Using Memory_alloc() to allocate large amounts of memory in Shared Regions and making this work with OpenMAX

Hi Badri,

Sorry for asking but was your first sentence a question or were you stating a fact?

The SharedRegion_getHeap looks like the business. Will this - when coupled with Memory_alloc - ensure that any running OpenMAX applications will not use the memory allocated to the DSP-Codec Engine application? (I'll be using SharedRegion_getHeap + Memory_alloc in the Codec Engine application).

Many thanks,

Ralph

:-) In that case, the answer is no, it is not mandatory for us to use CMEM but of course as the memory allocated will be used by Codec Engine perhaps it is mandatory.... I know that there is some connection between Codec Engine and CMEM, I'm just not sure myself either how this works.

Badri Narayanan said:

-- The memory is allocated from a shared memory heap and any memory allocated to DSP application will not be available to openMax.

That's great to know. I'll stick a post on the Multimedia Software Codecs forum and see what happens.

Ralph

One more question:

the Memory_alloc() function you referred to is a SYSBIOS only function is it not? How do I call this function from my Linux application?

Thanks,
Ralph

Hi Vimal,

Thanks for the reply. How do I get Memory_alloc (in OSAL as used by Linux) to allocate memory from somewhere other than the CMEM module pools?

1) The Memory_AllocParams struct that is passed to Memory_alloc contains a "seg" field - the documentation says that this is the "Segment for allocation" but what does that mean exactly? Does this indicate which number shared region to allocate from?

The other interesting parameter passed in the struct is an enum with these fields:

Memory_MALLOC     
malloc()-based allocation

Memory_SEG
DSP/BIOS segment-based allocation

Memory_CONTIGPOOL     
Contiguous, pool-based allocation

Memory_CONTIGHEAP     
Contiguous, heap-based allocation

2) Which one do I want to allocate from shared memory? Presumably it must be contiguous for codec engine and as it's from the heap, I am guessing I should go for Memory_CONTIGHEAP but I'm not certain.

3) I've had a look in the decode_mosaic demo and seen how the Memory_alloc call is made, but I suppose I'm asking, why are there 2 different Memory_alloc functions?

http://software-dl.ti.com/dsps/dsps_public_sw/sdo_sb/targetcontent/syslink/latest/docs/html/_memory_8h.html#ac65884b6624cdb8bb6274ce4ce1f439c

and

http://software-dl.ti.com/dsps/dsps_public_sw/sdo_sb/targetcontent/ce/latest_2_x/docs/html/group__ti__sdo__ce__osal___memory.html#gad526de48c332226c46d312a512566a09

Thanks,

Ralph

Update:

I've tried this in my Linux application:

for(regionId=0; regionId<3; regionId++)
    {
        allocParams.type = Memory_CONTIGHEAP;
        allocParams.flags = Memory_NONCACHED;
        allocParams.align = BUFALIGN;
        allocParams.seg = regionId;
    
        inBuf = (XDAS_Int8*)Memory_alloc(IFRAMESIZE, &allocParams);
        pointy = Memory_getBufferPhysicalAddress(inBuf, IFRAMESIZE, &isContiguous);
        if(!pointy)
        {
            printf("Couldn't get buffer physical address.\n");
        }
        else
        {
            printf("Allocated input buffer memory at physical address %p, %scontiguous.\n", pointy, isContiguous ? "" : "non-");
        }
    }

and I just get a load of "CMEMK Error: ioctl: no heap available in block 0" messages. :-(

Ralph

I'm trying something else now. I've managed to include the Syslink version of Memory_alloc rather than the Codec Engine version (God knows why they have the same name.....).

Unfortunately, unlike the decode_mosaicdisplay demo it just won't allocate memory for me. Here's the code:

for(regionId=0; regionId<3; regionId++)
    {
        heap = (IHeap_Handle)SharedRegion_getHeap(regionId);  // get the heap
        if(!heap)
        {
            printf("Couldn't get heap handle for region %d.\n", regionId);
        }
        else
        {
            pointy = Memory_alloc(heap, IFRAMESIZE, 128, NULL);
            if(!pointy)
            {
                printf("Buffer allocation failed.\n");
                return 0;
            }
            
            printf("Allocated input buffer memory at address %p.\n", pointy);
        }
    }

And here's the error message when I run the code:

# /usr/testpatternapp.xv5T
[t=0x00000000] [Assertion at Line no: 467 in /home/ralphc/shark/software/bsp/core/build/syslink-2_20_00_14/packages/ti/syslink/utils/hlos/knl/Linux/../../../../../../ti/syslink/ipc/hlos/knl/Linux/SharedRegionDrv.c: (heapHandle != NULL) : failed
tid=0x400d1000] xdc.runtime.MainAssertion at Line no: 467 in /home/ralphc/shark/software/bsp/core/build/syslink-2_20_00_14/packages/ti/syslink/utils/hlos/knl/Linux/../../../../../../ti/syslink/ipc/hlos/knl/Linux/SharedRegionDrv.c: (heapHandle != NULL) : failed
: main> dsp_test.application.tesAssertion at Line no: 467 in /home/ralphc/shark/software/bsp/core/build/syslink-2_20_00_14/packages/ti/syslink/utils/hlos/knl/Linux/../../../../../../ti/syslink/ipc/hlos/knl/Linux/SharedRegionDrv.c: (heapHandle != NULL) : failed
tpatternapp
Input file './in.dat' not found, generating one.
[t=0x000003d1] [tid=0x400d1000] xdc.runtime.Main: [+1] App-> Application started.engineName remote_copy_dsp input-file ./in.dat output-file ./out.dat.
Assertion at Line no: 1349 in /db/atree/library/trees/sl/sl-d14/src/packages/ti/syslink/product/export/syslink_2_20_00_14/packages/ti/syslink/../../ti/syslink/ipc/hlos/usr/HeapMemMP.c: (hpHandle != NULL) : failed
Couldn't get heap handle for region 0.
Assertion at Line no: 1349 in /db/atree/library/trees/sl/sl-d14/src/packages/ti/syslink/product/export/syslink_2_20_00_14/packages/ti/syslink/../../ti/syslink/ipc/hlos/usr/HeapMemMP.c: (hpHandle != NULL) : failed
Couldn't get heap handle for region 1.
Assertion at Line no: 1349 in /db/atree/library/trees/sl/sl-d14/src/packages/ti/syslink/product/export/syslink_2_20_00_14/packages/ti/syslink/../../ti/syslink/ipc/hlos/usr/HeapMemMP.c: (hpHandle != NULL) : failed
Couldn't get heap handle for region 2.

Any ideas how to persuade the SharedRegion_getHeap function to work?

Thanks,
Ralph

1) Yes it's just for debug to check that the framework is seeing my shared regions in the right place in the memory map.

2) I wasn't calling SysLink_setup so thanks for that. I was calling CERuntime_init which might already call that function but from a quick check of the function definition it doesn't seem to be. However, now that I've put SysLink_setup in there, it doesn't change anything at all in the printed output from the app. :-/

3) I don't get any heap handles at all for SR0, SR1 or SR2.

I note that the decode_mosaicdisplay program calls OMX_Init() before doing anything. I had a look in OMX_Init() and saw that the only non-OMX function call was to SysLink_setup.

Is there anything else I can do to debug this?

Thanks,

Ralph

Krunal, thanks for your reply. I had a read of the thread (I think I read it when it was being written too) and see that your problem appeared to give a different error message to mine, which was solved by inserting the missing SysLink_setup() function call.

As I say, I've tried that but not had any luck.

The only thing I've done differently is not call OMX_Init but I really don't want to do that yet as it's meant to be staying a Codec Engine application!

Thanks,
Ralph

Update:

I tried running OMX_Init in a different application before running my codec engine application but _still_ no luck.

Hi Vimal,

It's good to know how to do this but... I can see that CE was not designed for this use case and you're just meant to stick with CMEM so this is what I'll do.By the way, I found the bit of code with the SharedRegion_setEntry in.

I'll investigate VLPB/OMX briefly and then make a decision on how I want to do things.

Thanks for all the replies.

Ralph