Re: [ECOS] eCosCentric Cortex-M port contribution

[Nick Garnett <nickg at ecoscentric dot com>]

Simon Kallweit <simon.kallweit@intefo.ch> writes:

> Nick Garnett schrieb:
> > As some of you may know, eCosCentric have been working on a Cortex-M
> > port for eCos for a while. This has now reached a reasonably stable
> > state and is currently running through tests in our test farm.
> >
> 
> Can the test results be browsed by normal people, or is this still
> exclusive to ecos maintainers?

These results are only available inside eCosCentric.


> Are there plans to merge the flash V2 support into the trunk anytime
> soon? Or is this scheduled for the ecos 3 release?

Merging the V2 branch is part of the 3.0 release. In the meantime the
V2 flash interface can still be used from its own branch.


> Could you give us some more information about the issues? Also, are
> there plans to get the patches into the mainline GCC?

Unfortunately the details are covered by various NDAs between us,
CodeSourcery and ARM. Once the problem is confirmed by ARM then I
expect CodeSourcery will update their release, and this will find its
way into the FSF sources at some point. In the meantime we are looking
at making a temporary fix for the toolchain that will go out with
3.0. Although we will pre-release it when the Cortex-M contribution is
made.

 
> > All of this is in hand but not quite yet ready for contribution: the
> > toolchain work needs completing, and we want to get a few runs in on
> > the test farm to ensure there are no obvious problems before
> > contributing.
> >
> > I expect this to take a couple of weeks more.
> >
> 
> Now, that puts me in quite an akward situation, as I've been working
> on a community cortex-m3 port for almost a month now. I wonder if it
> is best to stop my efforts and wait for your contribution. As we just
> got the first prototypes of our new STM32 based design a few days ago,
> we really look forward to get ecos working on the boards, so I cannot
> really just sit here and wait for your release. Is there a possibility
> to get the current snapshot upfront so I can continue with development
> based on your port, and see if there is anything worth to be
> contributed from the community port? I'd rather put further efforts
> into your port, if it is the better base for the future.

We don't want to give free public early access at present. There are
still a number of thing that need completing before we are ready for
the world to see it.

You should probably wait. I know that you have just started looking at
interrupts and context switching. My experience is that this is the
hardest part of getting this architecture working. ARM's view of how
operating systems should work is somewhat at odds with how eCos works
and the harware rather strictly enforces ARM's world view. It is
unlikely that you will get your port running before we make our
contribution.

-- 
Nick Garnett                                      eCos Kernel Architect
eCosCentric Limited    http://www.eCosCentric.com      The eCos experts
Barnwell House, Barnwell Drive, Cambridge, UK.     Tel: +44 1223 245571
Registered in England and Wales:                        Reg No: 4422071


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