First steps with the LM3S6965

Posted by mjbcswitzerland

on Nov 11 2007 19:22 PM

Expert1130 points

Hi All

I wanted to inform all that we have started porting the uTasker (OS, TCP/IP stack, device drivers and chip simulator) to the Stellaris family.

A first announcement can be found at http://www.uTasker.com and the porting process is being documented in the uTasker forum at http://www.uTasker.com/forum/ on the LM3S6XXX board.

This is our first contact with the Cortex M3 core and the Stellaris devices and the first impression is positive. The porting discussion (blog) may be of interest or use and all are welcome to check it out or join the discussions there.

Regards

Mark Butcher

Posted by englere

on Nov 14 2007 12:25 PM

Intellectual470 points

Nice to see you working with this chip family, Mark. I am familiar with your work on some other families and you're very good with Ethernet.

Anyone who hasn't heard of uTasker should check it out. It's got some great features. It works especially good with Ethernet and Mark even has a simulator that make some early development easier.

Eric

Posted by mjbcswitzerland

on Nov 14 2007 15:57 PM

Expert1130 points

Hi Eric

Thanks for your comments. And thanks for giving me the tip about the new Stellaris chips some time ago!!

I like what I have seen up to now and will be getting down to integrating the new Ethernet driver into the project. Once this is operational I will add the FLASH file system support so that FTP and HTTP will run - fortunately I have seen that the FLASH operation has a simple user interface and its granularity is perfect for the small uFileSystem. Then I will get it on-line and give a link to it here.

For anyone who would already like to see an on-line demo (on another ARM of the same class as the LM3S6XXX) it can be contacted at http://84.75.9.2 (it is about 40k in code size but does include quite a lot of stuff incl. Telnet, email demo etc.).

Regards

Mark

Posted by mjbcswitzerland

on Nov 22 2007 19:31 PM

Expert1130 points

Hi All

I managed to find time to get the LM3S6965 Ethernet Controller up and running. I have documented this at the following link for anyone interested in the steps involved and comparison of the solution with other devices:

http://www.utasker.com/forum/index.php?topic=126.0

The LM3S6XXX Ethernet Controller has been successully added to the uTasker simulation environment. First steps were to add ARM and ICMP Ping support to verify the basic Ethernet operation. The next step will be to port the uFileSystem and parameter system to the device, involving FLASH manipulation, and then first experiences with FTP and HTTP will be possible.

Comments are welcome - next update will probably be a report on the internal FLASH operation.

Regards

Mark Butcher

http://www.uTasker.com

Post edited by: mjbcswitzerland, at: 2007/11/22 19:44

Post edited by: mjbcswitzerland, at: 2007/11/22 19:45

Posted by mjbcswitzerland

on Dec 01 2007 18:19 PM

Expert1130 points

Hi All

Here is an update of progress.

The FLASH drivers have been added so that some more interesting stuff can be done with the project. Using the uFileSystem, FTP and HTTP could be taken into operation plus various other protocols such as SMTP.

For details about the FLASH development see:
http://www.utasker.com/forum/index.php?topic=131.0

The code size (with various additional protocols such as NetBIOS, SMTP, Time Server, DNS, HTTP post) is around 31k compiled with the IAR Kick Start version. This compares quite favorably with the same project configuration compiled for an ARM7 chip in Thumb mode (using IAR 4.20A) which generates around 34k of code.

Please note that I didn't seem to have to run the FLASH write/erase routines from SRAM, nor protect them from interrupts. This point is not specifically discussed in the data sheet - does anyone have a defiitive answer?

I have put the present project state on-line for anyone who would like to see it:
http://84.75.9.2

Comments welcome!!

Regards

Mark Butcher

http://www.uTasker.com

Post edited by: mjbcswitzerland, at: 2007/12/01 18:26

Posted by mjbcswitzerland

on Dec 02 2007 15:53 PM

Expert1130 points

Hi All

Here are a couple of links which may be of interest for 'active' users of the LM3S6965 (and others).

1. I have added the target code in case anyone would like to see it operating on their own board. It is the SIM file which IAR uses to program the board. I am not sure whether this can be loaded 'stand-alone' but it can be tried. I will soon get around to trying out the internal loader capabilities and change the format if necessary later.

http://www.utasker.com/software/software.html

2. The uTasker project includes a device simulator which has also been used in parallel with the development on the target - hopefully to increase the porting efficiency.

I have now added some stand-alone executables of the project running on the LM3S6965, the LM3S8962 and the LM3S1968 (which doesn't do the Ethernet stuff though).

As well as being able to very quickly see what the uTakser stuff is all about - it doesn't need any installation - these are very useful for checking out the GPIOs and their configuration. By hovering the mouse over the ports, the pin number and possible configurations, as well as the presently programmed one, are displayed.

Here is an example, where the mouse is being hovered over Port D1:
http://www.uTasker.com/Demos/uSimLM3S6XXX.JPG

I have found the port simulator a very useful tool in itself, so expect that it will come in handy for a lot of other users!

Give it a try if you are interested...get it here:
http://www.utasker.com/Demos/exes/exes.html

Regards

Mark

http://www.uTasker.com

Post edited by: mjbcswitzerland, at: 2007/12/02 15:56