Copyright © 2008, 2011, 2015-2022 Arm Limited or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Arm IHI 0069H (ID020922)
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Arm
®
Generic Interrupt Controller
Architecture Specification
GIC architecture version 3 and version 4
ii Copyright © 2008, 2011, 2015-2022 Arm Limited or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Arm IHI 0069H
Non-Confidential ID020922
Arm Generic Interrupt Controller Architecture Specification
GIC architecture version 3 and version 4
Copyright © 2008, 2011, 2015-2022 Arm Limited or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Release Information
The following changes have been made to this document.
Some of the information in this specification was previously published in Arm
®
Generic Interrupt Controller, Architecture version
2.0, Architecture Specification.
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Change History
Date Issue Confidentiality Change
June 2015 A Non-confidential First release of GICv3 and GICv4 issue A.
December 2015 B Non-confidential First release of GICv3 and GICv4 issue B.
July 2016 C Non-confidential First release of GICv3 and GICv4 issue C.
August 2017 D Non-confidential First release of GICv3 and GICv4 issue D.
January 2019 E Non-confidential First release of GICv3 and GICv4 issue E.
February 2020 F Non-confidential First release of GICv3 and GICv4.1 issue F.
February 2021 G Non-confidential First release of GICv3 and GICv4.1 issue G.
January 2022 H Non-confidential First release of GICv3.3 and GICv4.2 issue H.
Arm IHI 0069H Copyright © 2008, 2011, 2015-2022 Arm Limited or its affiliates. All rights reserved. iii
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iv Copyright © 2008, 2011, 2015-2022 Arm Limited or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Arm IHI 0069H
Non-Confidential ID020922
Arm IHI 0069H Copyright © 2008, 2011, 2015-2022 Arm Limited or its affiliates. All rights reserved. v
ID020922 Non-Confidential
Contents
Arm Generic Interrupt Controller Architecture
Specification GIC architecture version 3 and version
4
Preface
About this specification ............................................................................................... x
Using this specification ............................................................................................... xi
Conventions .............................................................................................................. xiii
Additional reading ..................................................................................................... xiv
Feedback .................................................................................................................. xv
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 About the Generic Interrupt Controller (GIC) .......................................................... 1-18
1.2 Terminology ........................................................................................................... 1-23
1.3 Supported configurations and compatibility ............................................................ 1-27
Chapter 2 Distribution and Routing of Interrupts
2.1 The Distributor and Redistributors .......................................................................... 2-34
2.2 INTIDs .................................................................................................................... 2-35
2.3 Affinity routing ........................................................................................................ 2-39
Chapter 3 GIC Partitioning
3.1 The GIC logical components .................................................................................. 3-42
3.2 Interrupt bypass support ........................................................................................ 3-47
Chapter 4 Physical Interrupt Handling and Prioritization
4.1 Interrupt lifecycle .................................................................................................... 4-50
4.2 Locality-specific Peripheral Interrupts .................................................................... 4-58
