ecos on ARM

ecos on ARM

[François Desvallées]

Can anyone comment on the plans for porting ecos
to ARM7 or StrongARM?

Re: ecos on ARM

[Mohan Pakkurti]

At 06:47 PM 11/7/98 +0100, you wrote:
>Can anyone comment on the plans for porting ecos
>to ARM7 or StrongARM?
>

So... this might be a naive question, is there any documentation
info what is involved to integrate a new cpu? 

Another question... the the CYGNUS web page, there is an 
endorsement for eCos from ARM? does this mean that ARM 
is already integrated ;)

Mohan
 

Re: ecos on ARM

[Bart Veer]

> Can anyone comment on the plans for porting ecos to ARM7 or
> StrongARM?

All I can say at this stage is that ARM are well aware of eCos and
have endorsed the technology. I am not able to say what this may or
may not mean in terms of a port possibly becoming available at some
indeterminate time in the future. Cygnus is in discussion with many
silicon vendors about certified ports to various processors, and
unfortunately these discussions generally involve non-disclosure
agreements.

However, I have been informed that an official and hopefully more
informative statement is being prepared by management. 

Sorry I cannot be more helpful right now.

Bart Veer // eCos net maintainer

Re: ecos on ARM

[Bart Veer]

>>>>> "Mohan" == Mohan Pakkurti <pakku@mediaone.net> writes:

    Mohan> So... this might be a naive question, is there any
    Mohan> documentation info what is involved to integrate a new cpu?

There are two aspects to doing a processor port of eCos. The first is
to port eCos itself. The second is to get the right tools.

Porting to a new processor mainly involves implementing a new
architectural HAL package. There are existing packages for the
MN10300, TX39, and PowerPC processors which can be used as a starting
point. An initial specification of the eCos HAL is available online,
http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ecos/docs-1.1/ref/ecos-ref/the-ecos-hardware-abstraction-layer-hal.html
As you might expect, the work involved in porting eCos is very similar
to the work involved in porting any embedded operating system:
hardware initialization, interrupt handling, processor exceptions,
context switching, etc.

It is worth pointing out that the HAL specification is still expected
to evolve somewhat. Three ports is not enough to guarantee that the
specification provides a true abstraction of all processors. The
documentation includes information about some things that we know are
missing.

In addition to the architectural HAL package it will be necessary to
do a platform HAL package, in other words to provide the support for
an actual development board. This involves issues such as board
initialization, diagnostics, possibly gdb support, and linker scripts.
There are existing platform HAL packages for the stdeval1, jmr3904,
and Cogent boards, and for various simulators.

As time allows and as the system evolves we will be producing better
documentation for doing both processor and platform ports, but right
now this is all that is available.


Unfortunately porting eCos itself is only part of the effort: it is
also necessary to get a set of tools which provide the necessary
functionality. eCos relies on a relatively new extension to the g++
compiler, constructor priority ordering, which allows us to control
the order in which static C++ objects get constructed. For example it
is possible to specify that a scheduler object gets created before any
thread objects. There are a number of other compiler extensions which
are very useful for eCos development, especially selective linking.

At this stage the only toolchain which is known to provide all of the
required functionality is the set of development tools which can be
downloaded from http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ecos , and this has only
been tested for the three architectures currently supported. We hope
to rectify this situation as soon as possible and provide tools that
are known to work for many more processors, but right now we cannot
guarantee this.

This may not have been the news you were hoping for, but I do not want
anybody to start on a new port of eCos without understanding the
problems that may arise. I hope that these issues can be resolved in a
matter of weeks, but cannot give any specific dates just yet.


Bart Veer // eCos net maintainer

Re: ecos on ARM

[Mohan Pakkurti]

At 08:59 PM 11/9/98 +0000, Bart Veer wrote:
>
>> Can anyone comment on the plans for porting ecos to ARM7 or
>> StrongARM?
>
>All I can say at this stage is that ARM are well aware of eCos and
>have endorsed the technology. I am not able to say what this may or
>may not mean in terms of a port possibly becoming available at some
>indeterminate time in the future. Cygnus is in discussion with many
>silicon vendors about certified ports to various processors, and
>unfortunately these discussions generally involve non-disclosure
>agreements.

When you say NDA, does the NDA involve not disclosing what processors
are being worked on currently? Then if someone took the initiative to go ahead
do a port themselves, would they be wasting their time, if suddenly half way 
through the porting effort, the "official" suport for that processor was
announced!?!

>However, I have been informed that an official and hopefully more
>informative statement is being prepared by management. 
>
>Sorry I cannot be more helpful right now.
>
>Bart Veer // eCos net maintainer
> 

Source for HW eval boards for use with eCos

[Stuart Adams]

Where can I get the eval boards currently supported by eCos ???

e.g. the Matsushita MN10300 stdeval1 evaluation board or
     the Toshiba TX39 jmr3904 evaluation board

(Cogent is on the web but a bit pricey for what I want).

Thanks,
  Stuart

-- 

Stuart Adams
Bright Star Engineering Inc.
19 Enfield Drive
Andover MA 01810 USA
Tel: +1-978-470-8738
Fax: +1-978-470-8878
Email: sja@brightstareng.com
Web: http://www.brightstareng.com/

ECOS Re: ecos on ARM

[Bart Veer]

>>>>> "Mohan" == Mohan Pakkurti <pakku@mediaone.net> writes:

    Mohan> At 08:59 PM 11/9/98 +0000, Bart Veer wrote:
    >>
    >>> Can anyone comment on the plans for porting ecos to ARM7 or
    >>> StrongARM?
    >>  All I can say at this stage is that ARM are well aware of eCos
    >> and have endorsed the technology. I am not able to say what
    >> this may or may not mean in terms of a port possibly becoming
    >> available at some indeterminate time in the future. Cygnus is
    >> in discussion with many silicon vendors about certified ports
    >> to various processors, and unfortunately these discussions
    >> generally involve non-disclosure agreements.

    Mohan> When you say NDA, does the NDA involve not disclosing what
    Mohan> processors are being worked on currently? Then if someone
    Mohan> took the initiative to go ahead do a port themselves, would
    Mohan> they be wasting their time, if suddenly half way through
    Mohan> the porting effort, the "official" suport for that
    Mohan> processor was announced!?!

Theoretically this is possible. Of course this does not apply just to
processor ports, it applies to other projects as well. For example,
two people might be working on something like a deadline scheduler at
the same time, and whichever person does not make the first public
announcement is going to be a bit unhappy.

The best way to avoid this sort of thing is to announce projects
before coding effort starts, either in the ecos-discuss list or by
mailing ecos-maintainers@cygnus.com if people prefer to keep their
work a bit more confidential for the time being. That way we can keep
track of the various projects that are happening, and usually warn
people if they are about to duplicate effort. Depending on the
circumstances these warnings may be public postings or private emails. 

This applies to Cygnus' internal development effort just as much as to
outside projects. If we are about to start work on e.g. a new port
then whenever possible we will announce this before work starts.
Occasionally this will not be possible because of various contractual
and commercial reasons - it is an imperfect universe - but we will do
our best to avoid people wasting their time.

Bart Veer // eCos net maintainer

[ECOS] Re: Source for HW eval boards for use with eCos

[Bart Veer]

>>>>> "Stuart" == Stuart Adams <sja@brightstareng.com> writes:

    Stuart> Where can I get the eval boards currently supported by
    Stuart> eCos ??? e.g. the Matsushita MN10300 stdeval1 evaluation
    Stuart> board or the Toshiba TX39 jmr3904 evaluation board

    Stuart> (Cogent is on the web but a bit pricey for what I want).

We have now received the following information from Toshiba.

>>  Regarding the contact point for JMR board, I've got a reply from
>>Mr. Siyami of TAEC (Toshiba America Electronic Components).
>>
>>>      TAEC:   Siamak Siyami
>>>              TEL 949-455-2218  FAX 949-859-3963
>>>              E-MAIL: siyams@taec.com
>>
>>He has approved that his name is used as a contact point for JMR board
>>in a brochure or a web page of Cygnus.
>>
>>As for Europe, I'm expecting a reply from a person in TEE (Toshiba
>>Electronics Europe).  I'll let you know if I get a positive reply.
>>
>>Although the JMR board is not yet available in US and in Europe,
>>customer demands would accelerate the planned release of the board
>>abroad.

I have not yet received similar information from Matsushita, but the
matter is being pursued.

Bart Veer // eCos net maintainer

[ECOS] Re: Source for HW eval boards for use with eCos

[Bart Veer]

>>>>> "Stuart" == Stuart Adams <sja@brightstareng.com> writes:

    Stuart> Where can I get the eval boards currently supported by
    Stuart> eCos ??? e.g. the Matsushita MN10300 stdeval1 evaluation
    Stuart> board or the Toshiba TX39 jmr3904 evaluation board

    Stuart> (Cogent is on the web but a bit pricey for what I want).

I have now received the following information from Matsushita:

>Matsushita MN10300 board is not sold outside of Japan.  In Japan the
>manufacturer is and contact person are:
>
>Syoichi Yamamoto
>President
>Kyoto Micro Computer Co, LTD.
>2-27, Hachijokaoka, Nagaokakyo
>Kyoto, Japan
>Tel: +81-75-953-0963
>FAX: +81-75-953-0935
>e-mail: yama@kmckk.co.jp

Bart Veer // eCos net maintainer

Re: [ECOS] Re: Source for HW eval boards for use with eCos

[George Lu]

Bart Veer wrote:

> >>>>> "Stuart" == Stuart Adams <sja@brightstareng.com> writes:
>
>     Stuart> Where can I get the eval boards currently supported by
>     Stuart> eCos ??? e.g. the Matsushita MN10300 stdeval1 evaluation
>     Stuart> board or the Toshiba TX39 jmr3904 evaluation board
>
>     Stuart> (Cogent is on the web but a bit pricey for what I want).
>
> I have now received the following information from Matsushita:
>
> >Matsushita MN10300 board is not sold outside of Japan.  In Japan the
> >manufacturer is and contact person are:
> >
> >Syoichi Yamamoto
> >President
> >Kyoto Micro Computer Co, LTD.
> >2-27, Hachijokaoka, Nagaokakyo
> >Kyoto, Japan
> >Tel: +81-75-953-0963
> >FAX: +81-75-953-0935
> >e-mail: yama@kmckk.co.jp
>
> Bart Veer // eCos net maintainer

Similar question, where can I get the eval boards currently supported by

eCos ??? e.g. the MPC850EN or MPC860T evaluation board.

Best Regards,

--
George Lu

[ECOS] Re: Source for HW eval boards for use with eCos

[Bart Veer]

>>>>> "georgel" == George Lu <georgel@ktinet.com.tw> writes:

    <snip>
    georgel> Similar question, where can I get the eval boards
    georgel> currently supported by
    georgel> eCos ??? e.g. the MPC850EN or MPC860T evaluation board.

Currently the only supported PowerPC evaluation board is produced by
Cogent: http://www.cogcomp.com . Alternatively follow the link to
Cogent from the eCos home page at http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ecos
The processor module we have used is the CMA286_60.

I have heard about ongoing ports to other PowerPC boards, but so far I
have not received any sources for these.

Bart Veer // eCos net maintainer