8.9 Accessing 16-bit Registers

The AVR data bus is 8 bits wide, and so accessing 16-bit registers requires atomic operations. These registers must be byte-accessed using two read or write operations. 16-bit registers are connected to the 8-bit bus and a temporary register using a 16-bit bus.

For a write operation, the low byte of the 16-bit register must be written before the high byte. The low byte is then written into the temporary register. When the high byte of the 16-bit register is written, the temporary register is copied into the low byte of the 16-bit register in the same clock cycle.

For a read operation, the low byte of the 16-bit register must be read before the high byte. When the low byte register is read by the CPU, the high byte of the 16-bit register is copied into the temporary register in the same clock cycle as the low byte is read. When the high byte is read, it is then read from the temporary register.

This ensures that the low and high bytes of 16-bit registers are always accessed simultaneously when reading or writing the register.

Interrupts can corrupt the timed sequence if an interrupt is triggered and accesses the same 16-bit register during an atomic 16-bit read/write operation. To prevent this, interrupts can be disabled when writing or reading 16-bit registers.

The temporary registers can also be read and written directly from user software.