2.5. Operating modes

The ARM720T processor supports seven modes of operation, as shown in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1. ARM720T modes of operation

Mode

Type

Description

User

usr

The normal ARM program execution mode

FIQ

fiq

Used for most performance-critical interrupts in a system

IRQ

irq

Used for general-purpose interrupt handling

Supervisor

svc

Protected mode for the operating system

Abort mode

abt

Entered after a Data Abort or instruction Prefetch Abort

System

sys

A privileged User mode for the operating system

Undefined

und

Entered when an Undefined Instruction is executed

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