Performance DSPC-8681

Hi Li,

1) You will need Desktop Linux SDK package. The DSPC-8681E Quad-Shannon PCIe card must be plugged into Ubuntu Linux PC. The Desktop Linux SDK package includes PCIe Driver, buffer manager, DSP download and reset manager, mailbox code to communicate with the DSPs. A simple filetestdemo example is supplied with the SDK, where on X86 we read a file, copy the data into DSP's DDR using DSP-EDMA and inform the DSP over mailbox. The simple code on DSP does a memcopy from input buffer to another buffer and informs X86 via Mailbox. X86 retrieves the data from the DDR and writes to hard-disk.

2) You can compile the Desktop Linux SDK package using the makefile and the DSP build using CCS Project. The build environment is Linux PC. You can use CCS on Linux or Windows to connect to DSP for debugging. You will need JTAG emulator to connect to DSP

3) H264 BP Encode is currently available @ http://software-dl.ti.com/dsps/dsps_public_sw/codecs/C6678_Video_Codecs/01_00_001/index_FDS.html. H264 Main/High Profile and AVC Intra Codecs is under development.

We are targeting to publish the alpha version of Desktop Linux SDK over next week or so to be publicly available on the web. Please stay tuned.

Regards,

Vivek

hi vivek,

Thank you for your reply.

About the debug,  I also have a EVM6678LE. Can we use that black hawk emulator to connect the DSP on DSPC8681E?

Li,

The board has a 60-pin header. You'll need Spectrum digital XDS560v2 STM (or) Blackhawk USB 560 with the 60-pin header to be able to talk to the DSPs.

Regards,

Vivek

hi Vivek,

May I ask when this week the new Alpha SDK kit will be available? I think that is a very good news for us and we can get more opportunities for our developing. I am eager to get it.

Hi Li,

We have internal source code snapshot available for the release. There are a few approvals and procedural things we have to finish to make the release available publicly on the web. We are hoping to finish that process in the next few days, hopefully by end of week.

Regards,

Vivek

Hello,

Does DSPC-8681E have UART port, like in EVM emulators? So we can connect to it via COM/USB and see how it boots and use platform_uart_* calls in our code for debug output?

Andriy,

Please refer to the datasheet for DSPC-8681E @ http://www.advantech.eu/products/DSPC-8681/mod_A9314996-0022-4927-9AA4-6B1060D4E5E8.aspx and request support from Advantech on the hardware related information. 

Regards,

Vivek

Hi Vivek,

Wehere can we find the download link of Desktop Linux SDK alpha?

Regards,

Andrey

Desktop Linux SDK Alpha release is available now @ http://software-dl.ti.com/sdoemb/sdoemb_public_sw/desktop_linux_sdk/latest/index_FDS.html

I have a DSPC-8681E and following the instructions in this post, I was able to  download the SDK package and build and run the filetestdemo and everything works great.

I see that there is a H.264 Encoder at http://software-dl.ti.com/dsps/dsps_public_sw/codecs/C6678_Video_Codecs/01_00_001/index_FDS.html . Are there instructions on how I can modify the testdemo to load and communicate with the codec?

Hi Jose,

Glad that you have filetestdemo working. We are targeting to provide BIOS_MCSDK_Video 2.1 alpha release end of September on the web. That release demonstrates offload of H.264 Encode from X86 via PCIe.

Regards,

Vivek

Thank You!. We are anxious to get started integrating this solution with our transcoder appliance.

Hi Vivek,

Am working on the DSPC -8681 Advantech hardware.

As this hardware having PCIe slot so I inserted that hardware in my pc with PCIe x8 slot.

AM able to run  some example code on this board like pc to board communication via PCIe.

Finally I decided to write a small example code "Hello World" on this DSPC-8681 Board.

But when I was configuring the target config file,I got one doubt,that what emulator I have to select like Black Hawk emulator or spectrum digital ...etc..!!!

Becaz here DSPC-8681 is connected to the pc via PCIe communication.

So please let me know the solution for the given query :

1) What I have to select in emulator option for DSPC-8681 for simple " Hello world" Program execution??

2) What gel file I have to use for this board??

Please give me your reply.

-Studinstru

Jose, here is the link to MCSDK_Video 2.1 alpha release: http://software-dl.ti.com/sdoemb/sdoemb_public_sw/mcsdk_video/latest/index_FDS.html

Stuinstru, I replied to your post @ http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/c6000_multi-core_dsps/f/639/p/220421/779069.aspx#779069

Best regards,

Vivek

Thank You. I am able to successfully run the H264BP Encoder demo. The demo as it is written works well. For my application however, I need to be able to do multiple simultaneous realtime H.264 Encodes. Is there any information available that would assist me in modifying the demo so that I can support this mode on the DSP side? Other than RTFM of the codec integration and the DSP scheduler mechanism of course -).

Hi Jose,

Can you please let us know what your typical H264 Encoder configuration is? (resolution, bitrate, framerate etc) - It is just to estimate how many DSP cores you would need  for encoding a single stream.

Also, on the x86 side, how do you plan to read the data (is it from file?) to feed multiple encoder instances? Can you please provide a brief overview of data path for your application. 

Regards,

Vivek

One mode of operation will be H.264 4x 720-60p approximately 4Mbps encode from Planar 4:2:0 YUV. The YUV will be generated by a real-time decoding and potentially resizing of network streams on the Host PC x86 processor. Input will be from live 4x MPEG2 Transport Streams handled by the host PC -> Decoded and Resized on the Host PC -> 4x H.264 720-60p encode on Shannon DSP card -> H.264 ES transfered to Host PC via PCIe -> Output Transport Muxing and Transmission on Host PC. Audio will be handled by the host PC.

It would be useful to be able to configure and control each encoder sessions seperately. Setup/Tear Down, Configure Resolution/Bitrate/Framerate/GopInterval/Tools/etc for each session, configure/start/stop each encoder session without interfering with any other sessions, feed YUV frames to each session as they are generated in real-time from the source, etc. So each session would need to maintain its own state.

I understand that TI has demonstrated modes of operation consisting of 16x D1 simultaneous encodes of H.264BP on a single quad Shannon solution. But there is no way that I see with the Current Demo Video SDK Delivery v2.1.0.3 to reproduce that mode of operation. Of course, I wasnt at the trade show and heard about it second hand. So the report may be erroneous.

Jose,

Thanks for the details on the use case. I think there are no DSP changes needed to support your use case. Changes are primarily to be done on the x86 side. Create multiple file reader/writer threads (1 per channel), enhance x86 scheduler to route input frame to corresponding DSP chip etc. We will implement this multi-channel support in upcoming beta release of MCSDK Video 2.1.

Regards,

Vivek