[ECOS] How to test the serial connection with HyperTerminal in NECVRC4373

[ECOS] How to test the serial connection with HyperTerminal in NECVRC4373

[Ling Su]

Hi,

I am working with the NEC MIPS-VR4373 board, after I got the new released
GNUPro toolkit. The first thing bothers me is how to check the serial
connection. As you may know, in the manual, it says that you can use
Hyperterminal to connect the board by serial J1. I tried in Windows NT
platform, unfornately, there is no any prompt appearing! Since the serial is
the critical path to download and debug code, and execpt the short
decsription in "GNUPro Toolkit User's Guide for NEC VR4xxx", I can not find
any other helpful document.

Could any one drop me some suggestion? Thanks a lot!

Best Regards,
-Ling

Re: [ECOS] How to test the serial connection with HyperTerminal in NECVRC4373

[Jonathan Larmour]

Ling Su wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I am working with the NEC MIPS-VR4373 board, after I got the new released
> GNUPro toolkit.

Which toolkit version is it? If you type "mips64vr4300-elf-gcc -v" what
does it output?

If you've bought the product, did it include support? If so, it may be
better contacting them as this e-mail list is completely unofficial.

> The first thing bothers me is how to check the serial
> connection. As you may know, in the manual, it says that you can use
> Hyperterminal to connect the board by serial J1. I tried in Windows NT
> platform, unfornately, there is no any prompt appearing! Since the serial is
> the critical path to download and debug code, and execpt the short
> decsription in "GNUPro Toolkit User's Guide for NEC VR4xxx", I can not find
> any other helpful document.
> 
> Could any one drop me some suggestion? Thanks a lot!

Have you programmed the board with a new boot ROM? I believe the boards
from NEC come with PMON as the boot ROM, but if you want to have debugging
support you will need to program a GDB stub boot ROM. You may want to read
http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ecos/docs-1.3.1/tutorials/vr4300/ecos-tutorial.d.html#pgfId=2404264

Jifl
-- 
Red Hat, 35 Cambridge Place, Cambridge, UK. CB2 1NS  Tel: +44 (1223) 728762
"Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow."  ||  These opinions are all my own fault

Re: [ECOS] How to test the serial connection with HyperTerminal in NECVRC4373

[Ling Su]

Thanks, after I contact with NEC technical support, the board has been boot
up.

I will trying to build eCos for this target, one thing I met is the NEC
board comes together with the GNUPro toolchain for VR4373 board, the version
is NEC-990510, and all the command has a prefix like mips64vr4xxxel-elf, so
if I start to build, it will complain that it can not find
mips64vr4300-elf...., then I go to the Tools->Platforms and change the
prefix for vrc4373 platform. Then the eCos configure tool will crashed
during build. I do not understand why? I have report the bug in eCos bug
list, is there any fix?

> Have you programmed the board with a new boot ROM? I believe the boards
> from NEC come with PMON as the boot ROM, but if you want to have debugging
> support you will need to program a GDB stub boot ROM. You may want to read
>
http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ecos/docs-1.3.1/tutorials/vr4300/ecos-tutorial .
d.html#pgfId=2404264
>

Really, I need to burn another ROM to enable the debugging funciton? I find
in the manual "GNUPro Toolkit User's Guide for NEC VR4xxx", it doesn't
mention any new boot ROM and use mips64vr4xxxel-elf-gdb to debug... anyway,
I will try it.

Best Regards,
-Ling


> Ling Su wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am working with the NEC MIPS-VR4373 board, after I got the new
released
> > GNUPro toolkit.
>
> Which toolkit version is it? If you type "mips64vr4300-elf-gcc -v" what
> does it output?
>
> If you've bought the product, did it include support? If so, it may be
> better contacting them as this e-mail list is completely unofficial.
>
> > The first thing bothers me is how to check the serial
> > connection. As you may know, in the manual, it says that you can use
> > Hyperterminal to connect the board by serial J1. I tried in Windows NT
> > platform, unfornately, there is no any prompt appearing! Since the
serial is
> > the critical path to download and debug code, and execpt the short
> > decsription in "GNUPro Toolkit User's Guide for NEC VR4xxx", I can not
find
> > any other helpful document.
> >
> > Could any one drop me some suggestion? Thanks a lot!
>
Jifl
> --
> Red Hat, 35 Cambridge Place, Cambridge, UK. CB2 1NS  Tel: +44 (1223)
728762
> "Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow."  ||  These opinions are all my own
fault
>

Re: [ECOS] How to test the serial connection with HyperTerminal in NECVRC4373

[Jonathan Larmour]

Ling Su wrote:
> I will trying to build eCos for this target, one thing I met is the NEC
> board comes together with the GNUPro toolchain for VR4373 board, the version
> is NEC-990510, and all the command has a prefix like mips64vr4xxxel-elf, so
> if I start to build, it will complain that it can not find
> mips64vr4300-elf...., then I go to the Tools->Platforms and change the
> prefix for vrc4373 platform. Then the eCos configure tool will crashed
> during build. I do not understand why? I have report the bug in eCos bug
> list, is there any fix?

The GNUPro toolchain that comes with the board is not capable of supporting
eCos I'm afraid. A number of modifications and fixes were made to the tools
since the tools given to NEC were developed. Sorry if that isn't what you
wanted to hear :-/. In particular, the port of eCos to the vrc4373 uses
32-bit integer registers, not the full 64-bit. 

You can still build your own tools as described on the eCos web site; or
something can be arranged if you wished to purchase the eCos Developer's
Kit - although I think you investigated that option already?

Jifl
-- 
Red Hat, 35 Cambridge Place, Cambridge, UK. CB2 1NS  Tel: +44 (1223) 728762
"Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow."  ||  These opinions are all my own fault

Re: [ECOS] How to test the serial connection with HyperTerminal in NECVRC4373

[Ling Su]

>
> The GNUPro toolchain that comes with the board is not capable of
supporting
> eCos I'm afraid. A number of modifications and fixes were made to the
tools
> since the tools given to NEC were developed. Sorry if that isn't what you
> wanted to hear :-/. In particular, the port of eCos to the vrc4373 uses
> 32-bit integer registers, not the full 64-bit.
>
> You can still build your own tools as described on the eCos web site; or
> something can be arranged if you wished to purchase the eCos Developer's
> Kit - although I think you investigated that option already?
>

:(( Sorry to hear that the toolchain can not support eCos. According to my
understanding, it is due to the porting of eCos for vrc4373 using 32-bit
register instead of full 64-bit register. Is that the all the differences?

How much the eCos Developer Kit cost? I am judging the option now. :)
Anyway, in the mean time I will go ahead to build the tool on the eCos
website.

Thanks for your reply!

Best Regards,
-Ling

Re: [ECOS] How to test the serial connection with HyperTerminal in NECVRC4373

[Jonathan Larmour]

Ling Su wrote:
> 
> :(( Sorry to hear that the toolchain can not support eCos. According to my
> understanding, it is due to the porting of eCos for vrc4373 using 32-bit
> register instead of full 64-bit register. Is that the all the differences?

Mostly, although I believe a number of other bugs that were discovered
during porting were also fixed.

> How much the eCos Developer Kit cost? I am judging the option now. :)

The easiest way to do this is simply to visit
http://www.redhat.com/services/ecos/ecos_contact.html and fill in the
information requested on the form. After that, one of our salespeople will
be able to contact you to discuss your needs further.

> Anyway, in the mean time I will go ahead to build the tool on the eCos
> website.

Sure.

Hope this helps,

Jifl
-- 
Red Hat, 35 Cambridge Place, Cambridge, UK. CB2 1NS  Tel: +44 (1223) 728762
"Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow."  ||  These opinions are all my own fault