lwIP | stm32h7: Add Ethernet driver for STM32H743ZI Nucleo (!37)
Claudio Grasso (@ClaudioGrasso)
gitlab at rtems.org
Sat May 30 20:02:47 UTC 2026
Claudio Grasso commented on a discussion on stm32h7/include/lwipbspopts.h: https://gitlab.rtems.org/rtems/pkg/rtems-lwip/-/merge_requests/37#note_151413
> +#define ETH_PAD_SIZE 2
> +
> +/* Strongly byte-by-byte MEMCPY for STM32H7 to avoid all hardware traps.
> + * Optimized library versions of memcpy() may use word-aligned instructions (LDR/STR)
> + * even on byte-access paths, which can trigger usage faults in certain memory regions.
> + */
> +static inline void stm32h7_byte_memcpy(void *dst, const void *src, size_t len) {
> + uint8_t *d = (uint8_t *)dst;
> + const uint8_t *s = (const uint8_t *)src;
> + while (len--) {
> + *d++ = *s++;
> + }
> +}
> +#define MEMCPY(dst, src, len) stm32h7_byte_memcpy(dst, src, len)
> +#define SMEMCPY(dst, src, len) stm32h7_byte_memcpy(dst, src, len)
> +#define MEMMOVE(dst, src, len) stm32h7_byte_memcpy(dst, src, len)
[memcpy_evidence.txt](/uploads/954b7286eda68a32c0e6a469b863a828/memcpy_evidence.txt)
On this BSP the Ethernet Rx/Tx buffers and DMA descriptors live in a non-cacheable MPU region configured as Device memory (for DMA coherency without manual cache maintenance). On Cortex-M7, an **unaligned** word access to Device/Strongly-ordered memory **always faults**, regardless of `CCR.UNALIGN_TRP`. With `ETH_PAD_SIZE = 2`, the lwIP payload sits 2 bytes off the word-aligned DMA buffer, so any copy between them has mismatched source/destination alignment.
The problem is that the optimised library `memcpy()` issues word-wide (32-bit) accesses on its bulk path. Here is the disassembly straight from the linked image to show this is not hypothetical:
```
Toolchain : arm-rtems6-gcc (GCC) 13.3.0, Newlib, -mcpu=cortex-m7
Binary : build/arm-rtems6-nucleo-h743zi/stm32h7_test.exe
```
newlib `memcpy()` — bulk path is 16× unrolled 32-bit `ldr.w/str.w`:
```
0802603c <memcpy>:
802603e: ea41 0300 orr.w r3, r1, r0 ; src | dst
8026042: f013 0303 ands.w r3, r3, #3 ; test low 2 bits
8026046: d16d bne.n 8026124 ; -> "unaligned" entry
...
802604c: f851 3b04 ldr.w r3, [r1], #4 ; 32-bit load, +4
8026050: f840 3b04 str.w r3, [r0], #4 ; 32-bit store, +4 (x16)
```
The "unaligned" entry only realigns the **head** with byte/half-word copies, then branches **back into the same 32-bit word loop** — so when src and dst differ in alignment (our `ETH_PAD_SIZE = 2` case) one operand is still misaligned on the word access:
```
8026146: f831 3b02 ldrh.w r3, [r1], #2 ; head realign only
802614a: f820 3b02 strh.w r3, [r0], #2
802614e: e77b b.n 8026048 ; back to the word loop
```
Our override compiles to byte-only accesses, so the alignment of either operand is irrelevant and no unaligned fault is possible in any region:
```
08001c74 <stm32h7_byte_memcpy>:
8001c96: 7812 ldrb r2, [r2, #0]
8001c98: 701a strb r2, [r3, #0]
```
No `ldr.w`/`str.w`, no `ldrh`, no `ldrd`, no `ldm`. That byte-only property is exactly what the STM32H7 Ethernet path needs.
Full annotated objdump attached. Sorry I did not realize before this could help.
--
View it on GitLab: https://gitlab.rtems.org/rtems/pkg/rtems-lwip/-/merge_requests/37#note_151413
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