Updated: mars 2, 2017

Welcome to the PowerPC/Xilinx Xenomai Page

 

Hardware Requirements

You need a board with a Virtex Xilinx FPGA circuit and a system (JTAG) for programming it. We suggest to use:

• Xilinx boards first
• Other boards from a third party

Software Requirements

• You need the cross GNU C compiler for PowerPC from ELDK
• You need the Linux distribution for Xilinx PowerPC
• You need the Xenomai extension

Hardware Links

• Xilinx site
• Xilinx PowerPC 405 Processor page
• Xilinx PowerPC 440 Processor page
• Xilinx User Guides and Manuals page

Software Links

Main links:

• GNU C compiler for Xilinx PowerPC
• Linux distribution for Xilinx PowerPC. Xilinx git
• Xenomai port for Xilinx PowerPC

Other links:

• The Xenomai project
• The Xilinx community wiki

Howtos

Hardware requirements:

You need to have a hardware design that can run Linux. You can use use BSB (Base System Builder) tool from XPS for building it or use reference designs given below. No extra HW is necessary for Xenomai support because Xenomai port uses PowerPC internal HW.

Software requirements:

1. Recover Linux for PowerPC/Xilinx. Synchronize with git branch xilinx_v2.6.35:

$ cd
$ mkdir powerpc-linux
$ cd powerpc-linux
$ git clone git://git.xilinx.com/linux-2.6-xlnx.git
$ mv linux-2.6-xlnx linux
$ cd linux
$ git checkout -b 2.6.35 xilinx_v2.6.35

2. Recover the 2.6.35.7 vanilla Linux kernel:

$ cd
$ wget ftp://ftp.free.fr/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.35.7.tar.bz2
$ tar -xvjf linux-2.6.35.7.tar.bz2 

$ cd
$ cd powerpc-linux
$ wget http://download.gna.org/xenomai/stable/xenomai-2.5.6.tar.bz2
$ tar -xvjf xenomai-2.5.6.tar.bz2 
$ ln -s xenomai-2.5.6 xenomai

$ cd
$ cd powerpc-linux
$ cd linux 
$ cp ~/linux-2.6.35.7/arch/powerpc/kernel/fpu.S arch/powerpc/kernel/fpu.S 
$ cp ~/linux-2.6.35.7/arch/powerpc/kernel/time.c arch/powerpc/kernel/time.c

$ cd
$ cd powerpc-linux
$ cd xenomai
$ export xenomai_root=`pwd`
$ export linux_tree=../linux
$ ./scripts/prepare-kernel.sh --arch=powerpc \
     --adeos=$xenomai_root/ksrc/arch/powerpc/patches/adeos-ipipe-2.6.35.7-powerpc-2.12-01.patch \
     --linux=$linux_tree
patching file arch/powerpc/Kconfig
patching file arch/powerpc/boot/Makefile
patching file arch/powerpc/include/asm/exception-64s.h
patching file arch/powerpc/include/asm/ftrace.h
patching file arch/powerpc/include/asm/hw_irq.h
patching file arch/powerpc/include/asm/ipipe.h
patching file arch/powerpc/include/asm/ipipe_base.h
...

$ cd
$ cd powerpc-linux
$ cd linux
$ make ARCH=powerpc CROSS_COMPILE=ppc_4xx- 40x/virtex4_defconfig
$ make ARCH=powerpc CROSS_COMPILE=ppc_4xx- zImage

$ cd
$ cd powerpc-linux
$ cd xenomai
$ export root_fs=/mydirectory/ramdisk/root_fs
$ ./configure -host=powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu \
	CC=ppc_4xx-gcc AR=ppc_4xx-ar LD=ppc_4xx-ld
$ make -k install DESTDIR=$root_fs
$ cd $root_fs
$ cd ..
$ su
# dd if=/dev/zero of=initrd.img bs=1M count=16
# mke2fs -F -v -m0 initrd.img
# mount -o loop initrd.img /mnt/
# cp -rf  root_fs/*  /mnt/
# umount /mnt
# gzip -9 initrd.img
# mv initrd.img.gz ramdisk.image.gz
# exit
$ cp -i ramdisk.image.gz ~/powerpc-linux/linux/arch/powerpc/boot/

Guides

• Xilinx XAPP1107 Getting Started Using Git, Application Note
• Building Linux 2.6 on ML40x boards Guide

Latency measurement

Latency can be measured with tools provided by Xenomai through cross compilation. The principe is to generate a periodic thread and measures difference between the effectiv period and the theorical period that defines latency.

• cyclictest : latency is measured on a period of 1000 µs with a thread of the maximal priority 99:
  • # cyclictest -n -p 99 -i 1000
• latency : latency is measured on a period of 1000 µs:
  • # latency -t2 -p1000
  • # latency -t1 -p1000
  • # latency -t0 -p1000

For stressing the system, we have used:

• ping flooding
  • # ping -f @IP
• stress tool:
  • # stress -c 50 -i 50 &

PowerPC/Virtex Boards tested and in use with Xenomai

For measuring latencies, boards are stressed by stress tool (# stress -c 50 -i 50 &) and ping flooding (# ping -f @IP).

• (1) # cyclictest -n -p 99 -i 1000
• (2) # latency -t2 -p 1000
• (3) # latency -t1 -p 1000
• (4) # latency -t0 -p 1000

Downloads

The following Xilinx SoPC designs for Xenomai are given as an example without any guaranty and AS IS. You must purchase Xilinx tools for regenerating files for programming your Xilinx FPGA of your board.

• Xenomai design for Xilinx ML403 board. Based on BSB reference design from XPS. For ISE >=11.4
• Xenomai design for Xilinx ML507 board. Based on Xilinx reference design. For ISE >=11.4
• Xenomai design for Avnet V5FX30T board. Based on Avnet reference design. For ISE >=11.2