.. raw:: html
Interrupts (IRQ)
================
The interrupt vector is set to memory address ``0`` (bottom of SRAM).
The program counter switches to this location when an interrupt is received.
To enable interrupts, it is necessary to copy an interrupt handler to memory location ``0``.
The `PicoRV32 `_ defines 32 IRQ channels, of which the Caravel chip uses only a handful, as described in the :ref:`cpu_irq_channel_definitions`.
All IRQ channels not in the :ref:`cpu_irq_channel_definitions` always have value zero.
.. list-table:: CPU IRQ channel definitions
:name: cpu_irq_channel_definitions
:header-rows: 1
:widths: auto
* - IRQ channel
- description
* - 4
- :doc:`uart` data available
* - 5
- IRQ external pin (:ref:`IRQ E5 pin `)
* - 6
- :doc:`housekeeping-spi` IRQ
* - 7
- Assignable interrupt (see :ref:`reg_irq7_source`)
* - 9
- SPI controller data available, when enabled (see :ref:`reg_spi_config`)
* - 10
- Timer 0 expired, when enabled (see :ref:`reg_timer0_config`)
* - 11
- Timer 1 expired, when enabled (see :ref:`reg_timer1_config`)
The Caravel PicoRV32 implementation does not enable IRQ QREGS (see `PicoRV32 description `__).
The handling of interrupts is beyond the scope of this document
(see `RISC-V instruction set description `_).
All interrupts are masked and must be enabled in software.