[ann] Microblaze uClinux Demo released

[John Williams]

Microblaze uClinux Demo Package Released
----------------------------------------

We are pleased to announce the first public release of the Microblaze
uClinux demo package, available for download from the project web site:

http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~jwilliams/mblaze-uclinux

We have ported the uClinux operating system to the Microblaze soft
processor core, developed by Xilinx for their FPGA family. The demo
provides an easy-to-use package that demonstrates the progress and
potential of uClinux running on Microblaze. The uClinux kernel is
released under the GNU GPL.

The package contains an operating system image, FPGA bitstreams and
scripts to get everything working. Currently, the Insight/Memec
V2MB1000 prototyping boards are supported. If you have a different
board, contact us and we may be able to help you port the hardware to
your platform.

If you have any problems downloading or using the demo, please send an
email to jwilliams@itee.uq.edu.au with the subject "uclinux demo".

Regards,

John Williams
--
Dr John Williams, Research Fellow,
Reconfigurable Computing, School of ITEE
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Ph : 61-7-3365-8305

 

[Antti Lukats]

John Williams <jwilliams@itee.uq.edu.au> wrote in message news:<biblqa$206$1@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au>...

Microblaze uClinux Demo Package Released
----------------------------------------

We are pleased to announce the first public release of the Microblaze
uClinux demo package, available for download from the project web site:

http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~jwilliams/mblaze-uclinux

question: if I take the mbvanilla EDK project from your website and
recompile it for example for ML300 would it work with the supplied
linux bootimage? I mean if I keep all the peripherals the same
as in the vanilla design, or is the hardware in the supplied .bit
images from some other design?

antti lukats

 

[John Williams]

Hi Antti,

Antti Lukats wrote:

John Williams <jwilliams@itee.uq.edu.au> wrote in message news:<biblqa$206$1@bunyip.cc.uq.edu.au>...

Microblaze uClinux Demo Package Released
----------------------------------------

We are pleased to announce the first public release of the Microblaze
uClinux demo package, available for download from the project web site:

http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~jwilliams/mblaze-uclinux


question: if I take the mbvanilla EDK project from your website and
recompile it for example for ML300 would it work with the supplied
linux bootimage? I mean if I keep all the peripherals the same
as in the vanilla design, or is the hardware in the supplied .bit
images from some other design?

It will indeed work - the demo bit file is just mbvanilla targetting the
V2MB1000. Just make sure you keep the address map the same, eg the
location of your main RAM bank, which the kernel expects to find at
0x80000000, for 16 Mb. Also the bootloader expects there to be
AMD-style flash at 0xFF000000. The source of the bootloader comes with
the mbvanilla project so you should have no trouble changing that if
necessary.

I'm going to freeze the mbvanilla design today, time to move on to the
next target, so if you check on the website soon you'll find a "golden"
copy of it that should be very eay to port. I haven't played with an
ML300 but if it has similar resources to the V2MB1000 then it should
just be a matter of changing the ucf file and resynthesising.

I'd be keen to host the ML300 version of mbvanilla once you're done.

Regards,

John

 

[Antti Lukats]

[mbvanilla on ml300 with linux image.bin?]

It will indeed work - the demo bit file is just mbvanilla targetting the
V2MB1000. Just make sure you keep the address map the same, eg the
location of your main RAM bank, which the kernel expects to find at
0x80000000, for 16 Mb. Also the bootloader expects there to be
AMD-style flash at 0xFF000000. The source of the bootloader comes with
the mbvanilla project so you should have no trouble changing that if
necessary.

ml300 has (lots of things) +
DDR RAM (no FLASH)
it is possible to preload the RAM from compact flash, so there is no
need for flash, and if the linux image expects to see the flash its
a problem I really would not like to write a ip core that 'emulates'
the non existing flash

I have looked at mb ulinux several times, but while working on w2k
workstation it looks very complicated to get all the things to compile.

antti
PS I also have memec board with S2 600E and comm160 module there it
would possible be easier to get the mbvanilla and image.bin to work.

but,,, the flash on p160comm is not AMD?

 

[Dan Kegel]

John Williams wrote:

We have ported the uClinux operating system to the Microblaze soft
processor core, developed by Xilinx for their FPGA family. The demo
provides an easy-to-use package that demonstrates the progress and
potential of uClinux running on Microblaze. The uClinux kernel is
released under the GNU GPL.

That's pretty cool. I see on your page
http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~jwilliams/mblaze-uclinux/
a link to gcc/newlib build instructions, and I gather
the source for your modified gcc is at http://www.xilinx.com/guest_resources/gnu/
However, I see no mention of Microblaze
anywhere in the gcc mailing list archives.
Is Xilinx planning on contributing their Microblaze port
back to the GCC project, i.e. have they executed a copyright
assignment so upcoming versions of gcc can supprt Microblaze out-of-the-box?

I ask partly because I'm wondering if it's worth folding Microblaze
support into my generic toolchain build script
(http://kegel.com/crosstool) or PTXDist. This would be somewhat difficult
Microblaze used a special hacked version of gcc...
- Dan

 

[John Williams]

Hi Dan,

Is Xilinx planning on contributing their Microblaze port
back to the GCC project, i.e. have they executed a copyright
assignment so upcoming versions of gcc can supprt Microblaze
out-of-the-box?

I'm not sure.

I ask partly because I'm wondering if it's worth folding Microblaze
support into my generic toolchain build script
(http://kegel.com/crosstool) or PTXDist.

To do so would be very useful for the microblaze / uClinux community,
since currently we are unable to build our own toolchains, and are
somewhat reliant on Xilinx for that. We have the source, but aren't
really able to build it yet.

This would be somewhat difficult
Microblaze used a special hacked version of gcc...

I don't think there's anything too radical in there, but I'm not a gcc
expert by any means.

Regards,

John