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Hardware Considerations

Hardware Considerations. Chapter 2,3. Topics. Hardware consideration – Chapter 2. XINU and Router. Xinu is a small, elegant system that follows a hierarchical structure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinu Wireless router: Access points, wireless communication

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Hardware Considerations

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  1. Hardware Considerations Chapter 2,3

  2. Topics • Hardware consideration – Chapter 2

  3. XINU and Router • Xinu is a small, elegant system that follows a hierarchical structure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinu • Wireless router: Access points, wireless communication • WRT54GL: Wireless broadband router • Link • Embedded Xinu • Its goal is to port the XINU Operating System to the MIPS platform by specifically targeting LinkSys WRT54GL routers. • http://xinu.mscs.mu.edu/

  4. WRT54GL: Wireless router from Linksys • Firmware running the operations • Need to communicate with the firmware • Load OpenWRT/XINU or other home brewed code into the router • Need basic access through a serial port to the firmware • Need console access to the firmware • That is the purpose of the hardware update.

  5. Project 1: Load Embedded XINU into WRT54GL wireless router • We create a little computer out of WR54GL by loading embedded XINU in to its RAM. • Assemble the components needed to add a UART chip to the WRT54GL that will enable you to access WRT54GL storage and devices. • Obtain a cross-compiler to compile embedded XINU kernel into MIPS code for the CPU on WRT54GL. • We have downloaded a Linux-based cross-compiler that will compile the embedded XINU files and generate xinu.boot or variations of this. • Download embedded xinu tar ball and untar it and compile it (gmake) to obtain it to generate the xinu.boot • Lets study the various components of the embedded XINU distribution.

  6. Once you have downloaded and extracted the xinu tarball, you will see a basic directory structure: AUTHORS include/ LICENSE README system/ tty/ compile/ lib/ loader/ shell/ test/ uart/ AUTHORS is a brief history of contributors to the XINU operating system in it's varying iterations. compile/ contains the Makefile and other necessities for building the XINU system once you have a cross-compiler. include/ contains all the header files used by XINU. lib/ contains a folder (libxc/) with a Makefile and source for the library, as well as a binary blob which contains the pre-compiled library. LICENSE is the license under which this project falls. loader/ contains assembly files and is where the bootloader will begin execution of O/S code. README is this document. shell/ contains the source for all shell related functions. system/ contains the source for all system functions such as the nulluser process (initialize.c) as well as code to set up a C environment (startup.S). test/ contains a number of testcases (which can be run using the shell command testsuite). tty/ contains the source for the tty driver. uart/ contains the source for the uart driver.

  7. Next steps • Connect the serial port of the modified hardware to the serial port of a host computer with xinu.boot code. • Use a serial communication program (say using a Hyperterminal) to configure the serial port of the host to the settings: 8 data bits, no parity bit, and 1 stop bit (8N1) with a speed of 115,200 bps. • Use another router to form a local network and assign IP addresses to the router and the host computer. • Power up the WRT54GL. If you send cntrlC (break) characters from host console, you will see it responding with CFE> (common firmware environment for WRT54GL) • The Broadcom Common Firmware Environment (CFE) is a collection of software modules for initialization and bootstrap of designs incorporating Broadcom MIPS64™ processors. Link • Serial port you created is your means to communicate with WRT54GL CFE • Use a TFTP on the host to make the boot images available on the network for XINU to boot. (How?) • ifconfig eth0 –auto (obtain ip address for eth0 of WRT54GL) • boot -elf [host ip]:xinu.boot (initiate a TFTP boot) • Above two commands are given from CFE command line • Once XINU boots (uploads into the RAM), you will see XINU shell. • Now you can run XINU commands: help, ps etc. • Add a simple C program hello.c to print “hello world”.

  8. Hardware Basics • Von Neumann Architecture • Hardware interfacing • Latching: recording the appearance of a signal for later processing • Edge vs. level triggering • Tristate logic: high, low, tristated • Wait state • System interfaces and buses: address, data, control • Universal asynchronous synchronous relay terminal (UART) is typically used for parallel to serial transfer

  9. Standard Interfaces • MIL-STD-1553B • Small Computer system interface (SCSI) • IEEE 1394 firewire

  10. MIL-STD-1533B • Widely used in military and commercial avionics • Specifies hardware configuration and transmission and receipt protocols • 1533-bus protocol is a master-slave protocol: one module on the bus acts as a master and others as slaves and respond to master’s commands. • Coupling of the devices is such that one device failure does not affect the others. • Master puts out device number followed by the packets to that device. • Also standard provides specification for handling of failure of the master.

  11. SCSI (“Scuzzy”) • Parallel interface to many devices • SCSI 1, 2, 3, narrow, wide, fast , ultra, ultra-2, ultra-160 • SCSI supports daisy chained devices • SCSI supports Fiber Channel and Firewire besides familiar ribbon cable • Daisy chained devices can communicate independently • Device 0 is the boot device and other devices get non-0 id. • Examples: interfaces to hard drive, CDROMs, scanners and other peripherals

  12. IEEE 1394 Firewire • Standard specifies very fast external bus that supports data transfer rates of up to 400 megabits per sec. (1394a) and 800 Mbps in 1394b. • Apple developed the technology • Can connect up to 63 devices • Multiple speeds on single bus, thus avoiding daisy chaining and peer-peer • Hot pluggable: devices can be added and removed when the bus is active • Two types of transfer: asynchronous and isochronous • Isochronous: data transfer at predetermined rate; multimedia applications; used in cameras, VCRs, televisions, audio devices

  13. Memory Technologies • Ferrite core (dinosaur of memories) • Semiconductor memory (RAM) • Fusible link: ROM and nonvolatile; • UVROM: ultra violet erasable ROM • EEPROM: Electronically erasable PROM • Flash memory: rewritable PROM that uses single transistor per bit; commonly used in embedded real-time applications. • Ferroelectric RAM: 40ns access times, 64 Mbyte arrays.

  14. Devices: DMA Devices: memory mapped IO Calibration constants: EEPROM Stack, heap, variables: RAM Fixed Data: EPROM Program: PROM Memory organization and map FFFFFFFF FFFFFF00 FFFFFE00 FFC00000 E0000F00 E0000000 00000000

  15. Input/output • Programmed input/output: an IN instruction will transfer data from input device to a CPU register. An OUT instruction does the opposite. • Example: to control the speed of a motor (controller) connected to system in the device space as programmed IO: LOAD R1, &speed LOAD R2, &motoraddress OUT

  16. Direct memory access (DMA) • When using a DMA, access to the computer’s memory is given other devices in the system without CPU intervention. • Lets discuss its circuitry and operation.

  17. Memory mapped IO • Does not require special IN and OUT operation. • Certain designated locations of memory appear as virtual IO ports. • For controlling the speed of a stepper motor: LOAD R1, &speed STORE R1, &motor_address Where speed is a bit mapped command Bit 0: light on Bit 1..3: control other devices Bit 4..7: stepper motor speed (4 bits for 16 different speeds)

  18. Interrupts • Interrupts are signals generated to indicate exceptional events. • Internal and external interrupts • Instruction support for interrupts: enable and disable interrupts • Internal CPU handling of interrupts: Current state including PC is saved and the control is transferred to ISR (interrupt service routine). • What to do when dealing with multiple external devices all working asynchronously with the CPU? • Use a programmed interrupt controller (PIC).

  19. Enhancing Performance • Exploit locality of reference: paging; heavily used cell phones and networked handheld devices • Cache recent computations, current data set, current locality of instructions • Pipelining: used in RISC processors • Coprocessors for special processing: digital signal processing (DSP), fast Fourier transforms (FFT), etc.

  20. Transducers • Transducers are devices that convert energy from one form to another. • Temperature sensors (or any sensor) • Accelerometer: compression of piezoelectric device is exploited to convert the compression of an electrical signal. • Position resolvers • A/D converters

  21. Kernel & Device drivers Servers (application ~, web ~, component ~) Shell XWin Thread lib ftp User applications System call interface Process, memory, file system, network managers. Kernel Device drivers Hardware/controller Devices

  22. Real-time Kernels • A process is an abstraction of a running program and a logical unit of work scheduled by the operating system. • A thread is a light weight process that represents of a flow of control thorough a process. • Real-time operating system must provide these specific functions for processes: • Scheduling • Dispatching • Intercommunication and synchronization • Kernel of an operating system provides these functions.

  23. Simple kernels • Polled loop: Say a kernel needs to process packets that are transferred into the DMA and a flag is set after transfer: for(;;) { if (packet_here) { process_data(); packet_here=0; } } Excellent for handling high-speed data channels, a processor is dedicated to handling the data channel. Disadvantage: cannot handle bursts

  24. Simple kernels: cyclic executives • Illusion of simultaneity by taking advantage of relatively short processes in a continuous loop: for(;;) { process_1(); process_2(); process_3(); … process_n(); } Different rate structures can be achieved by repeating tasks in the list: for(;;) { process_1(); process_2(); process_3(); process_3(); }

  25. Cyclic Executives: example: Interactive games • Space invaders: for(;;) { check_for_keypressed(); move_aliens(); check_for_keypressed(); check_collision(); check_for_keypressed(); update_screen(); } } check_keypressed() checks for three button pressings: move tank left or right and fire missiles. If the schedule is carefully constructed we could achieve a very efficient game program with a simple kernel as shown above.

  26. void process_a(void){ for(;;) { switch (state_a) { case 1: phase_a1(); | case 2: phase_a2(); | …. case n: phase_an();}}} void process_b(void){ for(;;) { switch (state_b) { case 1: phase_b1(); | case 2: phase_b2(); | …. case n: phase_bn();}}} state_a and state_b are state counters; Communication between coroutines thru’ global variables; Example: the fanous CICS from IBM : Customer Information Control System IBM’s OS/2 uses this in Windows presentation management. Finite state automata and Co-routine based kernels

  27. Interrupt driven systems • Main program is a simple loop. • Various tasks in the system are schedules via software or hardware interrupts; • Dispatching performed by interrupt handling routines. • Hardware and software interrupts. • Hardware: asynchronous • Software: typically synchronous • Executing process is suspended, state and context saved and control is transferred to ISR (interrupt service routine)

  28. void main() { init(); while(TRUE); } void int1(void){ save (context); taks1(); retore (context);} void int1(void){ save (context); taks1(); restore (context);} Foreground/background systems is a variation of this where main does some useful task in the background; Interrupt driven systems: code example

  29. Process scheduling • Scheduling is a very important function in a real-time operating system. • Two types: pre-run-time and run-time • Pre-run-time scheduling: create a feasible schedule offline to meet time constraints, guarantee execution order of processes, and prevents simultaneous accesses to shared resources. • Run-time scheduling: allows events to interrupt processes, on demand allocation of resources , and used complex run-time mechanisms to meet time constraints.

  30. Task characteristics of real workload • Each task Ti is characterized by the following temporal parameters: • Precedence constraints: specify any tasks need to precede other tasks. • Release or arrival time: ri,j: jth instance of ith task • Phase Φi: release time of first instant of ith task • Response time: time between activation and completion • Absolute deadline: instant by which task must complete • Relative deadline: maximum allowable response time • Period Pi: maximum length of intervals between the release times of consecutive tasks. • Execution time: the maximum amount of time required to complete a instance of the task assuming all the resources are available. • Lets look at some examples next week.

  31. Summary • We studied hardware considerations for embedded and real time systems. • Hardware choices and design of the various controllers have significant effect on the performance of a RT embedded systems.

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