























Figure 3: The parallel port connected to the pushbutton KEYs.







Make a new Monitor Program project in the folder where you stored the part1.s file.



Compile, download, and test your program.






Part II




Write an ARM assembly language program that displays a two-digit decimal counter on the seven-segment dis-plays HEX1 0. The counter should be incremented approximately every 0:25 seconds. When the counter reaches the value 99, it should start again at 0. The counter should stop/start when any pushbutton KEY is pressed.




To achieve a delay of approximately 0.25 seconds, use a delay-loop in your assembly language code. A suitable example of such a loop is shown below.




DO_DELAY: LDR R7, =200000000 // delay counter




SUB_LOOP: SUBS R7, R7, #1




BNE SUB_LOOP




To avoid “missing” any button presses while the processor is executing the delay loop, you should use the Edge-capture register in the KEY port, shown in Figure 3. When a pushbutton is pressed, the corresponding bit in the Edgecapture register is set to 1; it remains set until your program resets it back to 0. You reset an Edgecapture bit by writing a 1 into the corresponding position of the register.




Perform the following:




Create a new folder to hold your solution for this part. Create a file called part2.s and type your assembly language code into this file.



Make a new Monitor Program project in the folder where you stored the part2.s file.



Compile, download, and test your program.






Part III




In Part II you used a delay loop to cause the ARM processor to wait for approximately 0.25 seconds. The proces-sor loaded a large value into a register before the loop, and then decremented that value until it reached 0. In this part you are to modify your code so that a hardware timer is used to measure an exact delay of 0.25 seconds. You should use polled I/O to cause the ARM processor to wait for the timer.




The DE1-SoC Computer includes a number of hardware timers. For this exercise use the timer called the ARM A9 Private Timer. As shown in Figure 4 this timer has four registers, starting at the base address 0xFFFEC600. To use the timer you need to write a suitable value into the Load register. Then, you need to set the enable bit E in




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the Control register to 1, to start the timer. The timer starts counting from the initial value in the Load register and counts down to 0 at a frequency of 200 MHz. The counter will automatically reload the value in the Load register and continue counting if the A bit in the Control register is set to 1. When it reaches 0, the timer sets the F bit in the Interrupt status register to 1. You should poll this bit in your program to cause the ARM processor to wait for the timer. To reset the F bit to 0 you have to write the value 1 into this bit-position.







Address 31







0xFFFEC600




0xFFFEC604




0xFFFEC608




0xFFFEC60C



















Perform the following:







. . .
16
15
. . .
8
7
3
2
1
0


Register name




























Load value
















Load


Current value














Counter
Unused


















Control




Prescaler


Unused
I
A
E
























Interrupt status


Unused












F





































Figure 4: The ARM A9 Private Timer registers.



Make a new folder to hold your solution for this part. Create a file called part3.s and type your assembly language code into this file.



Make a new Monitor Program project for this part of the exercise, and then compile, download, and test your program.



Part IV




In this part you are to write an assembly language program that implements a real-time clock. Display the time on the seven-segment displays HEX3 0 in the format SS:DD, where SS are seconds and DD are hundredths of a second. Measure time intervals of 0.01 seconds in your program by using polled I/O with the ARM A9 Private Timer. You should be able to stop/run the clock by pressing any pushbutton KEY. When the clock reaches 59:99, it should wrap around to 00:00.




Perform the following:




Make a new folder to hold your solution for this part. Create a file called part4.s and type your code into this file.



Make a new Monitor Program project for this part of the exercise, and then compile, download, and test your program.
















































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