SWRU543B January 2019 – June 2025 CC3230S , CC3230SF , CC3235MODS , CC3235MODSF , CC3235S , CC3235SF
Memory scatter-gather mode is a complex mode used when data must be transferred to or from varied locations in memory instead of to or from a set of contiguous locations in a memory buffer. For example, a gather µDMA operation could selectively read the payload of several stored packets of a communication protocol and store them together in sequence in a memory buffer.
In memory scatter-gather mode, the primary control structure programs the alternate control structure from a table in memory. The table is set up by the processor software and contains a list of control structures, each containing the source and destination end pointers, and the control word for a specific transfer. The mode of each control word must be set to scatter-gather mode. Each entry in the table is in turn copied to the alternate structure where it is then executed. The µDMA controller alternates between using the primary control structure to copy the next transfer instruction from the list, and then executing the new transfer instruction. The end of the list is marked by programming the control word for the last entry to use basic transfer mode. When the last transfer is performed using basic mode, the µDMA controller stops. A completion interrupt is generated only after the last transfer. It is possible to loop the list by having the last entry copy the primary control structure to point back to the beginning of the list (or to a new list). It is also possible to trigger a set of other channels to perform a transfer; this can be done directly, by programming a write to the software trigger for another channel, or indirectly, by causing a peripheral action that results in a µDMA request.
By programming the µDMA controller using this method, a set of arbitrary transfers can be performed based on a single µDMA request.
Figure 4-2 shows an example of operation in memory scatter-gather mode. This example shows a gather operation, where data in three separate buffers in memory is copied together into one buffer. Figure 4-2 shows how the application sets up a µDMA task list in memory used by the controller to perform three sets of copy operations from different locations in memory. The primary control structure for the channel used for the operation is configured to copy from the task list to the alternate control structure.
