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[OMAP-L138 LCDK] Potential New User Questions

Dave Szuter
Intellectual 300 points

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: OMAP-L138, SYSBIOS

Hi there,

I am interested in using the OMAP L138 as a high quality real-time audio processor.  My goal is to be able to read and write 24 bit audio at 96 kHz, and be able to do some fairly extensive filtering and some more non-traditional processing (like synthesizer oscillator effects) on the DSP, while at the same time be able to use the ARM to send and receive data over two USB connections. One USB goes an external display tool (think of a PC receiving status of the DSP task). The other USB will receive commands or parameters which will control the processing.  I have been studying all the white papers and data sheets and think the OMAP L138 would be the best choice for this application, and that the LCDK would be the best test platform.  Unfortunately it seems that there is a lot of confusion in the documentation regarding the use of the EVM vs the newer LCDK. As an example of this, since I'm really trying to optimize performance, I'm leaning towards using no OS, and just code up the application using the StarterWare to access the IPC, McASP, EDMA and USB peripherals.  However when you read the Starterware User Guide you read things like... "first connect the EVM Serial Port to the host PC using a NULL modem cable."   I don't know how this applies to the LCDK.  Would I still use a NULL modem cable? Which connector on the LCDK would this connect to? Am I even reading the correct guide?

I also read through the Getting Started guides and see where they require Cygwin to be installed to facilitate GCC.  How does GCC fit into this? Would that be required if I went with the above setup?  Is it only required if I used the Linux SDK on the ARM? How about if I used SYS/BIOS?  I can see where an OS would be handy if I needed access to a file system on the ARM, but I would want the OS to be fairly light weight.  I guess I'm wondering what the real development setup would be on my PC.  Would I just install CCS v5.1 and be ready to go, or would things like Eclipse, Cygwin, GCC,  PuTTY and a bunch of other stuff need to be installed?

And lastly, if I purchased the OMAP-L138 LCDK and the XDS100v2, and I still had a ton of questions like the ones above, is there a free customer service line where I could actually ask questions and get answers in real time, or is this forum and the online wikis pretty much the only way to gain this much needed information?  Thank you for your time to answer a newbies questions.

 

Dave

  • 0
    TI__Expert 7470 points

    Hi Dave,

    Welcome to TI's E2E forum community.

    Dave Szuter said:
    Which connector on the LCDK would this connect to?

    On the LCDK, you should use the UART-USB transceiver connector, J3 (next to the USB1 connector). 

    Dave Szuter said:
    Would I just install CCS v5.1 and be ready to go, or would things like Eclipse, Cygwin, GCC,  PuTTY and a bunch of other stuff need to be installed?

    You do not need to use Cygwin if you use CCSv5 as given in excerpt below from the Getting Started Guide wiki - DSP/ARM Code Gen Tools, Eclipse etc are part of the CCS setup. You would need to install Teraterm etc. seperately or just use HyperTerminal.

    TI TMS320C6000 DSP CGT With CCSv5

    • Code Composer Studio IDE(v5.0.3 or later)
      • Rebuild CCS projects in build folder
      • Load and run application binaries on EVM
    • Serial console terminal application (ex. Teraterm, minicom, HyperTerminal)

    Dave Szuter said:
    ...is there a free customer service line where I could actually ask questions and get answers in real time...

    The forums and wikis is the main support mechanism. Forums allow any person who might have any useful inputs/answers/suggestions to jump in and help on a question. Well-defined questions with relevant information clearly mentioned usually get faster responses - I see you are already on the right track here. Wikis lets us publish helpful information relevant to users quickly. You can add a wiki page to your watch list (click on the down arrow next to "View History" and choose "Watch") to be notified changes to it in your watchlist.

    Regards,

    Sunil

  • 0 in reply to Sunil Kamath
    Intellectual 300 points

    Thank you Sunil for your response, I hope I can bug you for a few more answers to some follow-on questions.

    Is the included cable a NULL modem cable?

    Do you think I'm on the right track with the OMAP L138 for my application, and do you think just coding in C on the ARM and DSP w/ the StarterWare (no OS) will work for my application? What advantage does SYS BIOS bring to the table besides the file system and roughly how much does it cost in terms of performance.

     

    Thanks again..

    Dave

     

     

     

  • 0 in reply to Dave Szuter
    TI__Expert 7470 points

    Dave,

    For the LCDK, this is just a USB cable that should be in the box. Once connected, the device should show up under the Ports (COM & LPT) in Device Manager window of your PC. You can use the indicated COM port to connect to using HyperTerminal.

    Getting started on the LCDK / Starterware is the correct first step for a new user. If you follow the steps carefully you should be able to get the pre-built Starterware examples running quickly. Not sure if you have used CCS before with other TI devices. If not, you might then want to get acquainted with the CCsv5 interface and features. Then import existing Starterware examples and rebuild them - with some modifications if you want to try a few things. You can then try modifying an existing project or create new projects for your application.

    The decision to use SYSBIOS or not is one you should take based on the complexity and requirements of your application. Take a look at the SYSBIOS information on the wiki (http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Category:SYSBIOS) - you should find answers to your question on SYSBIOS advantages and overhead here.

    Regards,

    Sunil

  • 0 in reply to Sunil Kamath
    Intellectual 300 points

    That was very helpful.  Thank you very much.  I have one last question if you don't mind.  I was intrigued by c6ezflo tool, particularly when I saw the audio chain which seems to provide some of the peripheral interfaces and processing I'm looking to implement. Does that tool require any base SW or OS on the OMAP, or any special requirements on the PC side? Is just win7, ccs5, and term program OK?

    Dave

  • 0 in reply to Dave Szuter
    Intellectual 300 points

    Another question. You indicate the USB cable is what I need to connect to the PC.  Is it correct to assume that this is insufficient to do any real debugging and development.  That the emulator/JTAG is really the connection of choice and that once that is connected, I can disconnect the UART from the pc and/or use it to talk to other devices? Thanks for helping me understand this.

  • 0 in reply to Dave Szuter
    TI__Expert 7470 points

    Dave,

    The UART connection is used for particular example applications and can be used for other purposes in your system. Though it can be used for debugging purposes by printing out messages to a console, it cannot be used for development. The actual debug/development is done via JTAG.

    Regards,

    Sunil