atmega2560-xmem

This is a library for extended memory support on the Atmega2560 microcontroller. This MCU has 8KB of memory by default but it supports external memory if you want to add more memory to your board.

This library supports banking so you can use memory higher than 64KB, the atmega2560 address space limit, and also will configure avr-libc malloc()/free() to use the external memory for the heap and leave the internal 8KB of RAM for stack space.

Requirements

• [avr-libc]

Functions

void xmem_init (void)

Initializes the Atmega2560 external memory interface and calls a user defined initialization code. The library uses the external memory for the heap by default and the bank is set to 0. The first bank.

void xmem_switch_bank (uint8_t bank)

Switches between banks when more than one bank is available. If the system heap is not being used it will also save and restore the bank heap configuration.

void xmem_set_system_heap (void)

This will save the current bank state and return the heap to the internal memory. You can still switch banks on external memory but the heap won't be moved so now you will be responsible for the usage of the external memory.

void xmem_set_xmem_heap (void)

This will save the system heap state and return the heap to the external memory using the current bank. Now any time you switch banks again the heap will be restored as well to use that bank.

void *xmem_unshadow_lower_memory (void)

Unshadow the lower 8KB of the extended memory and return a pointer that you can use to access it. You have to call the xmem_shadow_lower_memory when done otherwise access to external memory won't work. The pointer returned is the start of your 8KB block of memory.

void xmem_shadow_lower_memory (void)

Shadow the lower 8KB of the extended memory and set normal addressing mode. You have to call this function after calling xmem_unshadow_lower_memory so you can address extended memory normally.

void *xmem_get_current_bank_address_start (void)

Return a pointer to the current bank's start address. This should always be 0x2200.

void *xmem_get_current_bank_address_end (void)

Return a pointer to the current bank's end address. This may change depending on the size of your memory. If you have only 32KB of external memory for example, this should return 0x7fff.

Configuration

You can, and must, configure the behavior of this code by changing some #define statements in the conf_xmem.h file. These definitions are:

#define XMEM_TOTAL_MEMORY 131072

Total amount of external memory installed in your board. This number is in bytes.

#define XMEM_USER_INIT() ((void) 0)

If your board has special initialization required, you must define the code here before compiling the library. This may be involved initializing extra pins for bank selection or chip enable pins.

#define XMEM_USER_SWITCH_BANK(bank_) ((void) 0)

If you have more than 64KB then banking is needed. That means you have extra pins set up for the upper address bits on your external memory chip. Since we do not know beforehand which pins you are going to use you have to tell the library using this define. The macro will receive the a bank_ variable and it has to properly select the bank given this parameter. Check conf_xmem.h for some examples of it.

#define XMEM_WAIT_STATES 0

Some memory chips have timing requirements that must be met in order to function properly, if you have one of those chips you can configure the wait states with this define. The values allowed are:

• 0 = No wait-states.
• 1 = Wait one cycle during read/write strobe.
• 2 = Wait two cycles during read/write strobe.
• 3 = Wait two cycles during read/write and wait one cycle before driving out new address.