anonymous wrote on Sunday, March 22, 2009:
The code for portSET_INTERRUPT_MASK() and portCLEAR_INTERRUPT_MASK() of the GCC ARM CM3 port hardcodes the use of the r0 register as the intermediate value to use as "msr basepri, r0". Any general register can be used here, and sometimes letting GCC choose leads to a shorter and faster code.
By using respectively
__asm volatile("msr basepri,%0" : : "r"(configMAX_SYSCALL_INTERRUPT_PRIORITY));
and
_asm volatile("msr basepri,%0" : : "r"(0));
we can only get better code: in the worst case, we get the equivalent two instructions, in the best case, the compiler knows that rconfigMAX_SYSCALL_INTERRUPT_PRIORITY/0 is already loaded into a register at this point and will use it. Also, it decreases the register pressure on r0 by allowing the use of a different register should it lead to a better code.
For example, vPortExitCritical will then get compiled as
1488: 4a03 ldr r2, [pc, #12] (1498 <vPortExitCritical+0x10>)
148a: 6813 ldr r3, [r2, #0]
148c: 3b01 subs r3, #1
148e: 6013 str r3, [r2, #0]
1490: b90b cbnz r3, 1496 <vPortExitCritical+0xe>
1492: f383 8811 msr BASEPRI, r3
1496: 4770 bx lr
Here, at address 1492, the compiler knows that r3 (which contains the uxCriticalNesting value) is necessarily 0 and uses it instead of reloading the constant 0 into another register.