Automated Gateware DiscoveryUsing

Open FirmwareA presentation on my part time MSc research that aims to

lay foundation forautomating gateware detection.

Shanly RajanEmbedded Systems Engineer, SKA SA

Masters Student, UCTSKA SA Post-graduate Bursary Conference

1st DECEMBER 2010

Modular Hardware

ROACH RHINOFPGA

(Reconfigurable Open Architecture Computing Hardware)

(Reconfigurable Hardware Interface for computiNg andradiO)

What is an FPGA? FPGAs are programmable logic elements – bread-boards on a chip that can have their circuits reconfigured to perform specific tasks very efficiently

FPGAs can be reconfigured many times with different function

FPGA needs to be programmed with hardware logic to make it meaningful

Modular Gateware

Each gateware design implementation/instrument requires software support Changing personalities on FPGA require software to be written each time Investigation on a mechanism that facilitates the process of gateware detection

G A T E W A R E

Recent OS for FPGAs

2002

2004

2006

2008 2009

1994

BORPH OSGATOSFOCA

Virtual Hardware Operating System for Xilinx XC6002

VPOSReconOSFDT for FreeBSDFDT for ROACH

Unified HW/SW OS for PRFPGA systems

OS for ReconfigurableEmbedded Platforms

Research Issues in OS for reconfigurable computing

OF

Open Firmware Open Firmware : Hardware Independent Boot Code

Boot Time Drivers for testing machine hardware Building Device Trees which OS later uses

Device Tree : Data Structure that holds information about the set of devices attached to the system, including permanently installed devices and plug-in devices, as described by an Open Firmware.

A FDT:

• Data structure for describing hardware

• Passed to kernel at boot-time

• Alternative to hard-coded platform details

Implementation Choices

ROACHOpen Firmware Power PC

Bootloader: Uboot Denx Linux Kernel

(Supported bootloader and kernels)

Hardware CPUTechnology

Research Design

PluggablePeripherals

GatewareImages

Device Tree

Add Me?

U-boot Open Firmware

Can be treated

LinuxKernel

Device Database Extension

Device Drivers

Device Drivers

Can be represented

Traditional Method

OF Device Tree Model

root

platform

uart

bridge

spi

i2c bus

temp

pci bus

ethernet

platform_bus_type

i2c_bus_type

pci_bus_type

Drivers registeredagainst bus types

Tree with nodes & propertiesNodes give structureProperties add detail

Open Firmware Implementation

Data Capture

EthernetSerialroot{ ……………….. Ethernet Serial Data Capture ........……….. ……………… ………………}

Uboot OF Bootloader Linux OFGateware Implementations

OF Client Interface Calls

Bit stream + Meta-information file dts dtb

DEVICE DRIVER

DEVICE TREE EXTENSION

Serial UART driverEthernet driver

Sound driver

Serial UART example

FPGA

Uartlite Serial bit

FPGAV5 : serial@d0010000{ device_type = "serial"; compatible = "xlnx,opb-uartlite-1.00.b"; reg = <0xd0010000 10000>; current-speed = <115200>; clock-frequency = <66666666>; xlnx,data-bits = <8>; xlnx,odd-parity = <0>; xlnx,use-parity = <0>; };

Uartlite Driver

DESCRIPTION INVOKES MATCH

OPERATES

DEVICE DRIVER

SERIAL DEVICE

EXTENDING DEVICE TREES

Treating katADC as a soundcard• Current Status

Aiming to record and playback ADC data captured into BRAMS with a modified sound device driver and utilize sound analysis tools for visualization and playback.

• Future Work

– A mkfdt utility that converts FPGA

bit stream and meta information into

the required flattened device tree format.

– Hot Pluggability

– Adding device drivers specific to radio astronomy.

Conclusion Open Firmware U-boot Open Firmware OF design and implementation for ROACH Once fully implemented can be integrated in

meerKAT digital backend software which leads to an improved performance system.

ALTERNATIVE APPROACH CONSIDERED(EXTENDING DEVICE TREES)

Questions

•q

email : shanly.rajan@ska.ac.za