CSR Bit Fields

RISC-V pmpaddr63 CSR Register

Address 0x3EFPrivilege MachineAccess RW / MXLEN: RV32 encodes PA[33:2]; RV64 [53:0] encodes PA[55:2] and [63:54] is zeroMachine physical memory protection CSRs

pmpaddr63 (0x3EF) is the WARL address register for machine PMP entry 63 when 64 PMP entries are implemented; it encodes physical address bits 33:2 on RV32 and 55:2 on RV64.

Field Map

Understand pmpaddr63 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

pmpaddr63 is the MXLEN-bit WARL address encoding for entry 63 when 64 PMP entries are implemented. pmp63cfg.A determines its meaning; TOR uses pmpaddr62 as the lower bound.

RV32 pmpaddr encodes PA[33:2]; RV64 [53:0] encodes PA[55:2], with [63:54] zero.
TOR entry 63 uses pmpaddr62 as its lower bound and pmpaddr63 as its upper bound; NAPOT uses low pmpaddr63 bits to encode a naturally aligned power-of-two region of at least 8 bytes.
Platform grain changes low-bit readback; pmp63cfg.L can cause writes to pmpaddr63 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 63 is implemented only in a 64-entry implementation; every PMP CSR field is WARL and may be read-only zero.
  • - pmpaddr63 is accessible only to M-mode. Its readback depends on pmp63cfg.A and the platform-wide PMP grain G.
  • - With G>=2 and A=NAPOT, pmpaddr63[G-2:0] reads as ones; with G>=1 and A=OFF/TOR, pmpaddr63[G-1:0] reads as zeros, but those bits do not affect TOR matching. Changing pmp63cfg.A[1] changes readback, not the underlying stored value.
  • - Reset specifies defaults only for writable PMP A/L fields (subject to platform overrides); pmpaddr63's reset value is unspecified, but no WARL field contains an illegal value.

Risk Checks Before Writing

  • - Writes to pmpaddr63 are ignored when pmp63cfg.L=1. 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.
  • - pmpaddr63 is WARL; read it back after writing and interpret the masked value using the current pmp63cfg.A and grain.
  • - With pmp63cfg.A=TOR, entry 63 matches pmpaddr62 <= y < pmpaddr63; 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 pmp63cfg.A to determine whether entry 63 uses OFF, TOR, NA4, or NAPOT.

2

Write pmpaddr63 for the selected mode; TOR also requires lower bound pmpaddr62, while NAPOT encodes range size in low bits.

3

Read back pmpaddr63 and the corresponding pmpcfg CSR to confirm the effective WARL/grain encoding; set pmp63cfg.L only after final verification.

FAQ

Where do pmpaddr63's TOR bounds come from?

With pmp63cfg.A=TOR, pmpaddr62 supplies the lower bound and pmpaddr63 the upper bound, so entry 63 matches the half-open range pmpaddr62 <= y < pmpaddr63; it matches no addresses when the lower bound is not less than the upper bound.

Why can pmpaddr63 read back differently from the written value?

pmpaddr63 is WARL, and platform grain plus pmp63cfg.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.