1.
Review
1.1. Target board
1.2. Target board
The target board has the following block diagram
DVB-T Mod
RAM
RS232_PC
JTAG_FPGA FPGA FLASH BPI
RS232_ST
FLASH SPI
TS_OUT
TS_IN
• FPGA: Spartan 3A FPGA family (3A400). It will be configured with an internal
MicroBlaze processor with uClinux embedded
• DVB-T Mod: OFDM modulator
• RAM: 64Mbit RAM
• FLASH BPI: Parallel Flash used for bitstream, bootloader, uClinux and SW
application
• FLASH SPI: Serial Flash not used
• RS232_PC: Uart used for PC terminal
• RS232_ST: Uart used for communication with ST5518 processor
• JTAG_FPGA: JTAG used for download/debug data to FPGA and for writing
code to FLASH_BPI
• JTAG_SPI: JTAG used for download data to SPI
• TS_IN: Input transport stream
• TS_OUT: Output transport stream
The FPGA has to be configured internally with the following HW structure:
RAM BPI SPI
controller controller controller
GPIO
Uart_PC TS switch
Uart_ST uBlaze
Uart_Mod
Interrupt Timer
Clock Watchdog
1.3. SW platform
The FPGA must be configured in HW as a Microprocessor downloading the code as a
bitstream. Inside the bitstream there’s the bootloader code, which will perform the boot
from Flash Memory. The boot loads the uClinux and executes it. After OS booting, the
SW application is launched and the board is ready to work.
Application SW
uClinux
Bootloader
Bitstream
FPGA
The boot process is the following:
• After power on the board the FPGA starts downloading the bitstream from the
BPI memory (selected by the M0, M1 and M2 switches)
• The bitstream contains both the Microblaze configuration and the first
application that starts automatically (the application is compiled in BRAMs bits
inside the FPGA structure). The bootloader points to uClinux image in Flash
BPI memory and copies all the kernel and ROM filesystem into the RAM.
• After they are copied into the RAM, the bootloader starts executing the lernel
from RAM.
• The kernel mounts the ROMFS into RAM and it is configured with a start SW
application.
• After kernel starts executes automatically the SW application.
1.4. Devlopment flow
2. Required HW
2.1. PC requirements
• USB 2.0 port
• RS232 port
• 2 GB RAM
2.2. Tools
• Xilinx Platform Cable USB II
3. Required SW
• ISE webpack 10.1 (ISE, EDK, iMPACT)
• Vmware Workstation 6.5
4. SW installation
4.1. TBD
4.2. TBD
5. XPS setup
5.1. TBD
5.2. TBD
6. Project creation
6.1. Generating a new project
• Open a XPS and select “file->new project”
• Chose “Base System Builder wizard”
Set the folder path
• Chose “I would like to create a new design”
Set the “I would like to create a system for custom board
• Set the right FPGA: Architacture, device, package and speed grade
• Set the clock frequency, the bus frequency (the FPGA can generate any bus
frequency from any reference clock due to internal DCMs). Select the On-chip
H/W debug module” for development. Set the BRAM to 8K and enable cache
setup
• Add a “Geenric_External_Memory” controller (XPS_MCH_EMC). Set the
Memory size to 8Mb, 8-bit data width and asynchronous type
• Add a “RS232” controller (XPS_UARTLITE). Set the baud rate to 115200,
8bits, no parity and use interrupt (for PC terminal)
• Add a “RS232” controller (XPS_UARTLITE). Set the baud rate to 9600, 8bits,
no parity and use interrupt (for ST communication)
• Add a “RS232” controller (XPS_UARTLITE). Set the baud rate to 115200,
8bits, no parity and use interrupt (for Modulator communication)
• Add a “Generic_SPI” controller (XPS_SPI). Set the paramenters as following:
• Set the cache setup at 4KB for both ICache (instruction cache) and DCache (data
cache) and map them on Generic_External:Memory (SRAM)
• Set the STDIN and STDOUT (PC terminal) to RS232, and the boot memory to
ilmb_cntlr.
• Set the start memory test application generated by XPS at the following:
• Click on “Generate”
• And click on “Finish”
• Click on “start using Platform Studio”
6.2. Configuring HW design
The final design must be as following:
• Microblaze
The Microblaze configuration must be set as following:
• SRAM
The SRAM configuration must be set as following:
• Interrupt controller (intc)
• Flash SPI
• XPS Timer
• Uart_Mod
• Uart_PC
• Uart_ST
• Clock generator
• Proc_sys_reset
• Vector_logic
• The port configuration must be as following:
• The address map is as follows:
6.3. Generating BSP files
Go to “projectÆ Project Options
And set the “Project Peripheral Repository” in “Device and Repository” tag to
“../edk_user_repository”
Go to “SoftwareÆSoftware Platform Settings”
At “Software Platform” set “OS:petalinux” and set the CORE_CLOCK_FREQ_HZ at
62500000
At “OS and libraries” set the “lmb_memory” at dlmb_cntrl
And “main_memory” at SRAM, “stdin” and “stdout” at Uart_PC
Click at “SoftwareÆ Generate Libraries and BSPs”
And the platform will generate the needed file for generating embedded linux. File
generated is <Project folder>\microblaze_0\libsrc\petalinux_v1_00_b\Kconfig.auto
Click at “SoftwareÆ Build all user applications”
And “memory test” application will be compiled. Click to “Update Bitstream” and
application will be added to bitstream at <Project folder>\implementation\download.bit
7. VMware
7.1. asdasd
7.2. dasda
8. Virtual Machine setup
8.1. Configuring virtual machine
8.1.1. Hardware configuration
The Virtual Machine should be configured with the following HW:
• Memory 512Mb (minimum)
• Hard Disc SCSI or IDE (preferred) with 12Gb minimum. No pre-allocation
needed. Split in 2Gb files
• DVD (IDE)
• Network adapter. Bridged mode and connected at power on
• USB controller
• Processor (1 minimum)
8.2. Installing Ununtu
8.2.1. Downloading
Download Ubuntu 9.04 desktop edition from http://www.ubuntu.com/ and save the ISO
image into the host PC
8.2.2. Installing and setting up
Install desktop with standard options. Set the user “xilinx” and give administrative
rights to it.
• Setting up the network
The network must be configured manually at the address 192.168.20.55
• Setting up the NFS server
Download the NFS server from APT using:
# apt-get install nfs-kernel-server nfs-common
Edit the “/etc/exports” file, adding:
/home/xilinx/petalinux-v0.40-rc3
192.168.20.1/24(rw,no_root_squash,sync,no_subtree_check)
And export the filesystem using:
# exportfs –a
NOTE: Since the “petalinux-v0.40-rc3 folder still don’t exists, it won’t work until we
install the petalinux. See next step
8.3. Downloading and installing Petalinux
8.3.1. Downloading
Download latest version of Petalinux from http://developer.petalogix.com/ (tested with
petalinux-v0.40-rc3)
8.3.2. Installing
Copy the “petalinux-v0.40-rc3tar.gz” file into the ~/home/Xilinx folder. Uncompress it
using:
# tar –zxvf petalinux-v0.40-rc3.tar.gz
9. Generating Linux
9.1. Environment
Open a bash shell from user’s home folder. There must be a folder named “petalinux-
v0.40-rc3”. Type “cd petalinux-v0.40-rc3” and “source settings.sh” to set the
environment variables. All shells opened to perform any instruction with petalinux must
be started with the environment variables
9.2. Setting up the HW platform
From the bash shell, type “petalinux-new-platform –v Engel –k 2.6 –p Spartan3A400-
rev00”. Scripts will generate folders with the platform information
9.3. Configuring kernel settings
Go to “~/petalinux-v0.40-rc3/software/petalinux-dist”. “Type menu xconfig” and start
the following configuration:
9.4. Configuring kernel settings
9.5. Compiling
After saving the configuration, type “make all” in the bash shell. It must compile all the
the kernel with the selected options and it will generate both ROM filesystem and
Kernel Image.
9.6. Folder trees
The following folders are generated with the following information (all included in
~/petalinux-v0.40-rc3/software/petalinux-dist):
• Folder bin/
o image.bin Æ kernel + filesystem to be downloaded to target
(recommended)
o image.elf Æ kernel + filesystem in elf format
o linux.bin Æ kernel binary (can be alternate loaded with romfs image
instead image.bin)
o romfs.img Æ romfs image (can be alternate loaded with kernel binary
instead image.bin)
• Folder romfs/
This folder contains all original filesystem (compressed into romfs.img and inage.bin).
It has the usual System V structure
o bin/ Æ binary files
o dev/ Æ devices nodes
o etc/ Æ configuration and init files
o and so on.....
9.7. Suitable configurations
The “make all” instruction executed previously generates the kernel according the
configuration options, generates also the romfs and the images.
If any configuration from rom filesystem file must be modified manually, after doing it
so it’s needed generating again the image file. So from “~/petalinux-v0.40-
rc3/software/petalinux-dist” folder type “make image”. From current romfs folder it will
generate all the images.
If needed generating again the romfs without compiling again the kernel, the user could
perform “make romfs” from “~/petalinux-v0.40-rc3/software/petalinux-dist”. After this
romfs generation, it must be generated again the image with “make image”
10. Running Linux from RAM
10.1. Conection
• RS232
• Platform Cable USB II
10.2. Folders and files
• Project files and tools
Copy the compiled image.bin file from Ubuntu folder “~/petalinux-v0.40-
rc3/software/petalinux-dist/images” to the “c:\work\EDK\xxxx” project folder
The “c:\work\EDK\xxxx” project folder must contain at least the updated XPS project,
updated SW and bitstream (“c:\work\EDK\xxxx\implementation\download.bit”)
There must be the file “c:\work\EDK\xxxx\etc\download.cmd” with the following
commands:
There must be the file “c:\work\EDK\Misc\xmd_pl.bat” with the following commands:
10.3. Downloading
Open a Hyperterminal session, with 115200, 8, N, 1.
Open a cmd window. Go to project “cd \work\EDK\xxxx” and type
“..\Misc\xmd_pl.bat”
The batch will start first downloading the microblaze “download.bit” from the current
project:
After downloading the microblaze (needed to load the debugger module) the batch
downloads the kernel image and the rom filesystem (linux.bin)
After the download, the batch will exit and the linux is started on target. We can see it
through the RS232 hyperterminal session:
10.4. Executing
Now the linux is loaded ito SRAM. Through the Hyperterminal we can work normally
with the target. First we must enter the user (root) and password (root)
11. Booting and running Linux from Flash BPI
11.1. Requirements
In the project folder there must be the following files and folders:
• BPI_bootloader folder:
• FLASH_BURN folder
• Pllinux_images folder (no files needed)
11.2. Downloading the Bitstream
With the current application (without any bootlooader) download the microblaze core to
the board
11.3. Adding the bootloader application
In the XPS Project, select the Applications tab and double-click on Add software
Application
Enter BPI_Bootloader in the Project name
Add the project source code double-clicking in Sources
Use the browser to add the “bootload.c” and “SF_commands.c” files
Add the header files
Browsing into the folder
Modifying bootloader
Edit “bootloader.c” file. Go to following constants and modify the KDI_LENGTH
according “image.bin” file length
To do so, go to the “image.bin” file, click on properties and check the size
In this case, the size is 3481780, so 0x3520B4
11.4. Building the application
Unmark the “TestApp_Memory” application for BRAM inizialization
Mark the “BPI_Bootloader” application for BRAM inizialization
Select “Software->Software Platform Settings”. Set “standalone” in Software platform
tag.
Set “RS232_Uart_1” in “stdin” and “stdout”, OS and Libraries tag
Run “Software-> Build All User Applications”
And “Device Configuration -> Update Bitstream”
Now all bitstream with bootloader and image are ready to be flashed.
11.5. Flashing the bitstream and the bootloader
First step is translating the “download.bit” file into a binary file. The
“..\FLASH_BURN\make_bpi_up.bat” is a batch designed for this application.
In a DOS window, run the application. It will generate the “..\pllinux_images\
bootloader_petalinux.bin” file
Select the “bootloader_petalinux.bin” file from project implementation folder. Select
the “Flash_BPI” instance name and set the Program offset to 0x00000000
Now the bitstream and the bootloader application are located in 0x00000000 address in
the Flash BPI memory.
11.6. Flashing the linux image
Select the “image.bin” file from project folder. Select the “Flash_BPI” instance name
and set the Programm offset to 0x00100000
Now the image application are located in 0x00100000 address in the Flash BPI
memory.
11.7. Booting from Flash
Turn of the board. Set the “M0 & M2” on. Turn on the board and it boots from Flash
BPI memory
