Three Main Privilege Levels

Today’s @risc_v Tip:

RISC-V systems may support 3 main privilege levels:

  • Machine (M) (Req.)
  • Supervisor (S) (Opt.)
  • User (U) (Opt.)

Execution context changes via traps. A trap that moves to a higher privilege level is a vertical trap, one that does not is a horizontal trap.

Original Tweet