Re: [PATCH] add dispatch_i8259_irq() to i8259.c

[Jun Sun <jsun@mvista.com>]

On Tue, Dec 17, 2002 at 02:35:22PM +0000, Dominic Sweetman wrote:
> 
> >  The i8259A doesn't work this way.  With your proposed code the IRR
> > is never cleared (which is a problem for edge-triggered interrupts
> > -- such an interrupt gets signalled again once it's unmasked, until
> > deasserted by a device).  The i8259A only clears a bit in the IRR
> > when it receives an ACK (it then copies the bit to the corresponding
> > bit of the ISR) or when an interrupt goes away (a device deasserts
> > it).
> 
> Just a few comments on the hardware:
> 
> As I recall, you can clear a stored edge-triggered interrupt using a
> "specific EOI".  In the 8080 microprocessor for which the 8259 was
> designed, this command was magically communicated to the 8259 when the
> CPU ran its "return from interrupt" instruction.  I think even in the
> 8086 this had to be replaced with an explicit I/O cycle.
> 
> People not using x86 CPUs should consider putting the i8259 into
> "special mask mode".  Then it behaves simply and predictably,
> providing an interrupt on any active unmasked input.  You lose the
> i8259 interrupt priority stuff, but this is only one of the
> advantages.  

This sounds a lot like the doc I read when I did the programming.  Does
anybody know *the doc* I am talking about?  I can't seem to find it anymore.

Meanwhile I find myself cannot answer Maciej's question as to when IRR 
bit is cleared under edge triggering case.  Perhaps the hardware does it 
automatically when IRQ is generated?

I will probe further and reply to you later.

Jun