RE: [microblaze-uclinux] EDK 9.2

["LEGER" <frederic.leger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

EDK9.2 is also adding some new IPs

one multi-DCM IP with placement constraints inside to avoid the placement
problems of EDK9.1 on small chips (ie: S3E500).

Memory controler is MPMC3.0 with plenty of placement constraints. This is a
very powerfull solution but takes lot's of logic => big problems to upgrade
users designs on V4FX12 and S3E500... (I remember MPMC2.0 and PLB_TEMAC on a
MEMEC FX12 board)

In my opinion, the choice is to increase the data bandwith (for TCP,video?),
to merge Microblaze&PPC, to allow full Linux and to give to new users the
ability to create designs without too much FPGA knowledge.

If it is the beginning of a new era => why not having two releases of
Petalinux.

One release for EDK9.1 (rc4?), for OPB and noMMU users (ucLinux).

The second release with only the early support of PLB and MMU systems and
further (Linux). 

Best regards,

Frederic


-----Message d'origine-----
De : owner-microblaze-uclinux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-microblaze-uclinux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] De la part de John Williams
Envoyé : mardi 13 novembre 2007 05:49
À : microblaze-uclinux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Objet : [microblaze-uclinux] EDK 9.2

Hi folks,

As some of you may have seen, EDK 9.2 came out last week.  The big news from
a MicroBlaze perspective is the addition of an optional MMU to MicroBlaze
v7.00.a, as well as the move to a native PLB bus interface for MicroBlaze.

Maybe not such good news if you have heavy investment in OPB based cores
- if you used IPIF maybe the pain won't be too great.  OPB is supported in
legacy mode for some time I believe, but will go away eventually.

Also included are some changes to the FSL instructions (that I and no-doubt
others have lobbied for), basically interruptible versions of the otherwise
blocking FSL ops, and a few other tweaks.

I assume that a certain embedded Linux vendor is being funded by Xilinx to
do the MMU support for MicroBlaze, no idea on status or timeframes there.
Once the basic patches are released we'll get them into shape and into
PetaLinux.

The move to PLB doesn't have a great deal of impact from a linux
perspective, except that the old opb_ and plb_ethernet cores are pretty much
history - there's now just the ll_temac and the xps_ethernetlite (xps_ ==
plb_).

The existing ethernetlite drivers seem to work ok with the new
xps_ethernetlite core, however the same is not true for the original
ethernet driver.  There was some progress on the PPC lists a few months back
for an LL_TEMAC driver, I'm chasing that up to see what is involved in
getting them going for the MicroBlaze.

In the meantime, I've boot tested an MB v7.00a, PLB design on an ML506 at
125 MHz, all seems to work nicely (and fast!).  Next step is to test on an
S3E1600 board.

I'm in two minds about whether to put some EDK9.2 reference designs into the
next PetaLinux cut - without decent ethernet support I'm not sure it 
makes too much sense.   Waiting until they are ready will delay the 
release unecessarily.  I'm open to suggestions on this matter.

Cheers,

John

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