U-Boot for Nios-32 Last Update: October 4, 2003 ==================================================================== This file contains information regarding U-Boot and the Altera Nios CPU. For information regarding U-Boot and the Nios Development Kit, Cyclone Edition (DK-1C20), see doc/README.dk1c20. For those interested in contributing ... see HELP WANTED below. 1. OVERVIEW ------------ U-Boot has been successfully tested on the Nios Cyclone development board using both the 'safe' and 'standard 32' configurations with Nios CPU revision 3.08 (CPU_ID = 0x3008). U-Boot can be used with or without the GERMS monitor. The initial version of U-Boot for the Cyclone development kit is about 60 Kbyte and will fit in a single sector of on-board FLASH. Only the Nios 32-bit CPU is supported. 1.1 GERMS Monitor ------------------ If GERMS is just not enough, then U-Boot is a great antibiotic. You will be very pleased with its high degree of configurability and its rich feature set. A few of the most obvious limitations of GERMS are overcome by using U-Boot (See 'Brain Damage'). Most notably, you can use minicom or Hyperterminal (duh). 1.2 Altera Source Code ----------------------- The Nios port does NOT include ANY sources that Altera has the copyright. This was a conscious decision ... not an accident. The Altera license is not clear in terms of distributing Altera sources (when altera silicon is not involved). This isn't really a problem as little, if any, of the Altera source contains features that are not already available in U-Boot. The Nios port also does not use the long-winded peripheral structure definitions from the Nios SDK. 2. CONFIGURATION OPTIONS/SETTINGS ---------------------------------- 2.1 Nios-specific Options/Settings ----------------------------------- All configuration options/settings that are specific to Nios begin with "CONFIG_NIOS_" or "CFG_NIOS_". The following is a list of currently defined Nios-specific options/parameters. If any options are related to Standard-32 Nios SDK excalibur.h definitions, the related definition follows the description). CONFIG_NIOS -- defined for all Nios-32 boards. CFG_NIOS_CONSOLE -- the base address of the console UART. (standard-32: na_uart1_base). CFG_NIOS_FIXEDBAUD -- defined if the console UART PTF fixed_baud parameter is set to '1'. CFG_NIOS_MULT_HW -- use full hardware multiply (not yet implemented). CFG_NIOS_MULT_MSTEP -- use hardware assisted multiply using the MSTEP instruction (not yet implemented). CFG_NIOS_TMRBASE -- the base address of the timer used to support xxx_timer routines (e.g. set_timer(), get_timer(), etc.). (standard-32: na_lo_priority_timer2_base). CFG_NIOS_TMRIRQ -- the interrupt request (vector number) assigned to the timer. (standard-32: na_low_priority_timer2_irq). CFG_NIOS_TMRMS -- the period of the timer in milliseconds. 2.2 Differences in U-Boot Options/Settings ------------------------------------------- Some 'standard' U-Boot options/settings are treated differently in the Nios port. These are described below. CFG_GBL_DATA_OFFSET -- in the Nios port, this is the offset of the global data structure in the Nios memory space. More simply, the address of global data. 3. ASSEMBLY CODING ------------------- In browsing the assembly source files, you may notice the absence of the 'magic macros' (e.g. MOVIA, MOVIP, ADDIP etc.). This is deliberate. The documentation for the magic macros is scant and it is hard to find ... it does not appear in the Nios programmer's manual, nor does it appear in the assembler manual. Regardless, the macros actually do very little to improve readability anyway. With this in mind, all assembler modules use only instructions that appear in the Nios programmer's manual OR are directly supported by the nios-elf toolchain. For example, the 'dec %rB' instruction is an alias for 'subi %rB,1' that is supported by the assembler but does not appear in the programmer's manual. 4. BRAIN DAMAGE ---------------- This section describes some of the unfortunate and avoidable aspects of working with the Nios CPU ... and some things you can do to reduce your pain. 4.1 GERMS doesn't work with Hyperterminal ------------------------------------------ GERMS doesn't do CR/LF mapping that is compatible with Hyperterminal (or minicom) -- geez. Regardless of you opion of Hyperterminal, this sad design decision is remedied by using U-Boot. 4.2 cygwin Incompatibility --------------------------- The version of cygwin distributed with the nios GNUPro toolchain is out-of-date and incompatible with the latest cygwin distributions. In addition, many of the standard utilities are very dated as well. If you try to download and build the lastest version of grep for example, you'll quickly realize that a native gcc is not available (the next topic) which leads to U-Boot build problems (following topic). The solution ... well, you can wait for Altera ... or build as set of tools for linux. 4.3 No native gcc ------------------ I'm not sure how this one slipped through the cracks ... but it is a real pain. Basically, if you want to build anything for the native environment -- forget it! A native (cygwin) gcc is not distributed, and the old version of cygwin makes locating one challenging. The solution ... same as above. Just download the gcc source from Altera and build up a set of cross tools for your favorite linux distro. 4.4 Can't build default U-Boot ------------------------------- By default, when you build U-Boot you will be building some native tools along with the target elf, bin, and srec files. Without a native gcc, this (obviously) causes problems. For developers using the Altera cygwin tools you can remove the 'tools' directory from SUBDIRS in the top-level Makefile. You will also have to edit common/Makefile: Replace: environment.o: environment.c ../tools/envcrc $(CC) $(AFLAGS) -Wa,--no-warn \ -DENV_CRC=$(shell ../tools/envcrc) \ -c -o $@ environment.c With: environment.o: environment.c ../tools/envcrc $(CC) $(AFLAGS) -Wa,--no-warn \ -DENV_CRC=0 \ -c -o $@ environment.c BTW, thats a 'zero' ... not the letter 'O'. 5. HELP WANTED --------------- There are plenty of areas where help is needed. Here's are some ideas for those interested in contributing: -SMC 91C111 support. E.g. add in tftpboot, etc. -CompactFlash. Port & test CF/FAT. -ASMI support. Use ASMI for environment, etc. -Bedbug. Develop bedbug for Nios ... or at least provide a disassemble command. -Add boot support for ucLinux (niosnommu). -Implement (don't copy Altera code) the __mulxx routines using the MSTEP and MUL instructions (e.g. CFG_NIOS_MULT_HW and CFG_NIOS_MULT_MSTEP). Regards, --Scott