When a breakpointed instruction fetch causes a Prefetch Abort, the abort is taken, and the breakpoint is disregarded. Normally, Prefetch Aborts occur when, for example, an access is made to a virtual address that does not physically exist, and the returned data is therefore invalid. In such a case, the normal action of the operating system is to swap in the page of memory, and to return to the previously-invalid address. This time, when the instruction is fetched, and providing the breakpoint is activated (it can be data-dependent), the ARM7TDMI-S processor enters debug state.

The Prefetch Abort, therefore, takes higher priority than the breakpoint.