Thanks HSW.
I know there is nothing wrong with the way I'm copying my xgate code to RAM or the value of XGVBR. This seems to be an issue with software triggers specifically. My other xgate interrupts (timer, rti) are functioning fine but as soon as I write to XGSWT to kick off an xgate software thread I get the software error. I still have to investigate a possible misalignment.
What has me baffled is that the code works in some hw variants and not others. I have a xd256 chip that thinks it is a xdp512 (according to NoICE) where the xgate sw triggers work fine in RAM. On a xdt256 it fails with the exact same S file. If I run the xgate code out of flash on the xdt256 the problem disappears. I could live with the flash speed handicap except that I plan to use the xdg128 for my project which has no xgate flash.
-rob