Message-ID: <561C979B.6040201@topic.nl>
Date:	Tue, 13 Oct 2015 07:33:15 +0200
From:	Mike Looijmans <mike.looijmans@...ic.nl>
To:	Michal Simek <michal.simek@...inx.com>,
	Moritz Fischer <moritz.fischer@...us.com>,
	Josh Cartwright <joshc@...com>
CC:	<mark.rutland@....com>, <devicetree@...r.kernel.org>,
	Russell King <linux@....linux.org.uk>,
	"pawel.moll@....com" <pawel.moll@....com>,
	<ijc+devicetree@...lion.org.uk>,
	Alan Tull <atull@...nsource.altera.com>,
	Greg KH <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
	<linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, <robh+dt@...nel.org>,
	linux-arm-kernel <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>,
	Kumar Gala <galak@...eaurora.org>,
	"dinguyen@...nsource.altera.com" <dinguyen@...nsource.altera.com>,
	Sören Brinkmann <soren.brinkmann@...inx.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 3/3] fpga manager: Adding FPGA Manager support for Xilinx
 Zynq 7000

On 12-10-15 14:38, Michal Simek wrote:
> Hi Mike,
>
> On 10/12/2015 02:22 PM, Mike Looijmans wrote:
>> On 12-10-15 13:16, Michal Simek wrote:
>>>
>>>>>> +static int zynq_fpga_ops_write(struct fpga_manager *mgr,
>>>>>> +                            const char *buf, size_t count)
>>>>>> +{
>>>>>> +     struct zynq_fpga_priv *priv;
>>>>>> +     int err;
>>>>>> +     char *kbuf;
>>>>>> +     size_t i, in_count;
>>>>>> +     dma_addr_t dma_addr;
>>>>>> +     u32 transfer_length = 0;
>>>>>> +     bool endian_swap = false;
>>>>>> +
>>>>>> +     in_count = count;
>>>>>> +     priv = mgr->priv;
>>>>>> +
>>>>>> +     kbuf = dma_alloc_coherent(priv->dev, count, &dma_addr,
>>>>>> GFP_KERNEL);
>>>>>> +     if (!kbuf)
>>>>>> +             return -ENOMEM;
>>>>>> +
>>>>>> +     memcpy(kbuf, buf, count);
>>>>>> +
>>>>>> +     /* look for the sync word */
>>>>>> +     for (i = 0; i < count - 4; i++) {
>>>>>> +             if (memcmp(kbuf + i, "\x66\x55\x99\xAA", 4) == 0) {
>>>>>> +                     dev_dbg(priv->dev, "Found normal sync word\n");
>>>>>> +                     endian_swap = false;
>>>>>> +                     break;
>>>>>> +             }
>>>
>>> This is bin format
>>>
>>>>>> +             if (memcmp(kbuf + i, "\xAA\x99\x55\x66", 4) == 0) {
>>>>>> +                     dev_dbg(priv->dev, "Found swapped sync word\n");
>>>>>> +                     endian_swap = true;
>>>>>> +                     break;
>>>>>> +             }
>>>
>>> This is bit format from header
>>>
>>>>>> +     }
>>>>>
>>>>> How much control do we have over mandating the format of firmware at
>>>>> this point?  It'd be swell if we could just mandate a specific
>>>>> endianness, and leave this munging to usermode.
>>>>
>>>> That's a good question. Personally I do only care about one of both,
>>>> but that's just because I get to decide for my targets...
>>>> Opinions from the Xilinx guys?
>>>
>>> Don't know full history about this but in past bitstream in BIT format
>>> was used. Which is header (partially decoding in u-boot for example)
>>> with data.
>>> On zynq native format is BIN which is format without header and data is
>>> swapped.
>>> This code just detects which format is used. If BIT, header is skipped
>>> and data is swapped to BIN format.
>>>
>>> Back to origin question if this is something what can be handled from
>>> user space. And answer is - yes it can be handled there.
>>> But based on my experience it is very useful to be able to handle BIT
>>> because it is built by tools by default.
>>> Also with BIN format you are loosing record what this data bitstream
>>> targets. Header in BIT gives you at least some ideas.
>>
>> People should stop using "cat" to program the FPGA and use a userspace
>> tool instead. I've already released such tools under GPL, so anyone can
>> pick up on it and extend it as required.
>
> Link?

https://github.com/topic-embedded-products/dyplo-utils/blob/master/dyploprogrammer.cpp
https://github.com/topic-embedded-products/libdyplo/blob/master/hardware.cpp#L261

Will need some work to combine into a single tool though.

> This is fpga manager based driver where "cat" won't be used.

Haven't looked into it yet, but I guess at some point one will have to stream 
some data from userspace into the device, right?

>> The header for the "bit" format is completely ignored (you can't even
>> use it to determine if the bitstream is compatible with the current
>> device) so there's no point in carrying it around.
>
> up2you what you want to do with it. If you work with different boards
> with different FPGAs it is at least helpful to know if X.bit target this
> or that board. Unfortunately I am not aware about any public document
> which describe what there is written.
>
>> On the zynq, doing
>> the "swap" in userspace was measurably faster than having the driver
>> handle it, and that was even without using NEON instructions for byte
>> swapping.
>>
>> I admit that being able to do "cat static.bit > /dev/xdevcfg" has had
>> its uses. But it's not something that belongs in mainline Linux.
>
> It is about comfort but I have really not a problem that driver will
> handle just BIN format.
>
>> Probably one of the key reasons that the "bit" format is still popular
>> is that getting the Vivado tools to create a proper "bin" that will
>> actually work on the Zynq is about as easy as nailing jelly to a tree.
>> We've been using a simple Python script to do the bit->bin conversion
>> for that reason.
>
> In vivado it is one tcl cmd. But truth is that I don't really get why
> BIN is not generated by default.

If I recall correctly, Vivado strips the "bit" header but doesn't swap the 
bytes, so the resulting bin file won't work.


>> Using the "bin" format in the driver keeps it simple and singular.
>> Userspace tools can add whatever wrappers and headers they feel
>> appropriate to it, these checks don't belong in the driver since they
>> will be application specific. For example, some users would want to
>> verify that a partial bitstream actually matches the static part that's
>> currently in the FPGA.
>
> agree.
>
> Thanks,
> Michal
>
>



Kind regards,

Mike Looijmans
System Expert

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