ISDK, RTOS and Starterware questions

Zhek W.

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: TMDSICE3359, SYSBIOS

I am very new to the TMDSICE3359 v2 Board. But luckily after coming across similar errors and the appropriate solutions ( some very nicely explained and in an orderly fashion ), I managed to get the examples in the C:\ti\pdk_am335x_1_0_2\packages\ti\starterware\examples Folder to work - UART and GPIO LED Blink.
I did it with the help of this post : https://e2e.ti.com/support/arm/sitara_arm/f/791/p/489635/1781352#pi316653=2

That is after I formatted the SD Card with the newly created boot.img(from sd_card.img.gz) and bootloaded the Board. [Files from C:\ti\processor_sdk_rtos_am335x_2_00_02_11\prebuilt-sdcards\evmAM335x\sd_card_img]

Now to a few silly inquiries which I am having slight difficulty understanding(the bigger picture), despite reading the various provided Guides.

1) Had I not done the Bootload with SD Card, would the aforementioned PDK examples have worked? I assume not...

2) This is with regards to the above attached image..Based on what I read, the SYS/BIOS or BIOS is the kernel of the TI-RTOS, right? The thing that is confusing me is :

a) According to this : http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Processor_SDK_RTOS_Software_Developer_Guide

the Processor-SDK has the TI-RTOS kernel, etc.,etc., bootloaders and boot utilites, Demonstrations and Examples. Does this specifically refer to the Folder processor_sdk_rtos_am335x_2_00_02_11? Or it represents the folders that come with the installation of the processor_sdk_rtos (namely ndk, pdk, edma3, xdstools)? Because the processor_sdk_rtos_am335x folder only contained the boot.img and related files for the SD card.
How do they link up?????

b) Which brings me to the second part of this question...how does the sysbios_ind_sdk_2.1.1.2 Folder differ from the bios_6_45_01_29 Folder? I mean based on the existing files, my guess is that the former is for industrial applications and the latter is for CCS environment. Am I in the right direction at all? Also is the SYS/BIOS RTOS in this 2nd attachment referring to the processor_sdk_rtos_am335x_2_00_02_11 Folder or something else...?

3) If the starterware examples in the PDK folder ( which came w the installation of processor_sdk_rtos ) and the Starterware are the same...why do we still need the StarterWare?

I have gone through guides/docs for the softwares that came with the installation, but i think due to my lack of experience and examples implementation, some of the abstract stuff in the guides only served to confuse me further...SO If there is any additional info that anyone thinks I absolutely have to read, please notify me too!

Thanks and Cheers,
Z

over 7 years ago

0 Biser Gatchev-XID over 7 years ago

TI__Guru**** 393215 points

I will ask the RTOS team to comment.

0 Zhek W. over 7 years ago in reply to Biser Gatchev-XID

Intellectual 560 points

Thank you for the speedy reply! Alright.

0 Lalindra Jayatilleke over 7 years ago

TI__Mastermind 30365 points

You may want to take a look at the document http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/AM335X_StarterWare_Booting_And_Flashing which talks about bootloading and the tiimage tool.

The starterware examples are put through the conversion tool as one of the build steps in CCS (properties>build>steps). This spits out a binary which you should be able to put on a SD card and run. For e.g in the folder:

C:\ti\pdk_am335x_1_0_2\packages\ti\starterware\binary\adc_app_volt_measure\bin\am335x-evm\gcc

You can rename adc_app_volt_measure_a8host_debug_ti.bin (already has the TI image header) to "app" put in on a SD card and it will boot.

Please see section"Preparing the SD card" in the wiki above.

The entire Processor SDK package when installed has all the other components such as PDK, etc. These pieces are needed to build and run the various examples in CCS. Especially when building the MyExample Projects folder (http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Rebuilding_The_PDK).

You can use the ISDK or PSDK. The PSDK has ICEv2 based examples in the PDK.

The Starterware examples are meant to be a no-OS (bare metal) type of environment to exercise the various peripherals. The RTOS based ones use an OS. There might be bare metal #ifdefs in some of these examples, so it depends. Hope this helps.

Lali

0 Zhek W. over 7 years ago in reply to Lalindra Jayatilleke

Intellectual 560 points

Good Morning Lali,

Yes, it definitely helped!

Thanks for your personalised answer(: It gives me a different perspective - staring at formally written guides for days on end can be rather taxing.

Regarding the starterware example you mentioned...I have actually tried some others (for eg. the DMtimer) but somehow after "Jumping to StarterWare Application...", no other messages appeared on Hterm. BUT I will definitely try again with your explanation here.

Sidenote:
Reading the spruex3p thorougly again has also helped further my understanding and alleviate my confusion - as well as going through the TI-RTOS Workshop Videos here : www.youtube.com/watch ( I hope it's ok to post video links here, if not please notify )

Thank you again for your guidance and have a nice day.

Best regards,
Z

0 Lalindra Jayatilleke over 7 years ago in reply to Zhek W.

TI__Mastermind 30365 points

You are welcome!

Please see this previous thread https://e2e.ti.com/support/embedded/starterware/f/790/p/425603/1519293#1519293 regarding the application not executing. Hope it would shed some light. Please also ensure that the SD card is also formatted correctly as discussed in a link I posted previously. I suspect you are hitting on of these issues.

Lali

0 Zhek W. over 7 years ago in reply to Lalindra Jayatilleke

Intellectual 560 points

Hello Lalindra,

I am not sure if you'd be getting this..but I have a follow up question regarding PSDK and ISDK.

Are there any other differences I should be aware of besides that ISDK has the industrial communication protocols included and PSDK has specific pre-built examples for the ICEv2?

Does that mean there is no caveat where someone would go, oh I need to develop this specific application and i will need files from folder X. So I HAVE to use PSDK instead of ISDK. Vice Versa.

Thanks, hope to hear from you. And have a nice weekend!

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