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Program Flow Prediction

ID012310 Non-Confidential, Unrestricted Access

void IMB(void);

The SVC

0xF00001

call uses similar calling conventions to those used by a call to a C function

with prototype:

void IMB_Range(unsigned long start_addr, unsigned long end_addr);

Where the address range runs from

start_addr (inclusive)

end_addr (exclusive)

. When the

standard ARM Procedure Call Standard is used, this means that

start_addr

is passed in R0 and

end_addr

in R1.

The execution time cost of an IMB can be very large, many thousands of clock cycles, even

when a small address range is specified. For small scale uses of self-modifying code, this is

likely to lead to a major loss of performance. It is therefore recommended that self-modifying

code is only used where it is unavoidable and/or it produces sufficiently large execution time

benefits to offset the cost of the IMB.

ARM ARM1176JZF-S User Manual

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