OMAP L138 ARM Access

This is actually a topic that comes up fairly often for our ARM9 based devices. I can start by saying that the OS we support, at least through my organization for most customers, is Linux, other operating systems are typically beyond the scope of what we work with. This being said, in a typical application you would only be using Code Composer Studio 3 (CCS3) for the development of DSP side code using the DSP/BIOS RTOS, as CCS is not Linux aware and is ineffective in debugging Linux applications on the ARM (the same can be said for other high level OS such as Windows CE).

CCS3 is capable of connecting to the OMAP-L1 ARM side and loading/debugging applications (but it is not Linux aware so you can not debug your Linux apps). For example in this part of the GSG when you connect to the ARM, and load a program to burn the flash: Flashing OMAP-L137 Bootloaders. You can debug ARM at a very low register level.

I'm using the OMAPL138 eXperimenter Kit from Logic PD and I believe this board not include a built in on-board emulation as the OMAP-L137 EVM board from Spectrum Digital does, so does this mean I need an external JTAG emulator (XDS510 or XDS560) to have access to the ARM?    

Also, does TI provide with some type of configuration utilities that would allow starting ARM development without a Linux OS?   Something that includes things as simple and lightweight bootloader and a few basic ARM peripheral drivers.  Does TI provide with anything of that nature?   

Joe Tijerina said:

I'm using the OMAPL138 eXperimenter Kit from Logic PD and I believe this board not include a built in on-board emulation as the OMAP-L137 EVM board from Spectrum Digital does, so does this mean I need an external JTAG emulator (XDS510 or XDS560) to have access to the ARM? 

No, the OMAP-L138 kit has an embedded XDS100 emulator, so no need to have an external one.

http://tiexpressdsp.com/index.php/GSG:_OMAP-L138_DVEVM_Additional_Procedures

Joe Tijerina said:

Also, does TI provide with some type of configuration utilities that would allow starting ARM development without a Linux OS?   Something that includes things as simple and lightweight bootloader and a few basic ARM peripheral drivers.  Does TI provide with anything of that nature? 

You can connect to the ARM and compile programs to use on it, but our base software offering is Linux dependent.

Hi Mariana,

One comment with respect to CCS and Linux awareness. You are completely right, that CCSv3.3 isn't Linux aware at all. CCSv4.0 is though Linux aware (at least for OMAP3530), so I assume the same would work for L138 - Won't it? See http://tiexpressdsp.com/index.php/Linux_Aware_Debug - Have to admit - I haven't yet tried it with a L138 chip...

Best regards and thanks for clarifying
  Søren

That is just for OMAP3 (cortex A8), not for OMAP-L1 (ARM9) yet. I do not have a time frame for when it will be supported yet.

Thanks for the info, although I find it a bit strange that CCSv4 don't support ARM9 while it supports Cortex-A8 [:)]- Configuration wise ARM9 is much easier to handle than A8, so it's a bit hard for me to imagine, but I won't try to judge facts - Thanks for clarifying
  Søren

Mariana,

Ok, given that it seems that it is possible to connect to the ARM, how can I connect to the ARM to be able to compile and run programs from CCS?  Can you provide with instructions?  Currently, I am connecting to the DSP only by doing a Debug->Connect from CCS, I don't see an option to to connect to the ARM (dont get the Parallel Debug Manager Window).  Any suggestions?

Hi Joe,

If you have the CCS3 that comes with the EVM, you should see 2 icons in your desktop:

1) One for C6748

2) One for OMAP-L138

If you click on the first one you are only going to be able to connect to the DSP, if you click on the second one you will get the Parallel Debug Manager Window. Let me know if it works...

I am using the CCS3 that came with my eXperimenter kit and when I try launching CCS from either icon (C6748 and OMAP-L138) none show me the Parallel Debug Manager.  They both seem to do the same thing and only allow me to connect to the DSP.  Is it possible to manually launch the Parallel Debug Manager? 

I installed the EVM version to check and you are right, I will investigate the issue and get back to you.

Hi Joe,

Here is the issue. The OMAP-L138 comes with XDS100v1 embedded emulation, and XDS100v1 does not support the ARM. So you can connect to the DSP with the embedded emulation, but you will not be able to connect to the ARM, that is why when you start CCS you do not see the Parallel Debug Manager.

The XDS100v2 (not released yet) will support the ARM, but it is not just drivers updates, but hardware update as well. So the embedded emulation that is on the board will not work with the ARM even with the new drivers that will be released with XDS100v2.

So to connect to the ARM you will need an external emulator, but you do not need it to connect to the DSP...

Thanks for checking. 

Do you know what kind of external emulator I would need specifically?  Is there installation information in TI wiki you can point me to?

Hi Joe,

At this moment the emulator that has the best price to connect to the ARM would be the XDS510 from spectrum digital, but you would not be able to use it with the DSK version of CCS3. so you would need to get the full version..

If you want to wait a little more (maybe 1Q10) you could get the XDS100v2 (external emulator) that will connect to the ARM, the price is much better and CCSv4 with XDS100 is free.

I have an XDS510 emulator from spectrum digital.  Which "factory board" (from the setup) would it be?  I have a full version of CCS3.3, would the factory board for the XDS510 emulator be included with my CSS? 

You might not have the configurations and drivers yet:

1) Go to spectrum's web site and get the latest drivers if needed:

http://support.spectrumdigital.com/ccs33/

2) Go to LogicPD web site:

http://www.logicpd.com/products/development-kits/zoom-omap-l138-experimenter-kit

Click on the Kit Contents tab, at the bottom of the page click at: OMAP-L138 SOM-M1 GEL, CCS Setup, & BSL Files - you will need to create an account in their website if you do not have one already and download the files.

Go to CC3 Setup and click File -> Import. Browse to the configurations that you just got from Logic's site (...\1014013A_OMAP-L138_GEL_BSL_Files\evmomapl138_v1\import\) and select the file to import: OMAPL138_tixds560.ccs

This board will show in the "Custom Boards" tab and the ARM will show.

Did anybody with an OMAP EVM kit ever get this working?  I'm trying to follow the instructions from this page:

http://tiexpressdsp.com/index.php/GSG:_OMAP-L138_DVEVM_Additional_Procedures#Flashing_images

to load code into the NAND Flash.  Every time I try step 5, "Load the NAND flasher tool on to the ARM", I get an error indicating that nand-writer-ccsv3.out does not match the target type.

I've tried to run CCS3 with the OMAPL138_XDS510USB but get errors that it is unable to load c:\CCStudio_v3.3\drivers\sdgoicepickusb_c.dvr.

Installing the latest drivers from spectrum (see #1 immediately above) seems to have solved that problem, but I get another error.  This one indicates that "TMS470R4X" is not supported and that I need to re-install Code Composer or select a different driver.

Thanks in advance for any help/guidance.

I'm in the same boat with dswag89, need to be able to program the NAND. I followed the same guide, except I'm trying to run CCS3.3 with latest Spectrum Digital drivers and the OMAPL138_XDS510PP configuration, but getting the same "TMS470R4X" error. The suggestion to "re-install Code Composer" does not make sense as I just finished installing everything. I'd appreciate if somebody could shed some light on the issue. 

Thanks,

Mikhail Zaturenskiy

What emulator are you using?

Please note that OMAPL138_XDS510PP is the parallel port XDS510, not the USB one.

Please also see:

http://tiexpressdsp.com/index.php/How_to_connect_to_the_OMAP-L138/C6748_EVM_board_using_CCS%3F

Mariana, that is correct. Unlike dswag89 I am trying to use the XDS510PP+ parallel port emulator. 

I have looked at that link, those instructions are very clear and I followed every step of the "XDS510/560 external emulator - DSP + ARM" section. However, I ended up with the "TMS470R4X is not supported" message. 

One thing tho, how do I know if I have the full version of CCS3? I installed it from the CD which came with the ZOOM dev kit for OMAPL138 (kit PN 1013522 REV 5).

I'm going to try to attach to this post a picture of my CCS component manager:

Could you explain the "Product Info" part and why there are 2 items, one "FULL" and one "DSK"?

Mariana,

From looking at the web page, it appears as though I cannot connect to the ARM using either CCSv3.3 or CCSv4 without an external XDS510/560 emulator.  Is that correct?

If so, then the instructions on this web page need to be updated to point that out:

http://tiexpressdsp.com/index.php/GSG:_OMAP-L138_DVEVM_Additional_Procedures#Flashing_images

That page is part of the EVM's "Getting Started Guide".  The external emulator is not part of the EVM kit, so (somebody) needs to clearly point that out in the web page/instructions.

Thanks for confirmation.

dswag89 said:

That page is part of the EVM's "Getting Started Guide".  The external emulator is not part of the EVM kit, so (somebody) needs to clearly point that out in the web page/instructions.

I agree completely with your feedback, and I updated the page:

http://tiexpressdsp.com/index.php/GSG:_OMAP-L138_DVEVM_Additional_Procedures#Flashing_images_to_SPI_Flash

Mikhail Zaturenskiy said:

Could you explain the "Product Info" part and why there are 2 items, one "FULL" and one "DSK"?

I moved this thread to the CCS forum. I'm not sure what the info in the "Product Info" means.

Mikhail Zaturenskiy said:

I installed it from the CD which came with the ZOOM dev kit for OMAPL138 (kit PN 1013522 REV 5).

Did you have the full version of CCS before you installed the one that comes with the EVM? The one that comes with the EVM does not support external emulation.

Ok, so since the version of CCS 3.3 that came with the EVM supposedly does not support external emulation, I downloaded and installed the evaluation version of CCS4. 

After spending a bit of time figuring out how to use CCS4, I was able to get it working with both cores of my OMAP-L138 EVM board via the XDS510PP+ emulator thanks to http://tiexpressdsp.com/index.php/How_to_connect_to_the_OMAP-L138/C6748_EVM_board_using_CCS%3F#XDS510.2F560_external_emulator_-_DSP_.2B_ARM_2  

But I still can't program NAND flash!

I looked at instructions on http://tiexpressdsp.com/index.php/GSG:_OMAP-L138_DVEVM_Additional_Procedures but they appear to be for CCS 3.3 and I can't find something similar for CCS 4. One of the issues is that step 5 says "From the toolbar, execute "GEL-->Full EVM-->EMIFA_NAND_PINMUX"" but this option is not there in CCS 4, but before even getting to that the instructions say to set the boot pins to emulation mode and when I do CCS4 can no longer connect to the ARM core, gives error:

Any suggestions?