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Re: Significant updates to Red Hat eCos


Roger <roger@dataton.se> is not working here any longer.

Best regards
Dataton AB

Jonathan Larmour wrote:
> 
> Red Hat is pleased to announce a series of significant additions and
> updates to eCos, the Embedded Configurable Operating System. As an Open
> Source company, Red Hat has made these improvements available from the
> development repository available via anonymous CVS ( see
> http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/anoncvs.html ).
> 
> Key additions to generic eCos functionality include:
> 
> * EL/IX compatibility layer - POSIX 1003.1 threads and
>   synchronization primitives
> * Plug-in filesystem and network stack support (including a sample
>   RAM-based filesystem)
> * RedBoot ROM monitor permitting ethernet debugging, flash management,
>   etc.
> * SNMP support
> * PCMCIA and Flash support
> 
> Also of particular note are the inclusion of ports to the Intel StrongARM
> Assabet and Brutus evaluation boards, and support for the NEC v850
> architecture and NEC CEB-v850/SA1 evalation board. More details of these
> and other improvements are listed below.
> 
> eCos 1.3.1 users should ensure they are using the latest host tools
> available for download from http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/anoncvs.html
> instead of the standard eCos 1.3.1 tools before using the anonymous CVS
> repository.
> 
> As usual, the sources in the anonymous CVS repository are under continual
> development, and as such there can be no guarantees to reliability or
> stability. Developer support contracts are available for users in need of a
> reliable, stable and tested eCos release. A full standard public release
> will be made available in due course in collaboration with the Open Source
> community. No firm date is set for the next public release at this time.
> 
> EL/IX related functionality
> ===========================
> 
> EL/IX is an API that allows applications to be ported transparently between
> Linux, Embedded Linux and small embedded OS's like eCos. Visit
> http://sources.redhat.com/elix for details.
> 
> - Support has been added for POSIX 1003.1 threads, mutexes, semaphores,
> message queues, condition variables, clocks, timers and real-time signals
> in the new POSIX compatibility package (part of the EL/IX initiative) found
> at compat/posix in the source repository.
> 
> - Plug-in filesystem support added, with a POSIX 1003.1 compatible API,
> found in the io/fileio package, and integrated with the C library.
> 
> - An initial example filesystem implementation is provided in fs/ram. This
> is a RAM-based filesystem that attempts to both be a useful tool in its own
> right and an example of how to write a filesystem that plugs into the eCos
> filesystem infrastructure.
> 
> The source of the filesystem is in fs/ram/VERSION/src/ramfs.c and is
> intended to be largely self documenting. The General Description at the
> beginning of the file gives an overview of the structure of the system, and
> comments within the code explain specific points. This code should be read
> in conjunction with the description of the fileio infrastructure.
> 
> - POSIX termios support has been added as specified by EL/IX level 1
> 
> Note that the above features should be considered to be at an early beta
> stage of development.
> 
> Networking functionality
> ========================
> 
> - The most up-to-date TCP/IP stack sources are now available from anonymous
> CVS.
> 
> - A port of the University of California at Davis (UCD) SNMP stack has been
> added
> 
> - DHCP support has been added
> 
> - TFTP server and client support is now included
> 
> Target/platform and device driver support
> =========================================
> 
> - Intel StrongARM SA1110 Assabet evaluation board port added
> 
> - Intel StrongARM SA1100 Brutus evaluation board port added. This should be
> considered a beta release at this time.
> 
> - An architecture port to the NEC V850 has been added, with an initial
> platform of the NEC CEB-v850/SA1. A serial driver is also included.
> 
> - CqREEK SH7708 (SH3) board port added - contributed by Haruki Kashiwaya.
> (Note: support for an SH4 based CqREEK system will be added shortly).
> 
> - Hitachi SH7709A variant support added
> 
> - Hitachi SH7707A variant support added
> 
> - Added PCMCIA and Compact Flash support, including drivers for the
> ARM-Assabet board. This should be considered of beta quality at this time.
> 
> - Added Flash memory support for Intel StrongARM EBSA285 and Cirrus Logic
> ARM EDB7xxx boards
> 
> - Added an ethernet driver for the Socket Communications Low Power Compact
> Flash Ethernet (LP-CF+) PC Card  - see http://www.socketcom.com/ (NB only
> tested on the Assabet board at this time).
> 
> RedBoot
> =======
> 
> RedBoot - the Red Hat Embedded Debug and Boot ROM monitor has been added.
> 
> RedBoot provides:
> - serial and ethernet GDB debugging support
> - Flash image management
> - Flash booting
> - Download via TFTP
> - SREC or "raw" download formats
> - IP address setting by BOOTP/DHCP
> - A CLI interface.
> 
> Zmodem download support is to be added shortly.
> 
> RedBoot will become the standard firmware supplied and supported by Red
> Hat, replacing CygMon and GDB stubs based boot loaders.
> 
> Initial support is for the ARM-EDB7xxx, ARM-EBSA285, and StrongARM-Assabet
> boards.
> 
> This is the initial release of RedBoot and should be considered an alpha -
> it is still under major development. In particular little documentation is
> yet available, although what is available can be obtained from
> http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/docs-latest/
> 
> Other functionality
> ===================
> 
> - Improved dynamic memory management support in the memory allocator
> package. Existing dynamic memory support in the kernel (fixed and variable
> block allocators) and in libc (malloc, etc.) has been moved to this
> package, located at services/memalloc/common. It is now possible to support
> memory pools occupying all of remaining memory (as determined by the MLT).
> New memory allocators can be "plugged in", and an example of Doug Lea's
> malloc (dlmalloc) has been included.
> 
> - Most targets now implement a standard form of "virtual vectors" - a
> mechanism to allow enhanced co-operation between ROM monitors and running
> applications. This allows the application to leave to the ROM things that
> the ROM supports rather than duplicating, including debug channels that may
> be via serial or ethernet. To take advantage of this, new GDB stub
> images/CygMon images should be programmed onto boards, although old images
> will continue to work - they will just not be able to use the new
> facilities. GDB itself does not need rebuilding either.
> 
> - Support added for both software and hardware serial I/O flow control with
> an initial version of the latter available only for the ARM PID board at
> present.
> 
> - Kernel enhanced with Asynchronous Service Routines (ASRs) which are
> routines called back at the point a thread is scheduled.
> 
> - Added configurable priority ceilings for kernel mutexes
> 
> - Support sorted thread queues in kernel, rather than LIFO, controlled by
> the CYGIMP_KERNEL_SCHED_SORTED_QUEUES option.
> 
> Other new items
> ===============
> 
> - Updated eCos on-line documentation with many corrections and
> clarifications, including documentation on the CEB-v850 port, using RedBoot
> on the EBSA285 and on using the plug-in filesystem, socket, and memory
> allocator interfaces. The updated documentation is at
> http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/docs-latest/
> 
> - The FAQ has been updated to cover common problems encountered with
> building development tools and eCos, particularly for Windows users
> 
> Existing users of the anonymous CVS repository should note that the above
> changes may be quite destabilising to any existing build trees and saved
> configurations. To avoid updating to the most recent changes, you may
> update to the snapshot immediately preceding them by checking out with the
> CVS tag "ecos-sw-2000-07-21". Existing users should also pay particular
> notice to the sections above on new GDB stub/CygMon images, and the new
> host tools.
> 
> Any discussions on these improvements are welcomed on the ecos-discuss
> mailing list - visit http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/intouch.html to
> subscribe.
> 
> Jonathan Larmour
> eCos Engineering
> --
> Red Hat, 35 Cambridge Place, Cambridge, UK. CB2 1NS  Tel: +44 (1223) 728762

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