[ECOS] Release testing.

[ECOS] Release testing.

[Patrick O'Grady]

Hi, All--

I've got a new version of the i386/PC HAL which I'd like to post...  it
has drivers for the serial ports (special thanks to the ARM AEB which also
uses 16550s), has a bug in calling DSRs fixed, includes break character
support for GDB so you can stop your program by pressing ^C, configures
the A20 line properly, supports software reset, and has a much cleaner
installation.  But before posting, I've got two questions:

- The 16550As have 16-character FIFOs, but the serial_DSR function I
borrowed from the AEB HAL only supports transmitting and receiving one
character at a time.  Is there a more efficient way of sending more than
one character than putting a loop around the (chan->callbacks->xmt_char)
and (chan->callbacks->rcv_char) in the serial port DSR function?  Fewer
function calls==better performance, and probably isn't that hard to do.

- Release testing--there are a bunch of test programs which come with the
OS, each of which individually tests a particular facility.  I can run
these individually and show that the parts of the system are working...
which is fine the first time, but becomes really cumbersome if I want to
post an update.  Is there a wide-coverage soak test which I can run to
verify that my update hasn't really broken anything?  The tm_basic test
code seems to be the most thorough so far... is there anything better?
It's always a drag posting something that you *know* needs more testing...

Let me know what you think.  Cheers...
-patrick

RE: [ECOS] Release testing.

[Gary Thomas]

On 07-Feb-00 Patrick O'Grady wrote:
> - The 16550As have 16-character FIFOs, but the serial_DSR function I
> borrowed from the AEB HAL only supports transmitting and receiving one
> character at a time.  Is there a more efficient way of sending more than
> one character than putting a loop around the (chan->callbacks->xmt_char)
> and (chan->callbacks->rcv_char) in the serial port DSR function?  Fewer
> function calls==better performance, and probably isn't that hard to do.
> 

The 'xmt_char' callback already handles this.  It will continue to call
your low level "put" routine until the response comes back that no more
characters could be handled.

Putting the call to 'rcv_char' in a loop does not add much overhead and
is the recommended way to handle this.

RE: [ECOS] Release testing.

[Patrick O'Grady]

Hi, Gary--

On Mon, 7 Feb 2000, Gary Thomas wrote:

> 
> On 07-Feb-00 Patrick O'Grady wrote:
> > - The 16550As have 16-character FIFOs, but the serial_DSR function I
> > borrowed from the AEB HAL only supports transmitting and receiving one
> > character at a time.  Is there a more efficient way of sending more than
> > one character than putting a loop around the (chan->callbacks->xmt_char)
> > and (chan->callbacks->rcv_char) in the serial port DSR function?  Fewer
> > function calls==better performance, and probably isn't that hard to do.
> > 
> 
> The 'xmt_char' callback already handles this.  It will continue to call
> your low level "put" routine until the response comes back that no more
> characters could be handled.
> 
> Putting the call to 'rcv_char' in a loop does not add much overhead and
> is the recommended way to handle this.
> 

Thanks for clearing that up--I was going by the documentation in the AEB
serial port driver which only suggested returning 'true' if the character
was sent to the device...  it didn't give any suggestion that the routine
would be called until 'false' was returned.  Guess I coulda looked at the
documentation, huh?  Thanks again!

-patrick
patrick@softprocess.com

[ECOS] New HAL/i386/pc available.

[Patrick O'Grady]

Hi, All--

I've posted a new i386/PC HAL at 
ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/ecos/contrib/hal/i386/hal-i386-pc-20000210.html .
Please check it out!  Here's a quick summary:

- 8250 and 16550 serial port support,
- Bug fixed calling DSRs,
- Several important enhancements to the GDB stub,
- Some platform-specific enhancements (software reset, idle time
instrumentation),
- Greatly simplified installation.

Check it out!
-patrick

patrick@softprocess.com



On Mon, 7 Feb 2000, Patrick O'Grady wrote:

> 
> Hi, All--
> 
> I've got a new version of the i386/PC HAL which I'd like to post...  it
> has drivers for the serial ports (special thanks to the ARM AEB which also
> uses 16550s), has a bug in calling DSRs fixed, includes break character
> support for GDB so you can stop your program by pressing ^C, configures
> the A20 line properly, supports software reset, and has a much cleaner
> installation.
> 
>