CSR Bit Fields

RISC-V pmpaddr56 CSR Register

Address 0x3E8Privilege MachineAccess RW / MXLEN: RV32 encodes PA[33:2]; RV64 [53:0] encodes PA[55:2] and [63:54] is zeroMachine physical memory protection CSRs

pmpaddr56 (0x3E8) is the WARL address register for machine PMP entry 56 when 64 PMP entries are implemented; it encodes physical address bits 33:2 on RV32 and 55:2 on RV64.

Field Map

Understand pmpaddr56 By Bit Fields

2 key fields
63:54

0

WARL/reads zero

RV64: the upper ten bits are zero in the standard pmpaddr format; this segment is part of the WARL format.

0 (bits 63:54) — RV64: the upper ten bits are zero in the standard pmpaddr format; this segment is part of the WARL format.

What This Field Controls

  • - RV64: the upper ten bits are zero in the standard pmpaddr format; this segment is part of the WARL format.

Common Values

This field is better understood together with surrounding context than as a fixed memorized enumeration.

Open Official Manual
53:0

address[55:2]

WARL/may be RO0

RV64: encodes bits 55:2 of a 56-bit physical address. Unimplemented physical-address bits make the field WARL; every PMP CSR field may be implemented as read-only zero.

address[55:2] (bits 53:0) — RV64: encodes bits 55:2 of a 56-bit physical address. Unimplemented physical-address bits make the field WARL; every PMP CSR field may be implemented as read-only zero.

What This Field Controls

  • - RV64: encodes bits 55:2 of a 56-bit physical address. Unimplemented physical-address bits make the field WARL; every PMP CSR field may be implemented as read-only zero.

Common Values

This field is better understood together with surrounding context than as a fixed memorized enumeration.

Open Official Manual
Official Basis & Search Notes

pmpaddr56 is the MXLEN-bit WARL address encoding for entry 56 when 64 PMP entries are implemented. pmp56cfg.A determines its meaning; TOR uses pmpaddr55 as the lower bound.

RV32 pmpaddr encodes PA[33:2]; RV64 [53:0] encodes PA[55:2], with [63:54] zero.
TOR entry 56 uses pmpaddr55 as its lower bound and pmpaddr56 as its upper bound; NAPOT uses low pmpaddr56 bits to encode a naturally aligned power-of-two region of at least 8 bytes.
Platform grain changes low-bit readback; pmp56cfg.L or a locked TOR entry 57 can cause writes to pmpaddr56 to be ignored. Smepmp MML=1 changes L's permission meaning, but the relevant L=1 rules remain locked unless RLB=1 temporarily bypasses locking.

What To Check First When Reading This CSR

  • - PMP is optional; implementations may provide 0, 16, or 64 entries, with the lowest-numbered entries implemented first. Therefore, entry 56 is implemented only in a 64-entry implementation; every PMP CSR field is WARL and may be read-only zero.
  • - pmpaddr56 is accessible only to M-mode. Its readback depends on pmp56cfg.A and the platform-wide PMP grain G.
  • - With G>=2 and A=NAPOT, pmpaddr56[G-2:0] reads as ones; with G>=1 and A=OFF/TOR, pmpaddr56[G-1:0] reads as zeros, but those bits do not affect TOR matching. Changing pmp56cfg.A[1] changes readback, not the underlying stored value.
  • - Reset specifies defaults only for writable PMP A/L fields (subject to platform overrides); pmpaddr56's reset value is unspecified, but no WARL field contains an illegal value.

Risk Checks Before Writing

  • - Writes to pmpaddr56 are ignored when pmp56cfg.L=1; pmpaddr56 is also unwritable as entry 57's lower bound when that entry is locked with pmp57cfg.A=TOR. Without Smepmp, locking persists until hart reset. With Smepmp MML=1, L changes permission meaning, but the L=1 M-mode-only or locked Shared-Region rules it defines remain locked unless mseccfg.RLB=1 temporarily bypasses locking.
  • - pmpaddr56 is WARL; read it back after writing and interpret the masked value using the current pmp56cfg.A and grain.
  • - With pmp56cfg.A=TOR, entry 56 matches pmpaddr55 <= y < pmpaddr56; if the lower bound is not less than the upper bound, it matches no addresses. NA4 is not selectable when G>=1.

Put It Back Into A Real Flow

1

Read pmp56cfg.A to determine whether entry 56 uses OFF, TOR, NA4, or NAPOT.

2

Write pmpaddr56 for the selected mode; TOR also requires lower bound pmpaddr55, while NAPOT encodes range size in low bits.

3

Read back pmpaddr56 and the corresponding pmpcfg CSR to confirm the effective WARL/grain encoding; set pmp56cfg.L only after final verification.

FAQ

Where do pmpaddr56's TOR bounds come from?

With pmp56cfg.A=TOR, pmpaddr55 supplies the lower bound and pmpaddr56 the upper bound, so entry 56 matches the half-open range pmpaddr55 <= y < pmpaddr56; it matches no addresses when the lower bound is not less than the upper bound.

Why can pmpaddr56 read back differently from the written value?

pmpaddr56 is WARL, and platform grain plus pmp56cfg.A[1] masks low-bit readback: NAPOT can read ones while OFF/TOR reads zeros. Changing A[1] does not alter the underlying stored value.