Reset and Interrupt Handling

The AVR provides several different interrupt sources. These interrupts and the separate Reset Vector each have a separate program vector in the program memory space. All interrupts are assigned individual enable bits which must be written logic one together with the Global Interrupt Enable bit in the Status Register in order to enable the interrupt.

The lowest addresses in the program memory space are by default defined as the Reset and Interrupt Vectors. The complete list of vectors is shown in Interrupts. They have determined priority levels: The lower the address the higher is the priority level. RESET has the highest priority, and next is INT0 – the External Interrupt Request 0.

When an interrupt occurs, the Global Interrupt Enable I-bit is cleared and all interrupts are disabled. The user software can write logic one to the I-bit to enable nested interrupts. All enabled interrupts can then interrupt the current interrupt routine. The I-bit is automatically set when a Return from Interrupt instruction – RETI – is executed.

There are basically two types of interrupts:

The first type is triggered by an event that sets the Interrupt Flag. For these interrupts, the Program Counter is vectored to the actual Interrupt Vector in order to execute the interrupt handling routine, and hardware clears the corresponding Interrupt Flag. Interrupt Flags can also be cleared by writing a logic one to the flag bit position(s) to be cleared. If an interrupt condition occurs while the corresponding interrupt enable bit is cleared, the Interrupt Flag will be set and remembered until the interrupt is enabled, or the flag is cleared by software. Similarly, if one or more interrupt conditions occur while the Global Interrupt Enable bit is cleared, the corresponding Interrupt Flag(s) will be set and remembered until the Global Interrupt Enable bit is set, and will then be executed by order of priority.

The second type of interrupts will trigger as long as the interrupt condition is present. These interrupts do not necessarily have Interrupt Flags. If the interrupt condition disappears before the interrupt is enabled, the interrupt will not be triggered.

When the AVR exits from an interrupt, it will always return to the main program and execute one more instruction before any pending interrupt is served.

The Status Register is not automatically stored when entering an interrupt routine, nor restored when returning from an interrupt routine. This must be handled by software.

When using the CLI instruction to disable interrupts, the interrupts will be immediately disabled. No interrupt will be executed after the CLI instruction, even if it occurs simultaneously with the CLI instruction.

When using the SEI instruction to enable interrupts, the instruction following SEI will be executed before any pending interrupts, as shown in this example.

Assembly Code Example

sei ; set Global Interrupt Enable
sleep ; enter sleep, waiting for interrupt
; note: will enter sleep before any pending interrupt(s)

Note: See Code Examples