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# I/O signals
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Steel has 4 communication interfaces, shown in the figure below:
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![Steel IO](images/steel-interface.png)
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The core was designed to be connected to a memory with one clock cycle read/write latency, which means that the memory should take one clock cycle to complete both read and write operations.
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The interrupt request interface has signals to request for external, timer and software interrupts, respectively. They can be connected to a single device or to an interrupt controller managing interrupt requests from several devices. If your system does not need interrupts you should hardwire these signals to zero.
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The real-time counter interface provides a 64-bit bus to read the value from a real-time counter and update the time register. If your system does not need hardware timers, you should hardwire this signal to zero.
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To learn about the core's communication with the devices mentioned above, read the section [Timing diagrams](timing.md).
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## Interrupt controller interface
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The interrupt controller interface has three signals used to request external, timer and software interrupts, shown in the table below. The interrupt request process is explained in the sections [Exceptions and interrupts](traps.md) and [Timing diagrams](timing.md#interrupt-request).
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| **Signal**         | **Width**  | **Direction**  | **Description**                                                                                                                                                                        |
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| :----------------- | :--------- | :------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| *E_IRQ*           | 1 bit      | Input          | When set high indicates an external interrupt request.                                                                                                                                     |
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| *T_IRQ*           | 1 bit      | Input          | When set high indicates a timer interrupt request.                                                                                                                                         |
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| *S_IRQ*           | 1 bit      | Input          | When set high indicates a software interrupt request.                                                                                                                                      |
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## Instruction fetch interface
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The instruction fetch interface has two signals used in the instruction fetch process, shown in the table below. The process of fetching instructions is explained in the section [Timing diagrams](timing.md#instruction-fetch).
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| **Signal**        | **Width**  | **Direction**  | **Description**                                                                                                                                                                        |
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| :---------------- | :--------- | :------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| *INSTR*           | 32 bits    | Input          | Contains the instruction fetched from memory.                                                                                                                                          |
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| *I_ADDR*         | 32 bits    | Output         | Contains the address of the instruction the core wants to fetch from memory.                                                                                                           |
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## Data read/write interface
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The data read/write interface has five signals used in the process of reading/writing data from/to memory. The signals are shown in the table below. The processes of fetching and writing data to memory are explained in the section [Timing diagrams](timing.md#data-writing).
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| **Signal**        | **Width**  | **Direction**  | **Description**                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
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| :---------------- | :--------- | :------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| *DATA_IN*        | 32 bits    | Input          | Contains the data fetched from memory.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
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| *D_ADDR*         | 32 bits    | Output         | In a write operation, contains the address of the memory position where the data will be stored. In a read operation, contains the address of the memory position where the data to be fetched is. The address is always aligned on a four byte boundary (the last two bits are always zero). |
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| *DATA_OUT*       | 32 bits    | Output         | Contains the data to be stored in memory. Used only with write operations.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
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| *WR_REQ*         | 1 bit      | Output         | When high, indicates a request to write data. Used only with write operations.                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
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| *WR_MASK*        | 4 bits     | Output         | Contains a mask of four *byte-write enable* bits. A bit high indicates that the corresponding byte must be written. Used only with write operations.                                                                                                               |
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## Real-time counter interface
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The real time counter interface has just one signal used to update the **time** CSR, shown in the table below. The process of updating the **time** register is explained in the section [Timing diagrams](timing.md#time-csr-update).
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| **Signal**  | **Width**  | **Direction**  | **Description**                                                                                                                                                                        |
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| :---------- | :--------- | :------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| *REAL_TIME*  | 64 bits    | Input          | Contains the current value read from a real time counter.                                                                                                                              |
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## CLK and RESET signals
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The core has **CLK** and **RESET** input signals, which were not shown in the figure presented above. The **CLK** signal must be connected to a clock source. The **RESET** signal is active high and resets the core synchronously.

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