C6678 H.264 Encoder with multiple cores

Anish Mathew

Hello,

We are able to run H264 encoder version 01.00.01.04 with 4 cores. With 5 cores we are seeing some issues when we try to stream the encoded packets.

But when I try to use 6 cores, core 0 is always getting stuck at

RMAN_assignResources((IALG_Handle)handle,resFxns, scratchId);

while other cores go past RMAN_assignResources. I verified handle is not null and am using scratchId = -1 ( FC version is 3.23.02.16)

I tried scratchId = 0 along with cfg settings as mentioned in the below link, but that didn't work.

http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/c6000_multi-core_dsps/f/639/p/293191/1023645

What could be the reasons for this behavior and how can I debug this further?

Can I get framework components CCS project so I can rebuild FC with debug as I need to find where it hangs in RMAN_assignResources ?

Thanks
Anish
Signalogic

over 10 years ago

0 Raja over 10 years ago

TI__Guru* 81335 points

Hi Anish,

Our H264 expert is on timebank till 9/20. The response may be delayed.

But when I try to use 6 cores, core 0 is always getting stuck at

RMAN_assignResources((IALG_Handle)handle,resFxns, scratchId);

Is it stuck or returns some error code? If it returns some error value, please refer below threads otherwise just ignore them.

https://e2e.ti.com/support/embedded/multimedia_software_codecs/f/356/t/265027

https://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/c6000_multi-core_dsps/f/639/p/214605/769796

Thank you.

0 Jeff Brower73 over 10 years ago in reply to Raja

Genius 3420 points

Raja-

Execution hangs inside RMAN_assignResources(), but only for core 0. Here is what we have found so far:

-after the barrier-sync just prior to RMAN_assignResources, we can
see that cores 1-5 go through Ok, each taking about the same amount
of time, and the sequence of these cores varies from one run to the
next

-core 0 always goes last, and does not make it through

-Jeff

0 Anish Mathew over 10 years ago in reply to Jeff Brower73

Intellectual 395 points

Raja-

We increased the BIOS.heapSize parameter to 0xb500 from 0xa000 and now all 8 cores are running.

Thanks
Anish

0 Jeff Brower73 over 10 years ago in reply to Anish Mathew

Genius 3420 points

Raja-

As a follow-up to Anish's answer, we had noticed that with 5 cores we sometimes got stuck in ipcBarOpen, and from that we saw that Bar_create() was not always consistently passing. Bar_create() calls memory_calloc, which apparently uses BIOS heap.

If anyone is wondering why we need all 8 cores even for lower resolutions and frame rates, it's because we let Linux VMs (Ubuntu or CentOS + KVM) access c66x CPU cores, and our users can configure VMs with any number of cores. We plan to do the same thing for H.265.

-Jeff

0 Paula Carrillo over 10 years ago in reply to Jeff Brower73

TI__Mastermind 40580 points

Jeff, Anish, thanks a lot for posting your solution.

Paula

Processors

Processors forum

C6678 H.264 Encoder with multiple cores