Beginning with OMAP-L137

David said:

Recently we received OMAP-L137/TMS320C6747 Starter Kit. Following the Tutorial I want to run the volume1 program on TMC320C64XX as well as on TMS470R2X. What are the names of target directories for taking the appropriate software (for both cases)?

The directories are located in the c:\<TI_CCS_INSTALL_DIR>\tutorial\sim64xx\volume1 and c:\<TI_CCS_INSTALL_DIR>\tutorial\emuarm9\volume1.   However, these have not been implemented specifically for the OMAP-L137/TMS320C6747 Starter Kit.  You could use these as a base and port to that platform if desired.

What is your goal of this excercise?

As Brandon mentioned there are not projects made for L137 out of the box yet in the BIOS distribution, but porting should be fairly easy, when I ported one of the BIOS examples to OMAP3 all I had to do was adjust the TCF file for the new target, assuming you are using a BIOS version that supports L137 this should be an option, otherwise you can probably get away with just adjusting the memory map to fit the L137 board (BIOS would have to support L137 and be set to use it or you would run into problems with more advanced stuff, namely the CLK manager).

Dears Brandon Azbell, Bernie Thompson!

Thank you very much for help. The volume1 program was compiled, linked and loaded to TMS320C6747 but the same program was not loaded to TMS470R yet.
I am very surprised that examples from the tutorial included in OMAP- L137/TMS320C6747 Platform disk were not ported to that platform. I use the tutorial as first introduction into learning the Code Composer Studio and OMAP-L137.

Can you recommend others documents for that further studying?

We plan to develop a big real-time application on OMAP-L137 using I2S, I2C, PWM, USB and others I/O facilities of that platform. We suppose to use Code Composer Studio and BIOS. 

Can you give me your opinions about MontaVista Lunux for the mentioned project and platform?

The following link to our software release roadmap should provide a good idea of which DSP/BIOS (CCS) based drivers will be offered and which Linux based drivers will be  offered for OMAP-L137.  Some are already available via relase 2 of the software, but more are on the way.

http://focus.ti.com/dsp/docs/dspcontent.tsp?contentId=51127

David said:

Can you recommend others documents for that further studying?

The tutorials in BIOS typically lag behind product releases, for more complete examples you can get the software package that Juan mentioned which provides much more device/application specific examples along with software documentation. However for a basic BIOS and CCS introduction the tutorials within the CCS help files are great, though you would have to wait for the examples included with BIOS to be updated. You may want to order a copy of the OMAP and Davinci Software for Dummies book available for free at the URL below, as this gives a good overview of ARM/DSP development, particularly if you are going the Linux route. www.ti.com/dummiesbook

David said:

Can you give me your opinions about MontaVista Lunux for the mentioned project and platform?

Using Linux has the advantage of putting a high level OS on your embeded system, so you can leverage open source software and can have an environment that is much more similar to a PC than to a traditional DSP/uC design. The downside is the Linux learning curve which can vary greatly depending on your Linux experience, if you have been doing Linux work in the PC work for some time than applying that to the OMAP will be very useful and will make MontaVista Linux a great option, however if you are new to Linux in general it may take some time to get up to speed with the whole concept. In general for the ARM side I would suggest Linux over other RTOS options due to the widely available support and low cost (you can go to production with what you get out of the box with no additional license fees for the OS itself).

My biggest issue with the monta-vista linux is that when I called them to ask about pricing they wanted $20k as a starting point. and that was for one seat.

[+o(]

~JM

JM,

I agree $20K sounds a bit high; for now I would just use the free MontaVista distro included with the OMAP-L137 starter kit (http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/tmdxoskl137bet.html).  As Bernie suggested, theoretically, you could go into production with this distro (free).

FYI, TI will continue to provide OMAP-L137 specific software updates per the following software schedule ( http://focus.ti.com/dsp/docs/dspcontent.tsp?contentId=51127); therefore unless you know you need a general MV Pro 5.0 Linux patch, you do not need to purchase an MV seat at this time.  In the past, we have worked with MontaVista to offer a more afordable software bundle (which includes an MV seat) via TI web-site; this may be coming soon for OMAP-L137 as well, so I would wait if you can.

OMAP-L137 seems to be a very attractive device due to the wide choice of interfaces and two processors provided.
Site http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/omap-l137.html claims: "The OMAP-L137 has a complete set of development tools for both the ARM and DSP".
In view of these statements we have decided to use OMAP-L137 in our project. However today our impression from this device leaves much to be desired (the impression is based on our experience acquired during studying OMAP-L137 Starter Kit) due to the situation with Software and documentation.
Because TI DSP/BIOS does not run on ARM, we wanted to try using Linux however the information delivered by JM is aggrieving. In addition we received a message from TI Service that "We do not yet have a planned date for the release of the PWM driver". Actually it means for us that we have to go back to hardware PWM processor.
As a result we have a dilemma: either to further fight OMAP-L137 or to go back to old reliable scheme with two processors and hardware PWM, USB and other interfaces.

Hi David,

We are very interesting in making sure our customers have a great experience with our products and to this end, I would like to comment and seek more information on some of your points below; granted I am pretty new to OMAPL1 myself, but will do everything I can to help.

David said:

Site http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/omap-l137.html claims: "The OMAP-L137 has a complete set of development tools for both the ARM and DSP".

We have DSP/BIOS for DSP and Linux for ARM; in addition, we will likely annouce other OSes for ARM as well (potential candidates are WinCE, Integrity, QNX,...) supported by third parties as time goes on...  Please note that MV Linux is included with the Starter kit for free; while you can buy an MV seat for additional $$, you do not have to.

David said:

However today our impression from this device leaves much to be desired (the impression is based on our experience acquired during studying OMAP-L137 Starter Kit) due to the situation with Software and documentation.

I am certainly very interested in getting constructive customer feedback in this area.  FYI, I am aware there is missing documentation with regards to AINTC registers and am working with our internal teams to make necessary changes.  However, this would only appear to be a small % of our documentation, which of course is no excuse and we will correct.  I am curious if in your experience, you found more documentation and or software errors (not missing software, but rather software that is not behaving as expected).  We also do posr our software schedule at this site: http://focus.ti.com/dsp/docs/dspcontent.tsp?contentId=51127 to help our customers plan their development phase.

David said:

Because TI DSP/BIOS does not run on ARM, we wanted to try using Linux however the information delivered by JM is aggrieving.

Are you referring to the price of MV Seat?  Per my previous post, you do not need an MV seat to start development; you can start with the MV distro included with DVSDK, and even ship with it if you desire to do so.  With regards to the MV Seat Price, it does sound a bit high to me as well and I am working on getting more information on this.

David said:

In addition we received a message from TI Service that "We do not yet have a planned date for the release of the PWM driver". Actually it means for us that we have to go back to hardware PWM processor.  As a result we have a dilemma: either to further fight OMAP-L137 or to go back to old reliable scheme with two processors and hardware PWM, USB and other interfaces.

I will need to investigate this internally; however, in the mean time, have you looked at PWM User Guide for OMAP-l137( http://focus.ti.com/lit/ug/spruga9a/spruga9a.pdf ); it has very few registers and the information there should help you develop your own driver.  Therefore, in the worst case scenerio the decision boils down to wether to invest $$ in software development of PWM driver OR simply use external PWM parts; depending on the volume you are planning on producing, one option may make more sense than the other.  Either way, I will investigate further and get back to you on this.

David/Juan,

Not sure of your application, or what drivers you need, but the OMAPL137 has a lot to offer.  The documentation is confusing in places but much better now than it was back in September.  Becomes more a question of do you really need Linux, which in itself can bring confusion given the constantly changing distributions and build environment.  Not to mention debugging things like lockups or any strange execution that may occur because of some low level driver.  In about 2 weeks the pre-emptive open source OS, FreeRTOS (www.freertos.org) will have a sample code/project for the OMAP-L137 available (I'll post the link).  It is similiar to ThreadX or Integrity but somewhat ligher weight.  The project will consist of an operational OS with sample code for timers and UARTs, beyond that you would have to add your own.  Also the handling of the AINTC is available in the code so you won't have to deal with it, just write your own driver and install and interrupt vector.  The PWM shouldn't be too bad either.  Possibly TI Support has some code they used to test the registers available that you could reference over and above the documentation.

The support for the ARM9 side is weak from TI given what they have available for the DSP.  From my perspective Linux isn't always the best solution given the overhead required, not only from a CPU horsepower perspective, but support.  It does give you a great communications platform but a bit heavy for an ARM9, although a purist would probably disagree given some of the platforms Linux exists on.  I'll be evaluating it when I have a chance myself, on another project.  It's too bad TI did not provide a free supported port like FreeScale does for the i.MX31 or an open forum initiative as they did with the Beagleboard.  One thing Montavista does provide is support when things don't go right you have someone to contact, like their competitor TimeSys, that is primarily what the $20K is for, as well as possilby a more stable Linux version packaged with tools.  Either way the source code is free and part of the demo kit, you just don't get any support/maintanence and lacks some drivers.  It may also be a bit more stable given FreeRTOS is only going to run as well as the open community tests it, or at the moment, what I need for my own project, although I don't expect much of a problem given it has been around for a long time and has numerous other ARM9 ports available.

Kev

Kev,

This is very good feedback!  Thank you for taking the time to provide this.

bridgenet said:

It's too bad TI did not provide a free supported port like FreeScale does for the i.MX31 or an open forum initiative as they did with the Beagleboard...It may also be a bit more stable given FreeRTOS is only going to run as well as the open community tests it, ...

FYI, we have been listening to our customer feedback on this area.  In particular, many customers often have a need to work with later kernels; to this end, our software team is working towards getting our software for various platforms into GIT tree and have a community supported system as well. 

As you are probrably aware, community supported OSes normally have newer kernel base, but it is only as good as the community testers; Linux happens to have a very large base of testers and it has been running on ARM9 for years.  On the other hand, comercial OS distributions are normally much better tested but normally work of older kernel (the price you pay for stability).  The MV distro we include as part of DVSDK is very stable (in comparison to open source ARM9 distros) and you can use it for free.  Furthermore, I must clarify that TI does provide support as well as software updates for this distro; however, this support is limited to our silicon or EVM drivers.  As you can probrably appreciate, it is not economically feasible for us (TI) to support all aspects of Linux (e.g. user apps written by other companies...), but we will certainly help guide you in the right direction and offer support for TI-hardware specific code we provide.

Finally, I should mention that working with Linux can certainly be challenging.  Because of its open nature, you can program at various API levels (just consider graphics software architecture in Linux) and there are a wide variety of tools from all sorts of vendors (not so much the case with Windows); this wide variety of choices in an open source OS can make the tasks of deciding which tools to use and what software layer to program at a difficult one as there is often more than one way to accomplish your user application task.  However, it also gives you all the control you need to change code as you see fit and optimize your system.  As we often encounter during design phase, there are trade-offs to consider.

Please feel free to ask question and help our OMAP-L137 community grow for the benefit of everyone; we will certainly do our best to help in any way we can.

David (et al)-

How/where/when did you get your OMAP-L137 starter kit? According to TI (tech support direct voice question yesterday), the TI eStore, and all listed distributors, it's not yet available. TI says 0 to 14 days while Arrow or Avnet quotes 6-8 weeks!

-Ted

Ted,

OMAP-L137 boards are for sale and have already been shipped for customers.

The long lead time you are getting now is probably because of stock availability.

http://www.ti-estore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=TMDXOSKL137BET

Mariana-

That's good news. Both Tech Support at TI and the distbutors we communicated with yesterday left us thinking the first units had yet to be delivered.

-Ted