Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Marty Kraimer <[email protected]> · Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:23:44 -0500

Kay-Uwe Kasemir wrote:

Hi:

Do I understand correctly that the most likely impact for EPICS might

be this type of code:

struct xyz_regs
{
    Word control;
    Word status;
    ...
}

void xyz_operate(char *vme_base)
{
    struct xyz_regs *xyz = (struct xyz_regs *) vme_base;

    xyz->control = 0x1234;
    if (xyz->status & 0x8000)
      ....
}

The mapping of C structures to hardware registers?

volatile should be used for all access to hardware registers.
volatile prevents compiler optimization.

In that case, the compiler optimization of aliased pointers
isn't the only problem. There's also the structure padding,
memory alignment, and byte order that causes portability issues.

Isn't that best handled by performing register access

via routines like the vxWorks sysInByte(), sysInWord(), sysInLong(),

sysPciInLong(), ... ?

-Kay

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System