1. Article purpose
The purpose of this article is to:
- briefly introduce the NVIC peripheral and its main features,
- indicate the peripheral instances assignment at boot time and their assignment at runtime (including whether instances can be allocated to secure contexts),
- list the software frameworks and drivers managing the peripheral,
- explain how to configure the peripheral.
2. Peripheral overview
The NVIC peripheral is the Arm® Cortex®-M4 and Arm® Cortex®-M33 interrupt controller. As a result, it cannot be accessed by the Arm Cortex-A7 core or Arm Cortex-A35 core.
Refer to the STM32MP15 reference manuals and STM32MP25 reference manuals for the complete list of features, and to the software frameworks and drivers, introduced below, to see which features are implemented.
3. Peripheral usage
This chapter is applicable in the scope of the OpenSTLinux BSP running on the Arm® Cortex®-A processor(s), and the STM32CubeMPU Package running on the Arm® Cortex®-M processor.
3.1. Boot time assignment
The NVIC peripheral is not used at boot time.
3.2. Runtime assignment
3.2.1. On STM32MP15x lines 
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Domain | Peripheral | Runtime allocation | Comment ![]() | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Instance | Cortex-A7 secure (OP-TEE) |
Cortex-A7 non-secure (Linux) |
Cortex-M4 (STM32Cube) | |||
Core/Interrupts | NVIC | NVIC | ✓ |
3.2.2. On STM32MP21x lines 
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Domain | Peripheral | Runtime allocation | Comment ![]() | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Instance | Cortex-A35 secure (OP-TEE / TF-A BL31) |
Cortex-A35 nonsecure (Linux) |
Cortex-M33 secure (TF-M) |
Cortex-M33 nonsecure (STM32Cube) | |||
Core/Interrupts | NVIC | NVIC CM33 | ✓ | ✓ | Fixed to CM33 |
3.2.3. On STM32MP23x lines 
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Domain | Peripheral | Runtime allocation | Comment ![]() | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Instance | Cortex-A35 secure (OP-TEE / TF-A BL31) |
Cortex-A35 nonsecure (Linux) |
Cortex-M33 secure (TF-M) |
Cortex-M33 nonsecure (STM32Cube) | |||
Core/Interrupts | NVIC | NVIC CM33 | ✓ | ✓ | Fixed to CM33 |
3.2.4. On STM32MP25x lines 
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Domain | Peripheral | Runtime allocation | Comment ![]() | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Instance | Cortex-A35 secure (OP-TEE / TF-A BL31) |
Cortex-A35 nonsecure (Linux) |
Cortex-M33 secure (TF-M) |
Cortex-M33 nonsecure (STM32Cube) |
Cortex-M0+ (STM32Cube) | |||
Core/Interrupts | NVIC | NVIC CM33 | ✓ | ✓ | Fixed to CM33 | |||
NVIC CM0+ | ✓ |
4. Software frameworks and drivers
Below are listed the software frameworks and drivers managing the NVIC peripheral for the embedded software components listed in the above tables.
- STM32Cube: CORTEX HAL driver and header file of CORTEX HAL module for STM32MP15x lines
5. How to assign and configure the peripheral
The peripheral assignment can be done via the STM32CubeMX graphical tool (and manually completed if needed).
This tool also helps to configure the peripheral:
- partial device trees (pin control and clock tree) generation for the OpenSTLinux software components,
- HAL initialization code generation for the STM32CubeMPU Package.
The configuration is applied by the firmware running in the context in which the peripheral is assigned.