STM32 GPIO – Nimble Machines

The STM32 GPIO (general purpose i/o) pins are very flexible, and, like every silicon vendor’s, rather idiosyncratic. After perusing the STM32F4 reference manual I decided to do a quick write-up of my understanding of how to use the pins.

These are probably the same across all the STM32 parts, but at the moment I have not verified this.

A few quick points:

Each port is 16 bits wide
Any pin of any port can be connected to any of 16 alternate functions (AFs)
Any combination of bits in the output data register can be set or reset with a single, word-wide store (of two 16-bit masks) to a set/reset register
Every pin can be configured as input, output, alternate function (AF), or analog;
.. can be push-pull (ie, totem-pole) or open-drain;
.. can have a weak pull-up, weak pull-down, or none;
.. and can have a configured slew rate (ie, toggle speed)

With that in mind, here is the register layout for each port – the base addresses are at 1 KiB (0x0400) boundaries.

  offset  register       description
  ======  ========       ===========
   0x00   GPIO_MODER     port mode register
   0x04   GPIO_OTYPER    output type register
   0x08   GPIO_OSPEEDR   output speed (slew-rate) register
   0x0c   GPIO_PUPDR     pull-up/pull-down register
   0x10   GPIO_IDR       input data register
   0x14   GPIO_ODR       output data register
   0x18   GPIO_BSRR      bit set/reset register
   0x1c   GPIO_LCKR      configuration lock register
   0x20   GPIO_AFRL      alternate function low register (pins 0-7)
   0x24   GPIO_AFRH      alternate function high register (pins 8-15)

We’re going to ignore the GPIO_LCKR.

GPIO_MODER

This register consists of 16 two-bit fields, one for each port pin. Bits 0 and 1 set the mode for pin 0; bits 2 and 3 for pin 1, etc.

Here is the mode table for each pin:

  00  input
  01  output
  10  alternate function (AF)
  11  analog

GPIO_OTYPER

This register has 1 bit per pin; it is only 16 bits wide.

For any port pin that GPIO_MODER has configured as an output, OTYPER sets the drive configuration:

  0  push-pull (totem-pole) output
  1  open-drain output

GPIO_OSPEEDR

This register consists of 16 two-bit fields, one for each port pin. Bits 0 and 1 set the mode for pin 0; bits 2 and 3 for pin 1, etc.

Here is the output speed table for each pin:

  00  2 MHz (low speed)
  01  25 MHz (medium speed)
  10  50 MHz (fast speed)
  11  100 MHz (fucking ridiculous!)

GPIO_PUPDR

This register consists of 16 two-bit fields, one for each port pin. Bits 0 and 1 set the mode for pin 0; bits 2 and 3 for pin 1, etc.

Here is the pull-up/pull-down table for each pin:

  00  No pull-up or pull-down
  01  Pull-up
  10  Pull-down
  11  Reserved (don't try this at home!)

GPIO_IDR

The input data register has 16 bits; the high 16 bits are reserved, and read as zero. When read, the register returns the logic level present on the pin (after synchronization with the bus clock).

GPIO_ODR

The output data register has 16 bits; the high 16 bits are reserved, and should be preserved as zero (the reset value).

If the corresponding pin is configured as an output, the value of each of the low 16 bits is driven onto the pin.

GPIO_BSRR

This register consists of two write-only bit masks, each 16-bits wide. The high half – bits 16 to 31 – is the reset mask. Writing a 1 to any of these bits clears bit N-16 in the GPIO_ODR.

The low half – bits 0 to 15 – is the set mask. Writing a 1 to any of these bits sets the corresponding bit in the GPIO_ODR.

By judiciously choosing a combined mask, it is possible to set and reset a combination of bits in the GPIO_ODR in one word-wide write.

GPIO_AFRL and GPIO_AFRH

These two registers, each of which has 8 four-bit fields, describe which alternate function to attach to each port pin, when the corresponding bits in the GPIO_MODER configure the pin for the alternate function.

GPIO_AFRL contains the multiplexer settings for port bits 0 to 7; GPIO_AFRH, for bits 8 to 15. The actual map from AF number to peripheral function is different for each chip, so I won’t try to put a table here.