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  • Author Author: johnbeetem
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XXICC (21st Century Co-design) release 0.0n

johnbeetem

Here is the new release 0.0n of XXICC, which adds Xilinx Spartan-6 Flavia implementations for the ValentF(x) LOGI-Pi board and LOGI-Bone.

 

XXICC (21st Century Co-design) is a not-for-profit research project which attempts to bring digital hardware/software co-design into the 21st Century using an improved programming language and a Reduced Software Complexity philosophy.  Its goal is to make it easier and more enjoyable to write and maintain digital hardware and software. XXICC is pronounced "Chicken Coop", so-called because it has so many layers.

 

For an overview of XXICC, see the xxicc.org home page and wiki.  For details on the GalaxC programming language, XXICC Object Editor, and GalaxC extensions for Hardware Design (GCHD), here are the latest documents and complete code.

 

Release notes for XXICC rev 0.0n

Programming in the GalaxC Language rev 0.0j: reference and user guide for the GalaxC programming language, unchanged for 0.0n.

The XXICC Anthology rev 0.0n: collection of miscellaneous XXICC topics, including user guides for the XXICC Object Editor, GCHD and Flavia.

Data files for FlaviaP32 release 0.0n: Data files for the FlaviaP32 implementation of the Free Logic Array for the Papilio One 250K.

Data files for FlaviaP48 release 0.0n: Data files for the FlaviaP48 implementation for the Papilio One 500K.

Data files for FlaviaLP56 release 0.0n: Data files for the FlaviaLP56 implementation for the ValentF(x) LOGI-Pi.

Data files for FlaviaLB56 release 0.0n:  Data files for the FlaviaLB56 implementation for the ValentF(x) LOGI-Bone.

Taming the Wild Bitstream (unchanged for 0.0n): Supplement to Flavia: the Free Logic Array.

XXICC code release 0.0n: all source code for XXICC.

XXICC source code listing rev 0.0n: source code listing in PDF.

XXICC executable binaries rev 0.0n:executable XXICC binaries if you don't want to build from source code.

GalaxC sample/demo programs rev 0.0k: sample GalaxC programs and GCHD logic libraries, unchanged for 0.0n.

GalaxC sample/demo program listings rev 0.0k: PDF listing of the sample GalaxC programs and GCHD examples, unchanged for 0.0n.

Editable XXICC documentation files rev 0.0n: editable XOE files for XXICC documentation.

Installing and Running XXICC rev 0.0n: Document describing how to install and run XXICC.

Compiling and Running GalaxC Programs rev 0.0k: Document describing how to compile and run your own GalaxC programs, unchanged for 0.0n.

 

I've tested XXICC 0.0n on GNU/Linux (Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi Debian "Wheezy", BeagleBone Debian, and BeagleBoard Ångström) and Windows (2000 and 7).  My main machine is Ubuntu, so the others are more likely to have anomalies.  Constructive comments and suggestions are most welcome.  I'd especially like to find out how to reproduce some of the bugs that have been eluding me.

 

XXICC is a FLOSS (Free as in Liberty Open Source Software) project.  Software is licensed under GPLv3 and other content is licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 3.0.

  • The Papilio One works great with ODROID-C1 now.  To fix the "Raspberry Pi Effect" I hooked up a USB 1.1 hub to ODROID-C1's OTG port.  OTG uses a separate controller from the four USB A ports, so by keeping the high-speed USB 2.0 devices on the A ports and the low/full-speed USB 1.1 devices on the OTG port, there are no split transactions and thus no missing or repeated characters.

     

    Connecting the Papilio One to the USB 1.1 hub fixed the slow USB transfer.  I think it was slow because acknowledge packets were getting lost so the USB 2.0 controller had to recover and retransmit.  By going through the USB 1.1 hub and OTG there are no packets lost and I can download the Papilio One 250K FPGA in a couple tenths of seconds just like on my x86 PC.

  • When I first tried Flavia on ODROID-C1 using my Papilio One 250K, I didn't have the permissions set as described described in Installing and Running XXICC rev 0.0n, section 5.3.  Flavia reported that it couldn't find vendor.product ID 0430.6010 or 0430.6014, which was strange because if I gave the lsusb command you could see 0430.6010.  On the other hand, Flavia could see my Adafruit FT232H breakout board which I use as a JTAG controller.

     

    Once I set the permissions as in section 5.3, Flavia could see the Papilio One 250K's FT2232D.  So why didn't Flavia see the FT2232D without permissions as it did with the FT232H?  I don't know, but I suspect it might be a "Raspberry Pi Effect" manifestation.  The FT232H is a high-speed USB device, so it doesn't need USB split transactions.  The FT2232D is a full-speed device, so it will have split transactions in a USB tree that includes high-speed devices.  We know ODROID-C1 currently has problems with keyboards losing and repeating keystrokes, with similar misbehavior for mice.  (I jokingly refer to this as the "Raspberry Pi Effect" since RasPi had those problems with early operating sustems.)  So maybe we're seeing this when libftdi tries to identify the FT2232D.

     

    Just a hypothesis for now.  If it goes away when the "RasPi Effect" is fixed, that will confirm it.

  • XXICC rev 0.0n mostly runs on the ODROID-C1 ODroid - Oh Boy! using Hardkernel's Ubuntu v1.3 software.  Here are some issues and hints.  [updated item 5]

     

    1.  X11 windows don't render properly with BPP (bits per pixel) set to 32 in boot.ini.  They work for me with 24 BPP.

     

    2.  I did need to get libxft-dev to compile xxicc.  This is described in Installing and Running XXICC rev 0.0n, section 1.1.

     

    3.  Windows resize slowly because XXICC redraws many times as you drag the mouse instead of waiting for a pause.  I'll try to fix this.  Also, it's tricky to grab the lower-right corner of the window, at least with the metacity window manager.

     

    4.  To compile Flavia I needed to add a link for libftdi.so.  This is described in Installing and Running XXICC rev 0.0n, section 5.2.

     

    5. update: Flavia also works when programming over JTAG using an FTDI device.  You must set FTDI permissions as described in Installing and Running section 5.3.  I have tried both Papilio One 250K and LOGI-Pi (programmed over JTAG, not over the GPIO connector).  LOGI-Pi compiles and downloads very quickly -- about a second for Bcount4LP.  Papilio One programs very slowly.  I think this is because it's downloading over full-speed USB, which may not be optimized properly on ODROID-C1.  It's likely losing USB packets due to the "Raspberry Pi Effect".  I program LOGI-Pi using an Adafruit FT232H breakout board, which has high-speed USB.

     

    6.  Other than the above issues, XXICC seems to work fine on ODROID-C1 image

  • in reply to DAB

    DAB wrote:

     

    Nice update John.

     

    Do you have an end project that you intend to implement with the board or are you just looking at options to make it useful?

    Thank you for the compliment!  I don't have a particular project for either LOGI board at this time.  For now, I'm just trying to create a really nice free-as-in-freedom digital design system.  I've always wanted to make my own FPGA tools, dating back to when I wanted to do FPGA research in academia.  However, it was (and still is) a somewhat unsatisfying research area because there's only so much you can do without having bitstream formats available.  It would be like trying to write compilers when no CPU manufacturer published their machine language.

     

    I see the primary opportunity for Flavia as education, since it gives someone who wants to play with FPGAs the ability to implement small designs without the steep learning curve of vendor tools, and the frustration of waiting for those tools to run after each change.  It's pretty amazing to watch a small design compile and download in less than a second on a decent PC, instead of waiting a minute for the Xilinx tools.  And Xilinx tools only run on x86 machines, so you can't do stand-alone development on a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone like you can with Flavia.

     

    For a brief summary of my FPGA philosophy and the need for open bitstream formats, see the first page of http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-68250/l/taming-the-wild-bitstream.  To read about how an element14 discussion inspired Flavia, see the first section of http://www.element14.com/community/groups/fpga-group/blog/2014/07/21/flavia-the-free-logic-array.

     

    LOGI-Pi and LOGI-Bone are the first Spartan-6 implementations of Flavia.  The first implementation of Flavia was the Papilio One 250K which uses the Spartan-3E.  I chose Papilio One because at US$38 it was (and still is) the cheapest FPGA development board that's suitable for Flavia.  However, Spartan-3 (and -3E and -3A) are no longer the "sweet spot" in Xilinx technology.  Spartan-6 is now more cost effective at the chip level, though the boards are still more expensive.  I actually prefer Spartan-3.  It's a very clean, simple architecture.  Spartan-6 is far more complex.  I'm sure glad I did the Spartan-3 Flavia first, because it would have been a nightmare to do Spartan-6 without the Spartan-3 experience first image  You really want to master 9x9 Sudoku before attempting 16x16.

  • Nice update John.

     

    Do you have an end project that you intend to implement with the board or are you just looking at options to make it useful?

     

    DAB