
14
8155C–AVR–02/11
ATmega32A
When the Atmel
AVR exits from an interrupt, it will always return to the main program and exe-
cute one more instruction before any pending interrupt is served.
Note that 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. The following example shows how this can be used to avoid interrupts during the
timed EEPROM write sequence.
When using the SEI instruction to enable interrupts, the instruction following SEI will be exe-
cuted before any pending interrupts, as shown in this example.
6.7.1
Interrupt Response Time
The interrupt execution response for all the enabled AVR interrupts is four clock cycles mini-
mum. After four clock cycles the program vector address for the actual interrupt handling routine
is executed. During this four clock cycle period, the Program Counter is pushed onto the Stack.
The vector is normally a jump to the interrupt routine, and this jump takes three clock cycles. If
an interrupt occurs during execution of a multi-cycle instruction, this instruction is completed
before the interrupt is served. If an interrupt occurs when the MCU is in sleep mode, the interrupt
execution response time is increased by four clock cycles. This increase comes in addition to the
start-up time from the selected sleep mode.
Assembly Code Example
in
r16, SREG
; store SREG value
cli
; disable interrupts during timed sequence
sbi
EECR, EEMWE
; start EEPROM write
sbi
EECR, EEWE
out
SREG, r16
; restore SREG value (I-bit)
C Code Example
char
cSREG;
cSREG = SREG; /* store SREG value */
/* disable interrupts during timed sequence */
_CLI();
EECR |= (1<<EEMWE); /* start EEPROM write */
EECR |= (1<<EEWE);
SREG = cSREG; /* restore SREG value (I-bit) */
Assembly Code Example
sei
; set global interrupt enable
sleep
; enter sleep, waiting for interrupt
; note: will enter sleep before any pending
; interrupt(s)
C Code Example
_SEI(); /* set global interrupt enable */
_SLEEP(); /* enter sleep, waiting for interrupt */
/* note: will enter sleep before any pending interrupt(s) */