Release Notes for the QNX Neutrino 6.4.1 BSP for Texas Instruments AM3517 EVM Board#

System requirements#

Target system#

• QNX Neutrino RTOS 6.4.1
• Board version: TI AM3517 EVM (Beta Board)
• ROM Monitor version: Texas Instruments X-Loader 1.42, UBoot 2009.03
• Micron 512 MB NAND flash: MT29F4G16ABCHC
• 256 MB DDR2 SDRAM

Host development system#

• QNX Momentics 6.4.1
• Terminal emulation program (Qtalk, Momentics IDE Terminal, tip, HyperTerminal, etc.)
• RS-232 serial port
• NULL-modem serial cable
• Ethernet link

System Layout#

The tables below depict the memory layout for the image and for the flash.

The interrupt vector table can be found in the buildfile located at src/hardware/startup/boards/am3517evm/build

Getting Started#

Step 1: Connect your hardware#

• Connect the serial cable to the serial port P1(UART3) of the AM3517 EVM experimenter board to the first serial port of your host machine (e.g. ser1 on a Neutrino host).
• If you have a Neutrino host with a serial mouse, you may have to move the mouse to the second serial port on your host, because some terminal programs require the first serial port.

Step 2: Build the BSP#

Step 3: Transfer the OS image to the target using the ROM monitor#

• Baud: 115200
• Bits: 8
• Stop bits: 1
• Parity: none
• Flow control: none

Setting up the environment#

Apply power to the target board. You should see output on your terminal console, similar to the following:

Texas Instruments X-Loader 1.42
Starting X-loader on MMC
Reading boot sector

213268 Bytes Read from MMC
Starting OS Bootloader from MMC...
Starting OS Bootloader...

U-Boot 2009.08 (Dec 08 2009 - 23:00:10)

AM35xx-GP ES1.0, L3-165MHz
am3517evm board + LPDDR/NAND
I2C:   ready
DRAM:  256 MB
NAND:  512 MiB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
I2C read: I/O error
HECC U20: port before = 000000FF
I2C read: I/O error
I2C read: I/O error
HECC U20: programmed CAN_STB low
I2C read: I/O error
HECC U20: port after = 000000FF
Die ID #40a600000000000001543b210601a01b
Net:   davinci_emac_initialize
Ethernet PHY: GENERIC @ 0x00
DaVinci EMAC
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0

TFTP download#

This method requires a raw image, which is simply a binary image, with a header on the beginning, that allows the bootloader to jump to the very beginning of the image (the raw header), where it executes another jump to the first instruction of the image.

Next, use the saveenv command to configure the following parameters: serverip gatewayip netmask bootfile ipaddr ethaddr

Once these parameters are configured, use the saveenv command to store your changes. Refer to the U-Boot documentation for more information.

After U-boot is configured, boot the ifs-am3517evm.raw image as follows (we'll assume it's in a directory called /xfer/) from the AM3517EVM # prompt: tftpboot 0x80100000 /xfer/ifs-am3517evm.raw

At this point you should see the ROM monitor download the OS image, indicated by a series of number signs. You'll also see output similar to this when it completes downloading:

TFTP from server 10.42.104.16; our IP address is 10.42.104.17
Filename '/root/ifs-am3517.raw'.
Load address: 0x80100000
Loading: #################################################################
         #################################################################
         #################################################################
         #################################################################
         #################################################################
         #################################################################
         #################################################################
         ######
done
Bytes transferred = 2355312 (23f070 hex)
AM3517EVM # 

go 0x80100000

You should see output similar to the following, with the QNX Neutrino welcome message on your terminal screen:

## Starting application at 0x80100000 ...
CPU0: L1 Icache: 256x64
CPU0: L1 Dcache: 256x64 WB
CPU0: L2 Dcache: 4096x64 WB
CPU0: VFP 410330c1
CPU0: 411fc087: Cortex A8 rev 7 500MHz

System page at phys:80011000 user:fc404000 kern:fc404000
Starting next program at vfe043df0
cpu_startnext: cpu0 -> fe043df0
coproc_attach(10): replacing fe065044 with fe064928
coproc_attach(11): replacing fe065044 with fe064928
Welcome to QNX Neutrino 6.4.1 on the Texas Instruments AM3517 EVM (ARMv7 Cortex-A8 core)

SD card download#

Copy the raw OS image ifs-am3517evm.raw into a mmcsd card, then insert the SD card in J14 MMCSD port and apply power to the target board. After U-boot is started, boot the ifs-am3517evm.raw image in the mmcsd card as follows from the AM3517EVM # prompt:

mmcinit
fatload mmc 0 0x80100000 ifs-am3517evm.raw
go 80100000

At this point you should see the ROM monitor download the boot image, indicated by a series of number signs. You'll also see output similar to this when it completes downloading:

reading ifs-am3517evm.raw

1536276 bytes read
## Starting application at 0x80100000 ...
CPU0: L1 Icache: 256x64
CPU0: L1 Dcache: 256x64 WB
CPU0: L2 Dcache: 4096x64 WB
CPU0: VFP 410330c1
CPU0: 411fc087: Cortex A8 rev 7 500MHz

System page at phys:80011000 user:fc404000 kern:fc404000
Starting next program at vfe043df0
cpu_startnext: cpu0 -> fe043df0
coproc_attach(10): replacing fe065044 with fe064928
coproc_attach(11): replacing fe065044 with fe064928
Welcome to QNX Neutrino 6.4.1 on the Texas Instruments AM3517 EVM (ARMv7 Cortex-A8 core)

Now you can test the OS, simply by executing any shell builtin command or any command residing within the OS image (e.g. ls).

Flashing the IPL on to the target#

Step A: Create the IPL image#

Run the mkflashimage script, inside the /images directory of the BSP. The output file from this script is a binary IPL image called ipl-am3517evm.bin and nand-ipl-am3517evm.bin.

The ipl-am3517evm.bin file is used to place a temporary IPL into the board's memory and will not be used in these instructions. For more details on installing the IPL without u-boot, see the release notes for the OMAP3530 Beagle Board.

The NAND IPL imagenand-ipl-am3517evm.binwill be installed into the board's NAND flash from SD card via u-boot. This IPL is padded to 24K.

The following steps describe how to generate the ipl-am3517evm.bin and nand-ipl-am3517evm.bin files:

• generate a bin format OS image called ifs-am3517evm.raw using the am3517evm.build file
• Convert IPL NAND boot header into Binary format
• Convert IPL into Binary format
• Cat NAND boot header and ipl together
• Pad Binary IPL to 24K image, this is the image used by boot from UART
• Pad Binary IPL with Header to 24K image, this is the image to put on NAND and boot from NAND

Here is the mkflashimage script:

#!/bin/sh
# script to build a binary IPL and boot image for the TI AM3517 EVM board
set -v
# Convert IPL header into Binary format
${QNX_HOST}/usr/bin/ntoarm-objcopy --input-format=elf32-littlearm --output-format=binary ../src/hardware/ipl/boards/am3517evm/arm/le/boot_header.o ./tmp-boot-header.bin

# Convert IPL into Binary format
${QNX_HOST}/usr/bin/ntoarm-objcopy --input-format=elf32-littlearm --output-format=binary ../src/hardware/ipl/boards/am3517evm/arm/le/ipl-am3517evm ./tmp-ipl-am3517evm.bin

# Cat boot header and ipl together
cat ./tmp-boot-header.bin ./tmp-ipl-am3517evm.bin > ./tmp-header-ipl-am3517evm.bin

# Pad Binary IPL to 24K image, this is the image used by boot from UART
mkrec -s24k -ffull -r ./tmp-ipl-am3517evm.bin > ./ipl-am3517evm.bin

# Pad Binary IPL with Header to 24K image, this is the image to put on NAND and boot from NAND
mkrec -s24k -ffull -r ./tmp-header-ipl-am3517evm.bin > ./nand-ipl-am3517evm.bin

# clean up temporary files
rm -f tmp*.bin

echo "done!!!!!!!"

Step B: Install NAND IPL image from u-boot#

1. The steps above describe booting to u-boot from an SD card. Copy nand-ipl-am3517evm.bin to the SD card and boot to u-boot. Hit CTRL-C if necessary to stop the boot sequence at the u-boot prompt.

2. Issue the following commands from u-boot to install the IPL to NAND:

• mmc init
• mw.b 80000000 ff 40000
• fatload mmc 0 80000000 nand-ipl-am3517evm.bin
• nand erase 0 40000
• nandecc hw
• nand write.i 80000000 0 40000

3. Configure the dipswitches on the eval board so that it boots from NAND. S7-1, S7-2, and S7-3 should all be off.

4. Reset the board. The following text should appear:

QNX Neutrino Initial Program Loader for Texas Instruments AM3517 EVM Board
Commands:

Press 'D' for serial download, using the 'sendnto' utility
Press 'F' to boot an OS image from NAND flash
Press 'U' to Copy an OS image to NAND flash
Press 'I' to Update the IPL

Step C: Download OS image #

1. Start the QNX Momentics IDE on the host.

2. Open a terminal server window. See the IDE documentation for details.

3.Type U to copy the OS image to the NAND flash.

4. In the terminal server window, click the "send file" button in the upper left corner. A popup window will open. Type or browse the correct image file name (ifs-am3517evm.raw) in the "Filename" box and sendto as the proctocol. Click OK to start the download on the host side.

5. After the download process finishes, You should see output similar to the following:

Press 'D' for serial download, using the 'sendnto' utility
Press 'F' to boot an OS image from NAND flash
Press 'U' to Copy an OS image to NAND flash
Press 'I' to Update the IPL
send the ifs now...
download OK...
Writing IFS image to NAND flash from block 4 ......
Upgrade IFS OK...
Commands:

Press 'D' for serial download, using the 'sendnto' utility
Press 'F' to boot an OS image from NAND flash
Press 'U' to Copy an OS image to NAND flash
Press 'I' to Update the IPL

6. Type F ' to boot an OS image from NAND flash. You should see output similar to the following:

Reading from NAND flash ......
Found image               @ 0x84000008
Jumping to startup        @ 0x80100480

CPU0: L1 Icache: 256x64
CPU0: L1 Dcache: 256x64 WB
CPU0: L2 Dcache: 4096x64 WB
CPU0: VFP 410330c1
CPU0: 411fc087: Cortex A8 rev 7 500MHz

System page at phys:80011000 user:fc404000 kern:fc404000
Starting next program at vfe046e74
cpu_startnext: cpu0 -> fe046e74
VFPv3: fpsid=410330c1
coproc_attach(10): replacing fe068c84 with fe068444
coproc_attach(11): replacing fe068c84 with fe068444
Welcome to QNX Neutrino 6.4.1 on the Texas Instruments AM3517 EVM (ARMv7 Cortex-A8 core)

Creating a new flash partition#

• Enter the following command to start the flash filesystem driver: devf-generic -s0x10000000,8m
• Erase a section of the flash: flashctl -p/dev/fs0 -o1M -l7M -ve
• Format the new patition filesystem: flashctl -p/dev/fs0p0 -o1M -l7M -vf
• slay the devf-generic driver: slay devf-generic
• Restart the driver to mount the new partition devf-generic -s0x10000000,8M

You should now have a /fs0p1 directory which you can copy files to.

Summary of driver commands#

The following tables summarize the commands to launch the various drivers.

Known issues for this BSP#

1. Only the mainboard USB host port is supported, and can only be controlled by the EHCI controller. Due to a SoC limitation, the OHCI controller cannot be used as a companion controller on this port. As a result, a high speed hub must be used to connect full/low speed devices.
2. The OTG controller and the host port on on the UI board are not yet supported.
3. Some SD cards are not detected properly in the MMC2 interface of the application board.