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Is an ICE (1000 or 2000) absolutely necessary to boot Linux onto the EV-21569-SOM?

Category: Hardware
Product Number: EV-21569-SOM
Software Version: N/A

Hi!

Having spent ~ 8 years or so using JTAG for communication and debugging with both the TMS6711 and StarCore DSP's, I am well aware of the functionality offered by the JTAG connection to a processor.

For this application I have in mind, I doubt I'd need JTAG for debugging, and would like to know if there is any other way to bootstrap Linux onto the EV-21569-SOM w/o the use of the JTAG port and one of the ICE's (ICE-1000 or -2000). 

Is there no basic serial port communications / code download / flash writing code pre-written to a flash ram on the EV-21569-SOM, with the capability to boot to that "monitor" code and bootstrap the loading of other code (like Linux)?

If there is not such a capability, I'd offer the suggestion to possibly include it in a later version, allowing a lower cost evaluation hardware configuration, especially if the advanced debugging capabilities offered by JTAG are not likely to be necessary.

In summary, will I need to buy an ICE-1000 along with the EV-21569-SOM in order to get Linux running on this board?

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Marty Glassman, BSEE, MSEE

Independent machine learning algorithm developer

Zeta-Wave

  • Hi Marty,

    First up, the EV-21569 will not be able to run Linux. Linux is only supported on the connected parts (such as EV-SC598) as those have an ARM core capable of running Linux. Connected parts with a prefix of SC have an ARM core, DSP parts with the 215 prefix only have the SHARC DSP cores, no ARM.

    In terms of getting the code onto the board without the JTAG, it should be possible. Most of the processors come with a UART boot mode which You could potentially load the initial U-Boot image and run it. Once it's running you can switch over the UART to minicom and interract with the U-Boot console.

    Regards,

    Dave

  • Thanks, Dave!

    I usually port algorithms I develop in Matlab to run on bare metal (most recently, the TMS6711, if I can mention that part here, ha!). The idea of actually running linux on a DSP target was intriguing, though. What I actually want is to be able to develop Python code in Linux (as I typically do now), and then run it on a Sharc processor. 

    I totally missed this in the specs and description of the processor itself. What threw me off, in part, was this on the EV-21569 was:

    Linux kernel and development tools for the ADSP-SC5xx processor family

    So they reference Linux for the SC5xx processors, on the page for a board that uses a processor without the Arm core. 

    In any case, your reply was so helpful -- thanks again!!

    Best,

    Marty