AM6442: SysConfig ENET and custom linker scripts

Jon Harrison

Part Number: AM6442
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: SYSCONFIG

Tool/software:

Hello again

I've been struggling with linker errors when trying to build a multicore project , using ENET (ICSS) and IPC across multiple R5 cores and the M4 core.

I've been through the various enet and ipc examples (v10.x MCU+ SDK) and tried to bring together a syscfg for each core but without success. However, I've just discovered that the enet examples use a custom linker.cmd instead of the memory configurator within SysConfig. They contain the following blocks

    UNION:
    {
        .icssfw: palign(128)
        .icss_mem: type = NOLOAD {
#if (ENET_SYSCFG_ICSSG0_ENABLED == 1)
    #if(ENET_SYSCFG_DUAL_MAC == 1)
        #if(ENET_SYSCFG_DUALMAC_PORT1_ENABLED == 1)
            *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostPoolMem_0)
            *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostQueueMem_0)
            *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0ScratchMem_0)
            #if (ENET_SYSCFG_PREMPTION_ENABLE == 1)
                *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostPreQueueMem_0)
            #endif
        #else
            *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostPoolMem_1)
            *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostQueueMem_1)
            *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0ScratchMem_1)
            #if (ENET_SYSCFG_PREMPTION_ENABLE == 1)
                    *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostPreQueueMem_1)
            #endif
        #endif
    #endif
#endif
#if (ENET_SYSCFG_ICSSG1_ENABLED == 1)
    #if(ENET_SYSCFG_DUAL_MAC == 1)
        #if(ENET_SYSCFG_DUALMAC_PORT1_ENABLED == 1)
                *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostPoolMem_0)
                *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostQueueMem_0)
                *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1ScratchMem_0)
            #if (ENET_SYSCFG_PREMPTION_ENABLE == 1)
                *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostPreQueueMem_0)
            #endif
        #else
                *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostPoolMem_1)
                *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostQueueMem_1)
                *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1ScratchMem_1)
            #if (ENET_SYSCFG_PREMPTION_ENABLE == 1)
                *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostPreQueueMem_1)
            #endif
        #endif
    #endif
#endif
#if (ENET_SYSCFG_ICSSG0_ENABLED == 1)
    #if(ENET_SYSCFG_DUAL_MAC == 0)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0PortPoolMem_0)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0PortPoolMem_1)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostPoolMem_0)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostPoolMem_1)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostQueueMem_0)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostQueueMem_1)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0ScratchMem_0)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0ScratchMem_1)
        #if (ENET_SYSCFG_PREMPTION_ENABLE == 1)
            *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostPreQueueMem_0)
            *(*gEnetSoc_icssg0HostPreQueueMem_1)
        #endif
    #endif
#endif
#if (ENET_SYSCFG_ICSSG1_ENABLED == 1)
    #if(ENET_SYSCFG_DUAL_MAC == 0)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1PortPoolMem_0)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1PortPoolMem_1)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostPoolMem_0)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostPoolMem_1)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostQueueMem_0)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostQueueMem_1)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1ScratchMem_0)
        *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1ScratchMem_1)
        #if (ENET_SYSCFG_PREMPTION_ENABLE == 1)
            *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostPreQueueMem_0)
            *(*gEnetSoc_icssg1HostPreQueueMem_1)
        #endif
    #endif
#endif
        }
    } > MSRAM

    .enet_dma_mem {
        *(*ENET_DMA_DESC_MEMPOOL)
        *(*ENET_DMA_RING_MEMPOOL)
#if (ENET_SYSCFG_PKT_POOL_ENABLE == 1)
        *(*ENET_DMA_PKT_MEMPOOL)
#endif
    } (NOLOAD) > MSRAM

Could someone confirm if the custom linker.cmd is the correct / only way of doing this when you use the ENET peripheral and basically SysConfig isn't capable of generating the correct linker.cmd script automatically. This seems to be a major oversight in the functionality of SysConfig. When is this going to be fixed or are we going to continue to have to write our own linker.cmd files ?

Thanks

11 months ago

0 Jon Harrison 11 months ago

Intellectual 310 points

So it's not that simple and the core project still won't build successfully

R5FSS0-0 uses custom linker.cmd (as above) and defines shared memory segments

R5FSS0-1 uses default SysConfig generated linker.cmd which references shared memory segments

R5FSS1-0 also uses custom linker.cmd

R5FSS1-1 uses default SysConfig generated linker.cmd which references shared memory segments

The SysConfig don't contain these shared memory segments so the linker generates errors

    LINUX_IPC_SHM_MEM       : ORIGIN = 0xA0000000 , LENGTH = 0x100000
    ETHFW_SHM_MEM           : ORIGIN = 0xA0400000 , LENGTH = 0x100000
    USER_SHM_MEM            : ORIGIN = 0xA5000000 , LENGTH = 0x00000080
    LOG_SHM_MEM             : ORIGIN = 0xA5000080 , LENGTH = 0x00003F80
    RTOS_NORTOS_IPC_SHM_MEM : ORIGIN = 0xA5004000 , LENGTH = 0x00008000

Presumably this is because SysConfig doesn't contain the section definitions for R5FSS0-0 ?

How do I fix this and create a core project whch links ?

0 Jon Harrison 11 months ago in reply to Jon Harrison

Intellectual 310 points

It looks like I need a custom linker.cmd for each core ? This feels messy as it means any automated SysConfig functionality which impacts the linker will need to be added or modified manually in the static linker.cmd scripts all because SysConfig can't handle the generation of the ENET linker steps correctly or am I missing something here ?

0 Ashwani Goel 11 months ago in reply to Jon Harrison

TI__Mastermind 27260 points

Hi Jon Harrison,

Thanks for your query.

What is your use case?

What is running on different cores?

You are using IPC to trigger enet example on R5F_0_0 core from M4?

May be a system block diagram will be helpful to provide better help/ suggestion.

Regards

Ashwani

0 Tushar Thakur 11 months ago in reply to Jon Harrison

TI__Mastermind 48458 points

Hi Jon,

Can you please also share the error logs?

Jon Harrison said:
R5FSS0-0 uses custom linker.cmd (as above) and defines shared memory segments

After the integration of memory configurator tool the MCU+ project MUST be built as a system project if the project defines any memory that is shared between multiple MCU+ cores.

The new memory configurator tool uses the example.sysconfig file for each core in a multicore project to generate the linker.cmd output files during a build command. A shared memory region will only be defined in one core's example.sysconfig file, but referenced in the example.sysconfig file of the other cores. All of the other cores have a dependency on the one example.sysconfig file with the shared memory information.

For more details please refer faq-mcu-sdk-build-error-expected-expression-rpmsgparams-vringtxtaseaddr

Regards,

Tushar

0 Jon Harrison 11 months ago in reply to Ashwani Goel

Intellectual 310 points

Hi Ashwani,

R5FSS0-0 managing first ENET ICSSG instance with IPC to R5FSS0-1 to off load some of the packet handling

R5FSS1-0 managing second ENET ICSSG instance with IPC to R5FSS1-1 to off load some of the packet handling

M4 as supervisor with data exchange from other cores via IPC

Thanks,

Jon

0 Jon Harrison 11 months ago in reply to Tushar Thakur

Intellectual 310 points

Hi Tushar,

It is built as a multicore system project yes. I currently have it building with a seperate linker.cmd for each core and the memory configurator section is blank in the .syscfg files for each core. If I should be able to do this in SysConfig without the linker.cmd files why do the enet examples need linker.cmd files with pre-processor directives as shown in my first post ? Should this be possible in SysConfig ? What is the correct / best way to do this - SysConfig memory configurator or linker.cmd files ?

Thanks,

Jon

0 Ashwani Goel 11 months ago in reply to Jon Harrison

TI__Mastermind 27260 points

Jon Harrison said:
R5FSS0-0 managing first ENET ICSSG instance with IPC to R5FSS0-1 to off load some of the packet handling

R5FSS1-0 managing second ENET ICSSG instance with IPC to R5FSS1-1 to off load some of the packet handling

You want to use ICSSG0/1 on R5F_0_0?

You want to use ICSSG0/1 on R5F_0_1?

Multiple Enet instances are not supported out of SDK. You can refer below example

mcupsdk-core/test/networking/lwip/enet_multicore_lwip at next · TexasInstruments/mcupsdk-core · GitHub

Regards

Ashwani

0 Jon Harrison 11 months ago in reply to Ashwani Goel

Intellectual 310 points

Hi Ashwani,

We need four independent ethernet ports and dual redundancy so

R5F_0_0 has ISCCG1 in DUAL MAC mode

R5F_1_0 has ICSSG0 in DUAL MAC mode

and then each core uses IPC to transfer packets to the other core in each microcontroller. Each primary core has two ENET instances, one for each MAC giving four in total.

I'm not sure why you think this isn't supported ?

Thanks,

Jon

0 Ashwani Goel 11 months ago in reply to Jon Harrison

TI__Mastermind 27260 points

Jon Harrison said:
I'm not sure why you think this isn't supported ?

I mean, we do not have out of box SDK example for that.

Jon Harrison said:
R5F_0_0 has ISCCG1 in DUAL MAC mode

R5F_1_0 has ICSSG0 in DUAL MAC mode

you can refer below examples to make your use case.

AM64x MCU+ SDK: Intercore Ethernet Packet Exchange With ICSSG, Using LwIP Bridge (ti.com) for packet exchange between R5F_0_0 and R5F_0_1.

and

mcupsdk-core/test/networking/lwip/enet_multicore_lwip at next · TexasInstruments/mcupsdk-core · GitHub

Regards

Ashwani

0 Jon Harrison 11 months ago in reply to Ashwani Goel

Intellectual 310 points

Hi Ashwani,

I wish I'd know about the multicore example before ! What do I need to build it ? I'm currently using CCS 12.7 / MCU+ SDK v10 and I've downloaded TI CLANG v4

Thanks,

Jon

0 Ashwani Goel 11 months ago in reply to Jon Harrison

TI__Mastermind 27260 points

Hi Jon,

Please refer multicore academy for this and let me know if you need further help.

Multicore

Regards

Ashwani

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AM6442: SysConfig ENET and custom linker scripts