ARM DDI 0402F
Copyright © 2007-2010 ARM. All rights reserved.
Glossary-1
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Non-Confidential
Glossary
This glossary describes some of the terms used in this manual. Where terms can have several
meanings, the meaning presented here is intended.
Advanced Microcontroller Bus Architecture (AMBA)
A family of protocol specifications that describe a strategy for the interconnect. AMBA is the ARM
open standard for on-chip buses. It is an on-chip bus specification that describes a strategy for the
interconnection and management of functional blocks that make up a
System-on-Chip
(SoC). It aids
in the development of embedded processors with one or more CPUs or signal processors and
multiple peripherals. AMBA complements a reusable design methodology by defining a common
backbone for SoC modules.
Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)
An integrated circuit that has been designed to perform a specific application function. It can be
custom-built or mass-produced.
Architecture
The organization of hardware and/or software that characterizes a processor and its attached
components, and enables devices with similar characteristics to be grouped together when
describing their behavior, for example, Harvard architecture, instruction set architecture, ARMv6
architecture.
Beat
Alternative word for an individual transfer within a burst. For example, an INCR4 burst comprises
four beats.
See also
Burst.
Block address
An address that comprises a tag, an index, and a word field. The tag bits identify the way that
contains the matching cache entry for a cache hit. The index bits identify the set being addressed.
The word field contains the word address that can be used to identify specific words, halfwords, or
bytes within the cache entry.
See also
Cache terminology diagram on the last page of this glossary.