SK-TDA4VM: Questions about SDK versions

Hello,

The SK board's main focus is developing Edge AI user space applications, so we provide a prebuilt image ready to boot up Linux that you can flash a micro SD card with for the SDK for SK board here: https://www.ti.com/tool/download/PROCESSOR-SDK-LINUX-SK-TDA4VM

Unless you wish to change things in the device tree or Linux/RTOS drivers, the prebuilt image should be sufficient to do things like connect USB cameras, run deep learning models, and displaying output to a monitor. 

And to answer your questions:

1.1 For the differences between EVM and SK: The EVM is a larger and more expensive evaluation board that has more functionality of the TDA4VM SoC accessible hardware-wise, so it gives more flexibility during development. The SK board is a cheaper version of the EVM, but has less hardware, such as less ethernet, PCIE, and USB ports accessible. 

1.2 For SDK compatibility: The SDK for the SK board is built on top of the SDK for the EVM. The prebuilt image for the SK board is built from a specific version of the Linux+RTOS SDK combination, which is 08_00_01_10 for RTOS and 08_00_01_13 for Linux at this time. So ti-processor-sdk-rtos-j721e-evm-08_00_01_10.tar.gz is compatible with the SK board.

2. For the difference between the two versions: If it is the difference between prebuilt image for SK board and RTOS SDK 08_00_01_10, the only difference is one is prebuilt, and the other requires you to build it. The good thing about the prebuilt image is that it requires minimal steps to boot up the board. On the other hand, the good thing about the RTOS SDK is the ability to change code at the RTOS level.

3. Has 08_00_01_10 verson been released yet? Should we upgrade to the latest version? As of now (December 6, 2021), 08_00_01_10 is the latest version of the RTOS SDK for the SK board that has been released. 

lu xiangyu said:

But I don't see it on this page : https://www.ti.com.cn/tool/cn/PROCESSOR-SDK-J721E. 

This is because the processor SDK is mainly for the big EVM, and 08_00_01_10 is a specific version of this processor SDK that has modifications for the small SK board. As the hardware is different between the EVM and SK board, previous versions of the processor SDK do not have the modifications for the small SK board. Older SDK versions can still run on the SK board due to using the same SoC as the EVM board, but peripherals and I2C addresses are somewhat different and this can cause some features to not be functional.

Regards,

Takuma

Hello,

Yes, this version will be updated. For sure, it will be accessible from the documentation for the SDK for the SK board in the "Getting PSDK LINUX and RTOS" section at this link: http://software-dl.ti.com/jacinto7/esd/processor-sdk-linux-sk-tda4vm/08_00_01_10/exports/docs/development_flow.html

Possibly, it will be integrated into the main processor SDK starting from the next release and the source code can be obtained from https://www.ti.com.cn/tool/cn/PROCESSOR-SDK-J721E. I will have to check with the team on this one.

Regards,

Takuma