Memory Protection Unit for Synopsys ARC Processors

The MPU provides protection by dividing the address space into regions associated with specific attributes such as read, write, and execute. If an attempt is made to access a region for which an associated attribute is not permitted, the ARC processor raises an exception, and prevents the faulting instruction from completing. Access violations raise a protection violation exception.

The ARC architecture divides the memory into 16 equal-size regions. The MPU provides a means for defining up to 16 variable-size regions and assigning read, write, and execute attributes for each region in user and kernel modes. The number of regions is configurable and is specified by the user. Acceptable values are 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16.

The ARC MPU is added to the processor RTL using the ARChitect GUI.