Introduction to the Sitara Linux SDK

In this session we will review the various components of the Sitara Linux
Software Development Kit (SDK) including the out-of-box application
launcher, example applications, SDK installer, setup scripts, Code Composer
Studio and other host tools including PinMux Utility and Flash Tool.
July 2012
2
Agenda
Sitara SDK Roadmap
What is a Software Development Kit (SDK)?
Sitara Linux SDK Objectives
Sitara Linux SDK Overview
SDK Development Process
Current SDK Features
Downloading the SDK
Documentation
SDK Target Components
Installing the SDK
SDK Target Development Tools
SDK Host Tools
Driving Mainline
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What is an SDK?
Definitions and solutions vary, but we think an SDK should be.
More than just a board support package (BSP) or a Demo
An SDK should also contain tools for developing on TI parts
Pre-built libraries that customer applications can link against without
requiring building their own
Documentation
Provide a known good starting point for product development
Start with the SDK reference distributions
Add and remove packages as needed
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Sitara Linux SDK objectives
The purpose of the Texas Instruments Sitara Linux SDK is to provide
customers with a unique out-of-box experience and a quick path to their
application development.
The Sitara Linux SDK accomplishes this by providing
Example applications for key, high touch IP and peripherals
Tools for cross development and environment configuration
Host tools for device configuration
Documentation of SDK components
Out-of-box in < 10 minutes and Development in < 1 hour
A unified look and feel scaling across all Sitara devices from ARM9 to
Cortex-A8 and beyond
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Sitara Linux SDK overview
Board Support Package (BSP)
Linux Kernel, Bootloaders & File System

Documentation
Quick Start Guide & SW Developers Guide

Matrix Application Launcher
GUI based on PHP and HTML5
Touchscreen, Mouse & Keyboard, Web Browser

Example Applications
ARM Benchmarks, Power, Multimedia, Camera,
Cryptography, WLAN/Bluetooth, Profiling, 3D Graphics

SDK Installer
Easy installation of all target and host software
components and documentation

CCSv5
Linux aware debug
Preconfigured projects for example applications

Host Tools
Flash Tool, PinMux Utility
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Sitara Linux SDK overview - Continued
Matrix Application Launcher
Qt Embedded
QWidget QGLWidget
OpenGL ES
ARM
Benchmarks
Power
Manager
Web Browser
System
Information
System on Chip
Target Board
FBDEV
DSS2
McSPI
Touch
screen
Ethernet
V4L2
ALSA
VISA
UART
I2C USB McBSP MMC/SD
3D Graphics
Gstreamer/FFMPEG
MPEG4, H.264, MPEG2, AAC,
Wifi BlueZ
USB Profiler WLAN GUI
SDK agile development process
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RC
Beta2
Beta1
Alpha
SDK
Release
Cycles
with
Prioritized
Requirements
Cycle Requirements
Beta1
Nightly
Build & Test

2 weeks
Daily
Release Review Meeting
Demo release to BU
Retrospective on the
Release Cycle
SDK Release
Increments
Daily Meeting
Items completed yesterday?
Plans for today?
Issues?
Release Planning Meeting
Review Release Cycle Backlog
Estimate Release Cycle Backlog
Commit to 1-2 weeks
Beta2
Alpha
RC
Nightly Build & Test
Daily build using OE
Daily tests on dedicated systems
using testlink
Alpha
(Proto1)


Cycle Start
Review MRD

Complete SDK
Reqs

Increment
SDK version

Kickoff Nightly
Builds



Cycle End
Build review

Base SDK
Requirements
Fulfilled




Beta1
(Proto2)


Cycle Start
Review Alpha
results

Add new
features and
component
updates






Cycle End
Build review

Beta1 Cycle
Requirements
Fulfilled




Beta2
(Proto3)


Cycle Start
Review Beta1
results

Add new
features and
component
updates

Final recipes
submitted by
start of 2
nd
wk

Cycle End
Build review

Beta2 Cycle
Reqs Fulfilled

Sign off from
Comp Owners

Legal, OSRB
& GTC
approvals

Release
Candidate
(RC)

Cycle Start
Review Beta 2
results

No new
features

Bug fixes and
patches only

Stop Nightly
Build

Create
Integration
branch

Cycle End
Build review
RC Cycle
Reqs Fulfilled

Sign off from
BU









Re-
Integration


Integration
patches
pushed to
Arago mainline

Occurs after
the SDK
release.







Cycle End
Push
integration
patches back
to Arago
mainline
Time = 0



PSP recipe
received

EVMs in hand
T0 T0 + 2wks
2wks
T0 + 4wks
Alpha + 2wks
T0 + 6wks
Beta1 + 2wks
T0 + 8wks
RC + 1wk
T0 + 9wks
SysTest + 1wk
System
Test


Cycle Start
Push RC to
System Test
for validation

Resolve
Critical issues
only

Remove/hide
components if
necessary

Release Note
other issues


Cycle End
Release RC to
ti.com & board
vendors





T0 + 7wks
Beta2 + 1wk
SDK release cycles
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Nightly automation overview
10
Next Branches Master Branches
Open Source Mainlines
Arago and OpenEmbedded
Target Tests
Publish
Build and
Test
Results
to Arago
Site
Build Next Branches
Arago Nightly Build
sdit-build01
OpenTest
Target Tests Host Tests
R
e
l
e
a
s
e

Host
Content
Build
Target
Content
Build
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
z
e

SDK Nightly Build
sdit-build01 neo
OpenTest
SDK automation flow - Nightly
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Front End Build Server
Arago baseline distro
Back End Build Server
SDK Installers
OpenTest
Target Tests Host Tests


Release

Web Server
Push

SD Card
contents

Webgen
contents
Kernel & FS
Components

Board
Vendor
SD Card
Contents

TI.com
software-dl &
contents
CCSv5 &
other Proprietary SW
Obtaining the SDK
The Sitara SDK is provided on an SD card in the box with the EVM
NOTE: Some boards like the BeagleBoard and BeagleBone may come
without the SDK SD card in the box
Often you will want to download the latest SDK from ti.com to get
updates.
There is now a central location for finding all Sitara Linux SDKs at
http://www.ti.com/tool/linuxezsdk-sitara

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Obtaining the SDK - Continued
Each SDK page contains not only the single SDK installer, but also has
many individual SDK components pulled out for smaller and quicker
downloads

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Single Installer
Individual
Components
Documentation - Quick Start Guide
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Documentation - Software developers
guide
This guide is a wiki based document hosted externally at
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Sitara_Linux_Software_Develop
er%E2%80%99s_Guide
Wiki based for instant updates & access
Step by Step details
How to start development using this SDK
Links to additional documentation such as
Component Users Guides
PSP release notes
Host system configuration instructions
Also provided online and within the SDK as a pdf document
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Sitara Linux training
There is considerable Linux training material available to our customers as
well when using the Sitara Linux SDK.

Within the Software Developers Guide there is a Sitara Linux Training link
that provides both the lecture and lab content

All content is licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike (CC BY-SA
v3.0)

Example training sessions include:
Hands On with Sitara Linux SDK (lecture/lab)
Linux Qt GUI Development (lecture/labs)
Optimizing Linux Boot Time
U-Boot & Linux Kernel Board Port (lecture/labs)
And many more


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SDK target components - Matrix
Supports: All Platforms
Matrix is the out-of-box experience
application contained within the SDK and is
launched automatically when the
development board is booted

Matrix is a PHP application running on an
instance of the lighttpd web server on the
target device and serving up HTML5
content

The display is a simple Qt application using
webkit to render the HTML being generated

Because Matrix is a web application it can
also be controlled from remote by
connecting to the target board with a
modern web browser
This provides interaction with the running
Linux system even on boards without video
display capabilities
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Matrix - Continued
Matrix can be used to launch applications on the target system

The content displayed within the Matrix screen is dynamically created
by parsing .desktop files contained within the file system.

Applications bring their own description data making adding additional
functionality and demos as easy as installing the application

Where possible the .desktop fields are based on the standard specified
by freedesktop.
The rest of the .desktop fields as well as additional information on Matrix
can be found at http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Matrix_Users_Guide
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SDK target components - Power
Supports: AM37x, Beagleboard-xM
Located in the Power submenu of matrix
The power submenu has applications that show:
How to transition between different CPU frequencies
Suspend and resume of the device
The options available can vary based on the capabilities of the device
Users Guide available at
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Power_Management_Users_Gui
de
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SDK target components - MultiMedia
Supports: AM335x, AM35x, AM37x, Beagleboard-xM
Located in the Multimedia submenu
Based on Gstreamer media framework
Allows building dynamic pipelines that describe the data input, transformation operations,
and output.
Pipelines are flexible and behaviour can be changed based on adjusting the elements in
the pipeline
All media components are open source and provided without licensing restrictions
For Sitara devices with a Neon coprocessor (Cortex devices)
The ffmpeg Neon codecs are used to accelerate video decode operations
Users Guide available at
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/ARM_Multimedia_Users_Guide
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SDK Target Components - Camera
Supports: AM37x
Launched with the Camera Loopback button
For devices with a camera input this application demonstrates how to
take data from the media controller interface and output to the display.
Users Guide available at
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Camera_Users_Guide
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SDK Target Components - Cryptography
Supports: All Platforms
Located in the Cryptos submenu
Uses the OpenSSL open source package to demonstrate a variety of cryptographic
operations and performance metrics.
On devices with cryptography accelerators the cryptodev API is available to allow
OpenSSL to take advantage of hardware acceleration.
This operation is seamless to the user and will occur automatically if the hardware is available
Cryptographic software has TSU exemption filed and the software is hosted at
http://software-dl.ti.com/dsps/dsps_public_sw/am_bu/crypto/latest/index_FDS.html
Users Guide available at
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Cryptography_Users_Guide
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SDK Target Components - WLAN/BT
Supports: AM335x, AM37x, AM180x
WLAN located in the Wi-Fi submenu
The applications demonstrate configuring the device in:
SoftAP mode - the device acts as an access point
WPA - connect to an existing network
WiFi Direct - enables peer-to-peer connections between a group of up to 8 devices
Uses the wpa-supplicant open source software stack
Wpa-supplicant software has TSU exemption filed and the software is hosted at http://software-
dl.ti.com/dsps/dsps_public_sw/am_bu/crypto/latest/index_FDS.html






BT application is launched using the Bluetooth button
This application shows using the device to:
Connect a bluetooth HID device such as a bluetooth keyboard
Connect a bluetooth audio device to stream audio data
Qt based GUI for configuring bluetooth and scanning for devices
Uses the bluez open source software stack
Information about additional command line demos can be found at
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Open_Source_Wireless_Connectivity_WLAN_and
_Bluetooth_demos
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SDK Target Components - 3D
Supports: AM335x, Beaglebone, AM35x, AM37x, Beagleboard-xM
Located in the 3D submenu
The applications demonstrate the use of the SGX graphics accelerator
on devices with an SGX for 3D operations
The driver and application sources as well as the SGX libraries are
provided in the Sitara SDK as part of the graphics SDK which is
packaged within it.
This SDK is produced by the graphics team from the Graphics DDK from
Imagination
Supports
OpenGL ES 1.1
OpenGL ES 2.0
OpenVG
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SDK Target Components - ARM
Benchmarks
Supports: All Platforms
Located in the ARM submenu
The following benchmars are provided
Dhrystone - Measures relative CPU cycles for comparison with other processors
run from L1 cache
Linpack - Measures CPU speed for single-precission floating point operations
Whetstone - Measures CPU speed for double-precission floating point
operations
Lmbench benchmarks
Communication bandwidth - measure bandwidth between processes
Communication latency - measure latency for various control messages
DDR bandwidth - measure memory bandwidth
Memory latency - measure memory latency
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SDK Target Components - Profiling
Supports: All Platforms
Located in the Profiling submenu
The applications in this demonstrate how to use the open source
Oprofile application to:
Generate different reports from assembly level to long detailed reports
Allows profiling two different applications to demonstrate how Oprofile can
be used
An application where one thread waits on another in a busy wait loop. This shows
the CPU utilization of the busy wait
An application where one thread waits on another and is notified using a signal.
This shows the low CPU utilization that signals can provide.
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Installing the SDK
The Sitara Linux SDK is delivered as a single installer
NOTE: The Sitara Linux SDK will also provide the option to install
CCSv5 if the CCSv5 installer in found in the local directory. When
installing from the SD card the CCSv5 installer is already placed in
the local directory

The Sitara Linux SDK installation has been streamlined to
make installation quick and easy. The customer only needs
to select:
The installation location
Whether or not to install CCSv5 if present

The installer also notifies the user of important information
such as
The default recommended environment
Notice of GPLv3 content within the SDK and information on how to
remove it
The location of the setup scripts within the SDK for additional
configuration

The installer has been designed such that root permission is
not required to install and evaluate the SDK.
27
SDK Target Development Tools
These are the tools provided on the host to enable developing for the
Sitara device.
These tools are components of the SDK that are installed on the host
that are:
Run on the target
Build code to run on the target
Directly configure the target
They include
Cross Compiler
Cross Libraries
Board Support Packages
Top-level Makefiles
Setup Scripts
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SDK Target Development Tools - Cross
Compiler
The Sitara SDK contains its own GCC 4.5.3 based
ARM cross-compiler
This eliminates the need for a separate toolchain
download and removes the need for the customer to
provide a toolchain location

This toolchain is optimized for the processor family the
SDK is targetting:
Previous CodeSourcery toolchains were made
generic to ARM so that they could support both
ARM9 and Cortex-A8 devices.
This meant that libraries that could take advantage of
the Neon coprocessor such as libm were not utilizing
the Cortex-A8 to its full potential
The toolchain included with the SDK for Cortex-A8
devices has been optimized for Cortex devices and
uses the Neon coprocessor

The cross compiler is located in the linux-devkit/bin
directory of the SDK

This cross compiler is also paired with a gdbserver
installed on the reference file system to allow for
source code debugging
29
SDK Target Development Tools - Cross
Libraries
The Sitara SDK ships with many open source libraries
already cross compiled and ready for linking

The libraries are located in the linux-devkit directory of the
SDK

There is a script in the linux-devkit directory of the SDK
called environment-setup. Sourcing this script will
configure your development environment for cross compiling
by performing actions such as:
Setting standard compile variables such as CC for the cross
compiler
Adding the cross compiler to the PATH
Setting the PKG_CONFIG and other autotools settings to the
cross libraries
Configuring the Qt variables

Sourcing the environment setup file will prepare the host
system for target development

Users can identify if the environment-setup script has been
sources because their prompt will change to say linux-
devkit
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SDK Target Development Tools - Board
Support Package
At the top-level of the SDK there is a directory called
board-support. This directory contains the
components required to port to your custom hardware.

This includes:
The Linux kernel sources
The bootloader sources
In most cases the u-boot SPL is used in place of x-loader,
which has been deprecated.
Driver source for out-of-tree drivers

The contents of this directory are usually pieces of the
SDK that will require
modification/configuration/rebuilding when porting to a
new hardware platform

You will also find pre-built kernel and bootloader
images in a prebuilt-images directory that can be
used to boot the TI EVM
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SDK Target Development Tools - Top-level
Makefile
At the top-level of the SDK there is a
Makefile and a Rules.make file. These
files can be used to build the SDK
components as well as to import useful
settings.

Rules.make - Provides settings used by
component Makefiles for building the
components. These include setting for
the cross compiler and machine being
built.

Makefile - This Makefile contains
targets to build, install, and clean most
of the components of the SDK such as
the board-support packages and the
example applications
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SDK Target Development Tools - Setup
Scripts
At the top-level of the Sitara SDK there is a script
called setup.sh. This script should be run with root
permission and will assist in configuring the
development host and EVM.

The general flow is to
Install required host side packages such as tftp server
and nfs server
Prompt the user for how they would like to configure the
EVM
TFTP kernel + NFS file system
SD kernel + NFS file system
TFTP kernel + SD file system
SD kernel + SD file system
Setup the TFTP and NFS images if selected
Send the configuration to the EVM
33
SDK Host Tools
These tools are intended to run on the host and assist with the
configuration of Sitara devices
These tools differ from the SDK Target Development tools in that they
are not performing cross-compilation or contain code meant to run
directly on the target
Most of these tools can be found in the host-tools directory of the SDK
34
SDK Host Tools - Pinmux
This tool allows users to select the
peripherals and interfaces they intend
to use and identifies pin conflicts if
any
Each platform has a default
configuration file to serve as a
starting point
The output of the tool is a sample
header file that can be used as a
reference to configure the u-boot
bootloader for the users
configuration
The users guide can be found at
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.ph
p/Pin_Mux_Utility_for_ARM_MPU_Pr
ocessors
35
SDK Host Tools - Flash Tool
This tool was created to assist
customers with flashing a board
that has no existing bootloaders
flashed.
This could be because the
bootloaders were erased, or in
production where clean memory
devices are installed which do not
have any software loaded yet.
The flash tool has the following
features:
Open source & scalable
Supports additional NAND types
through configuration files
Support ECC & ONFI
Supports UART & USB protocols
Developed in Qt
36
CCSv5
The Sitara SDK also comes with CCSv5 available as:
Download for web updates
On the 3
rd
partition of the in-the-box SD card
CCSv5 provides the following features
Eclipse based
Runs on Linux for debugging Linux
Multi-core debug
Run-Mode Linux debug support
Remote GDB debug
Debug Linux applications and kernel
Stop-Mode Linux support
Control target using JTAG
Enables examination of target and current Linux process
Requires installation of emulator package
In addition to the standard CCSv5 package the Sitara SDK also adds the
following plugins
Remote System Explorer
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Driving Mainline
What is it?
The ability to provide our customers a stable release from the community with an incremental patch set

Scope
Mainline applies to all 3 primary components of our Linux solution
Uboot denx.de
Linux kernel kernel.org
Filesystem OpenEmbedded/Yocto

Each has its own *mainline* consisting of well documented development flows, release schedules, git trees &
maintainers

Benefits
Insanely easy, just works Linux solutions
Easy board port to customers platforms
Continued support of Existing Devices
New Device development is incremental
Bandwidth to focus on more middleware/applications
Potential to enable Reference Designs
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THANK YOU!
For more Sitara Boot Camp sessions visit:
www.ti.com/sitarabootcamp
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