Overview› Requirements› Proof of Principal› Issues …› First Step – Wrap Altera NIOS2 GNU Tools› Next Step – Build RTEMS/NIOS GNU Tools› Future Plans

Requirements for EPICS IOCs, LANSCE RF system upgrade› Must be deterministically synchronized with

the timing system Binding of captured waveforms with beam flavor

attributes obtained from the timing system Modal behavior changes of low level RF controls

depending on the flavor of beam› Must move captured waveforms from FPGA,

into the IOC, and out to Ethernet

Traditional VME/cPCI backplanes› Now they are becoming a bottleneck

There are Altera IP cores for› System processor› Ethernet interface

Can we distribute the solution?› One IOC on each cPCI RF board › Stream data directly, FPGA to Ethernet

A proof of principal is needed

Third party FPGA intellectual property libraries for ARM, MIPS, etc › Are well supported by the GNU tools› However, use of these IP modules involves

licensing expense Which our RF group prefers to avoid

Hardware› Altera NIOS Embedded Evaluation Kit

NIOS II Reference Platform on FPGA Software

› GNU Cross Development Tools› RTEMS OS› EPICS IOC

Altera does› Provide source code for their nios2

enhancements to binutils/gcc/newlib› Modern version now available

FSF binutils 2.20 for nios2 FSF gcc 4.1 for nios2 FSF newlib 1.16 for nios2

Altera doesn't feed back their nios2 enhancements into the asynchronous FSF releases of binutils/gcc/newlib

RTEMS does feed their enhancements back into the asynchronous FSF releases of binutils/gcc/newlib

RTEMS does depend on these enhancements› RTEMS 4.10 appears to require a recent

release of gnu gcc and newlib

RTEMS doesn’t supply it’s nios2 support files in any production release, but › These files can be obtained by fetching the

main development trunk out of CVS

In summary, bringing all of the players together can be somewhat complicated …

Various components independently maintained but working closely together› Binutils

Loader, assembler, and others …› Newlib

C runtime library for embedded systems› GCC

We use … C and C++ compilers

Proper runtime support for C++ is essential Various support libraries

I tried the instructions available at http://www.nios2rtems.com/› Create wrapper script for altera-built gnu cross compiler

binaries› Build newlib, and then rtems

Very helpful tutorials at this site› See details about creating rtems bsp using output from

Altera’s nios2-bsp tool Unfortunately, some insurmountable issues with

this specific approach› The Altera built gnu cross compiler…

Configured with –disable-threads Compiler’s c++ runtime isn't using rtems primitives for

synchronization

Altera enhanced sources for binutils/gcc/newlib are available

Perhaps we can configure and build them specifically for RTEMS› Configuring RTEMS thread model› Configuring RTEMS BSP startup libraries to

be implicitly linked in

RTEMS main trunk is currently incompatible with newlib 1.16

Two options1. Back annotate rtems nios2 support files from

main trunk into earlier RTEMS release compatible with Altera’s newlib 1.16

2. Forward annotate newlib nios2 support files from Altera modified FSF newlib 1.16 to FSF newlib 1.18

Currently I am concentrating on 2, but expect to eventually use a combination of 1 and 2 in production systems

Typical steps when installing a GNU package from source › Obtain source› Patch source› Run autoconf in the source› Configure the source› Build the package› Install the package

“cat ../gcc-4.3.2-rtems4.10-20080917.diff | patch -p1”

“find . -name "*.rej" –print” Sometimes we have to fix by hand

what is found in *.rej

Need autoconf and automake› Always run first autoreconf in source tree if

patches apply to *.am, *.ac, *.in, …› Maybe running autoconf isn't enough

› Different packages need different versions of these tools› Sometimes the exact same version is needed› Sometimes the same or newer version is needed?› Different components have different requirements

Need gnu libgmp, libppl, libelf… http://gcc.gnu.org/install/prerequisites.html But in practice, the uninitiated may

iterate a few times as follows… Run gnu “configure” Look in config.log for “error” If there are errors install missing packages Run configure again …

Altera Nios enhanced FSF source code› ftp://ftp.altera.com/outgoing/download/

support/ip/processors/nios2/gnu/› I used nios2_gnu_gcc4_11.0.tgz

Apply RTEMS patches› ftp://ftp.rtems.com/pub/rtems/SOURCES/4.10/› ftp://ftp.rtems.com/pub/rtems/SOURCES/4.7

Added gcc/config/nios2/rtems.h Added gcc/config/nios2/t-rtems Added new case in gcc/config.gcc Added symbolic link to gcc/newlib

http://sourceware.org/newlib/› Altera’s newlib 1.16

Incompatible with RTEMS 4.11- Transplanting NIOS2 specific code from

Altera’s Newlib 1.16 wasn't too daunting› Applied RTEMS 4.10 patches

Patch file “newlib-1.18.0-rtems4.10-20110518”

› Some RTEMS modifications for nios2

Modified› newlib/include/machine/setjmp.h› newlib/libc/sys/rtems/machine/_types.h› newlib/libc/sys/rtems/crt0.c

Run autoconf in gcc source tree “mkdir b-gcc” “cd b-gcc” Run configure

../gcc/altera-gcc-4.1-patched/configure--target=nios2-rtems --enable-threads --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --with-newlib --verbose --disable-libstdcxx-pch--enable-multilib--enable-languages="c,c++" --prefix=$(INSTALL_RTEMS)

“make all” followed by “make install”

I used RTEMS 4.11-› But, nios2 support isn't included in any

public rtems release› I obtained 4.11- from anonymous CVS

In the cvs trunk, nios2 support is bundled

“mkdir b-rtems” “cd b-rtems” ../rtems-4.11-/rtems/configure

--target=nios2-rtems --enable-posix --enable-networking --enable-rtbg --enable-cxx --disable-tests --enable-rtemsbsp=neek--prefix=$(INSTALL_RTEMS)

The g++ appears to expect c++ header are in a different location than where they are actually installed.

Still working in this issue Have booted RTEMS on NIOS, but not

with C++ code.

Altera Triple-Speed-Ethernet driver› Port Linux Ethernet driver to RTEMS

Regression Tests Performance tests

http://www.nios2rtems.com http://www.alterawiki.com/wiki/CrossGcc http://www.ifp.illinois.edu/~nakazato/

tips/xgcc.html