DHCP changing the IP address suddenly on embedded systems

The problem It first seemed extremely odd: The IP address of my embedded Linux machine changed suddenly after a few hours, breaking the ssh connection I had up, and messing up the NFS mount. The problem turned out to be the lack of a hardware clock (RTC) on the board + clock being updated with [...]

Zynq-7000 EPP: Does it connect with AXI3 or AXI4?

The short answer The P7 ARM processor’s buses run AXI3 It’s not as important as it seems at first The supposed conflict Xilinx have been transferring most of its CoreGen IP cores from all kinds of interfaces to AXI4 over the last few years. With the transaction of Microblaze-related IP cores together with the anticipation [...]

Interrupt definitions in DTS (device tree) files for Xilinx Zynq-7000 / ARM

Having some trouble to figure out what I should write in my own hand-written DTS entry for my logic, I ended up reading the sources of the Linux kernel (version 3.3, which is the currently used for Zynq). The purpose is to hook up a device defined in the PL of a Zynq-7000 (FPGA-style logic [...]

Automatic generation of DTS file for Zedboard/ZC702 (Zynq-7000)

Background Creating a DTS file is a crucial step in integrating a custom peripheral with the Linux kernel. Unfortunately, this subject is rather hazy at the present time, and it’s in particular difficult to obtain that initial DTS to boot the system up with for the first time. It’s important to take the DTS (and [...]

Examples of SDMA-assembler for Freescale i.MX51

These are a couple of examples of SDMA assembly code, which performs data copy using the DMA functional unit. The first one shows how to copy data from application memory space to SDMA memory. The second example copies data from one application memory chunk to another, and hence works as an offload memcpy(). To actually [...]

ARM running Linux talking easily with a Xilinx FPGA

Unless your embedded application happens to be a router, there’s some application-dependent electronics you need to talk with. If some SoC device covers your needs, that’s always nice, but what about that specific piece of electronics? And what if your application includes a part that needs to be run on an FPGA? Making a processor [...]

Freescale i.MX SDMA tutorial (part IV)

This is part IV of a brief tutorial about the i.MX51′s SDMA core. The SDMA for other i.MX devices, e.g. i.MX25, i.MX53 and i.MX6 is exactly the same, with changes in the registers’ addresses and different chapters in the Reference Manual. This is by no means a replacement for reading the Reference Manual, but rather [...]

Freescale i.MX51 SDMA tutorial (part III)

This is part III of a brief tutorial about the i.MX51′s SDMA core. The SDMA for other i.MX devices, e.g. i.MX25, i.MX53 and i.MX6 is exactly the same, with changes in the registers’ addresses and different chapters in the Reference Manual. This is by no means a replacement for reading the Reference Manual, but rather [...]

Freescale i.MX51 SDMA tutorial (part II)

This is part II of a brief tutorial about the i.MX51′s SDMA core. The SDMA for other i.MX devices, e.g. i.MX25, i.MX53 and i.MX6 is exactly the same, with changes in the registers’ addresses and different chapters in the Reference Manual. This is by no means a replacement for reading the Reference Manual, but rather [...]

Freescale i.MX SDMA tutorial (part I)

This is part I of a brief tutorial about the i.MX51′s SDMA core. The SDMA for other i.MX devices, e.g. i.MX25, i.MX53 and i.MX6 is exactly the same, with changes in the registers’ addresses and different chapters in the Reference Manual. Freescale’s Linux drivers for DMA also vary significantly across different kernel releases. It looks [...]