AM2434: How to add another core to multicore project in CCS 20.2.0?

Hello Marshall,

I am primarily a Linux guy (which does not apply to AM243x, since there is not an A53 cluster to run Linux). I am reassigning your thread to another team member to discuss more.

There might be a way to create a system project from scratch, but if so I am not familiar with it. I usually start by finding an existing system project, and then modifying it for my own code. For example, ipc_rpmsg_echo has a system project that includes the M4F core and all 4 R5F cores:
https://github.com/TexasInstruments/mcupsdk-core/tree/next/examples/drivers/ipc/ipc_rpmsg_echo
where the system project files are under the EVM board, like this:
https://github.com/TexasInstruments/mcupsdk-core/tree/next/examples/drivers/ipc/ipc_rpmsg_echo/am243x-evm

Other notes

Please note that if you are using system projects, you need to be using MCU+ SDK 9.1 or later.

Please note that you need to build a system project as a system project (i.e., you cannot build just R5F0_0 if that core is a part of a system project). For more information, please refer to this document. I wrote it for AM64x, but the same concepts apply to AM243x:
https://dev.ti.com/tirex/explore/node?node=A__AfSHr0vWbFdGCnmoPeMXzg__AM64-ACADEMY__WI1KRXP__LATEST 

Regards,

Nick

Really? Adding new cores to a project in the middle of a project is not common? I would like to not have to start over if possible.

I'm not sure what OS has anything to do with this. This should be a CCS specific question. I should be able to add a new core to my project in 5 minutes or less and there should absolutely be documentation on how to do this. It makes sense to me that this should be a sysconfig tool feature, but anything that works is good with me.

Thanks,

Marshall

It looks like my team member is on vacation tomorrow. Please ping the thread if you do not get a response on Thursday.

Regards,

Nick

Ping

Hi Marshall,

The above error is coming because you don't have the specific sections defined in your linker.cmd file. Please add the section and try to rebuilt the project again.

Regards,

Tushar

That definitely helped. I am now able to build all projects in the workspace, but the new core isn't automatically getting picked up by the rest of the project. The original project that was given to me had already setup the R5-0-0 core with PRU0 and PRU1 cores. All three cores share the same sysconfig file, which from what I can tell won't allow me to add more cores. To get everything to build I had to add memory regions from the original project sysconfig to the new R5-1-0 project sysconfig that I just added. I am now able to run both projects just fine, but not all together. I have to choose whether to run the original project (R5-0-0 + 2x PRUs) or run the R5-1-0 all by itself. In my workspace I have a system project that seems to have the responsibility of gluing all this together (perhaps through the system.xml file), but all of it seems autogenerated and I don't want to mess with it much without knowing what I'm doing. This system project only has the original 3 cores, nothing about the new core I just added.

This is where documentation would be nice if any exists.

This documentation was helpful, thank you. However, I have an issue where when running in debug mode the slave core that I just added (R5-1-0) steals the debug session from the R5-0-0 core. I've tried a lot of things but can't seem to get this core to learn it's place. I've spent most of my time playing with GEL files, but I've also adjusted properties->debug configuration settings, ccxml settings, and system.xml.

Any documentation on the proper way to configure a multi-core debug session in CCS?

Please tell how are trying to load the multicore image?

Are you loading images for each core via CCS or using flashing tools to flash the application?

I'm using CCS Version: 20.2.0.12__1.8.0

Can you please tell how are you loading the multicore appimage?

In System project a *.appimage.hs_fs file will be generated. Are you flashing this file using SBL example?