FreeCalypso > hg > freecalypso-docs
diff Handset-UI-fw @ 0:fcd1cf531017
TCS211-fw-arch masterpiece written
author | Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org> |
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date | Mon, 08 Oct 2018 19:52:50 +0000 |
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children | 2e9719074e79 |
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--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/Handset-UI-fw Mon Oct 08 19:52:50 2018 +0000 @@ -0,0 +1,287 @@ +The present article is a companion to the TCS211 firmware architecture document +(TCS211-fw-arch). Those who are interested in the FreeCalypso phone handset +goal (which is currently a very distant goal) should read the TCS211-fw-arch +document first and then this article, whereas those who are more interested in +the rock solid FreeCalypso modem (as opposed to handset) solution which is +already available today and would like to understand our modem fw better only +need to read the TCS211-fw-arch document and can safely skip this handset UI +addendum. + +TI's offerings for handset UI +============================= + +Unlike their rock solid, full commercial product offering for AT-command- +controlled modems, TI never produced a reference phone handset firmware +implementation that could be used as-is with minimal or no changes: instead +they provided a very rough proof-of-concept implementation which is nowhere +close to usable, and left it up to their customers (handset manufacturers) to +whip it into even a minimally decent shape. Furthermore, they had several +different approaches over the years to what the GSM industry calls by the +sexist term "MMI": + +* They once had something called SMI, for "simple MMI" or "slim MMI". We have + what appears to be the complete source for this SMI component as part of the + MV100-0.1.rar and 94140216gsm.rar finds, but both of those finds are just + broken fragments, not a complete firmware for any target. It might be + possible to integrate this unknown-origin SMI source into Magnetite and get + it to work with the TCS2 version of ACI, but no such feat has been attempted + yet - it would be a mere curiosity, not something for practical use. + +* SMI later gave way to a successor called BMI for "basic MMI", which is much + bigger in terms of code size and complexity and consists of two layers: there + is a layer called MFW (mobile framework) that sits on top of ACI, and then + BMI proper sits on top of MFW. This incarnation of TI's demo/prototype phone + UI is the one which they officially supported in the TCS211 program, and our + copy of TCS211 from OM miraculously has these BMI+MFW sources included, even + though OM obviously didn't use this code and could not even compile it without + doing some surgery on the build system. Our other TCS3.2/LoCosto source also + has BMI and MFW matching that newer version of G23M ACI and PS components, + and we use this new TCS3 version of BMI+MFW in our TCS2/TCS3 hybrid config. + +* It appears that TI once had or were trying to develop some kind of Riviera- + based "MMI" code as an alternative to the Condat-based SMI and BMI. SMI and + BMI+MFW execute in the same "MMI" GPF task as ACI and communicate with it + through direct function calls; in contrast, the alternative Riviera MMI would + run somewhere in Riviera land and communicate with ACI through ATP and some + kind of ACI adapter. We never got any of this code, and it is not clear if + it was ever a reality beyond just the idea. + +In any case, it is clear from the code that TI's SSA group in France who +developed the drivers for various Calypso chipset peripherals including LCDs, +keypads and ringing buzzers on their development boards and the Condat UK group +who did SMI and BMI had very different visions and ideas. Some examples: + +* The Calypso DSP has a built-in mechanism for playing quite pleasant-sounding + ringtone melodies through a loudspeaker driven by the chipset's ABB, and the + SSA group developed their RiViera Audio Service front-end to these L1+DSP + audio services, but Condat's code makes absolutely minimal use of this RV + Audio Service, just enough to be compatible with it, and does not use any of + the melody functions, neither E1 nor E2. + +* In the original TCS211 architecture before LoCosto changes, the driver for + the physical LCD was/is R2D in the Riviera/SSA land. R2D provides a very rich + set of text and graphics drawing primitives, but Condat's display layer does + not use any of them: instead they obtain the raw framebuffer address from R2D + and do all drawing operations themselves. + +* The TCS211 code we got had a jaw-dropping bug in the code path for ringing + the piezoelectric buzzer: due to a miscommunication between the French folks + in charge of the actual buzzer driver in chipsetsw and the German or UK folks + in charge of Condat's audio layer, the buzzer always rang at some 99 Hz (its + lowest possible frequency, horrible on ears) no matter what tone frequency + was intended. Given that our copy of TCS211 dates from 2007 and considering + how old the buzzer function must be, it hurts to think for how many years + that bug sat there without anyone wondering why ringing sounds so horrible. + +In terms of the code architecture, none of Condat's UI code ever calls any of +the actual drivers in the SSA realm directly: instead everything goes through +the Condat drivers layer in condat/com/src/driver, and that layer provides a +very poor adaptation as highlighted above. + +LCD support +=========== + +TI's demo/prototype UI code never supported a wide variety of different display +sizes or keypad layouts - instead they only supported whatever existed on their +in-house development boards at each given point in their history. TI's C-Sample +and earlier development boards had 84x48 pixel B&W displays, whereas from +D-Sample onward they made the big jump to a 176x220 pixel color LCD. Both +versions of the UI we got (TCS211 targeting D-Sample and TCS3.2 targeting +I-Sample, TI's LoCosto board) were developed on 176x220 pixel color LCD +platforms, and that is the only display size which they intended to support. +There also exists a remnant of support for their earlier 84x48 pixel C-Sample +LCD, which we resurrected in FreeCalypso to see it run on Mot C139 hardware, +but that support was broken: it would not even compile without our fixes. In +our current FC Magnetite firmware we can build this C-Sample UI version for the +C139 target and it works in the demo / proof-of-concept sense, but it is likely +to be even more broken than the official 176x220 pixel version. + +Anyone interested in adding support for a different LCD will need to start with +the R2D driver under src/cs/drivers/drv_app/r2d. The principal LCD type +selection is done in r2d_config.h (C-Sample and D-Sample are the only options +supported by the version we got with TCS211), and this selection affects all of +R2D and all of its clients. Our change to this r2d_config.h LCD type selection +logic consists of selecting C-Sample instead of D-Sample when the build target +is C139. A secondary selection is made in r2d_inits.c and r2d_refresh.c where +the code snippets for the actual hardware initialization and output are +included: the way we currently support the C139 hw target is a very thorough +emulation of the C-Sample including its vertical B&W framebuffer format, all of +the code in R2D and in Condat's display driver sees a real C-Sample LCD, and +only the hardware-poking code is substituted. + +The direct implication of our C-Sample emulation approach for the C139 LCD is +that the full 96x64 pixel size of Motorola's LCD becomes completely +inaccessible, and all software sees a 84x48 pixel subset. The same happens +with color: because TI's C-Sample LCD was B&W, the color capabilities of the +real C139 LCD become inaccessible. Anyone who wishes to fix this shortcoming +would need to implement a new bona fide LCD type in R2D, and then adapt +Condat's display driver accordingly. + +Condat's display driver (condat/com/src/driver/display.c) is very messy and +very difficult to understand. The only change we have made to it in FreeCalypso +was fixing the support for the C-Sample LCD which was bitrotten: the bitrot and +our fix for it is not specific to the C139, it would affect a real C-Sample +board just as well. Understanding this code well enough to extend it to other +LCD geometries and framebuffer formats would be a much greater challenge. + +Above Condat's display driver lies the actual UI implementation in BMI and MFW. +This UI code supports only 3 possible configurations: + +* Both COLOURDISPLAY and LSCREEN defined: the display is 176x220 color; + +* LSCREEN is defined but not COLOURDISPLAY: the display is 176x220 B&W - TI + used this config when building "GSM Lite" fw for the D-Sample; + +* Neither LSCREEN nor COLOURDISPLAY defined: the old 84x48 pixel B&W UI from + the days of C-Sample and earlier. + +Note the lack of support for small color displays like the one on the C139. + +Text fonts +---------- + +The SSA group's R2D driver provides text display functions and contains its own +fonts, but Condat's stuff does not use those display functions or fonts - +instead BMI and MFW (and presumably SMI too) use a different font/text +implementation contained in the Condat drivers layer. + +Keypad support +============== + +The hardware keypad driver is KPD in Riviera/SSA land, residing in +chipsetsw/drivers/drv_app/kpd in TCS211 or in src/cs/drivers/drv_app/kpd in +Magnetite and Selenite. Unlike the display driver R2D, KPD is always included +even in modem firmware builds - but if there is no keypad connected to the +Calypso, it does nothing. TI's firmware architecture and UI code support only +traditional numeric keypads - there is no provision for supporting a full QWERTY +keyboard. However, if the keypad layout on a given phone handset is close +enough to what TI had on their development boards, modifying KPD for the +specific wiring is very easy: we have already added proper support for Mot C1xx +and Pirelli DP-L10 keypads. + +Battery monitoring and charging +=============================== + +TI had two incarnations of their battery charging and monitoring driver: first +PWR, then LCC. Both were implemented in Riviera/SSA land. LCC was not a good +fit for our targets of interest (Mot C1xx, Pirelli DP-L10 and our desired +FreeCalypso Libre Dumbphone hardware) while PWR had other problems, so we +retired both of them and wrote our own replacement called FCHG. + +There is a quirk, however: there is no connection in the TCS211 code as +delivered by TI between their demo/prototype UI (or rather between Condat's +power driver stub) and either of their battery driver implementations. At the +time of TCS211-2007 the original PWR driver had already been retired and only +LCC was supported, but even that LCC driver had no connection to the UI: one +could remove it from the fw build configuration and the UI code would still +compile and link just fine, which would not be possible if there were any calls +to LCC's API functions. The practical effect of this quirk is that there is no +need to resurrect PWR or LCC in order to run TI's UI code in its pristine +original form - using our own FCHG or no battery management driver at all is +just as fine. + +The proper way to get proper support for Mot C139 +================================================= + +I (Mother Mychaela) feel very strongly that the best way to produce practically +usable end user FreeCalypso firmware for the C139 target would be to do it +together with our own FreeCalypso Libre Dumbphone development, as opposed to +trying to support the C139 to the exclusion of our own FreeCalypso hardware. +Specifically, I propose the following order of steps: + +1) First build our own FreeCalypso UI development board, a derivative of the + FCDEV3B adding a 176x220 pixel color LCD and other miscellany to serve as a + replacement for TI's D-Sample. + +2) Retire the C-Sample UI configuration and our currently implemented C-Sample + emulation hack on the C139, and start running TI's UI code the way TI's own + developers ran it on the D-Sample. + +3) Change the "small screen" UI layout from 84x48 to 96x64 pixels (from 6 rows + of 14 characters to 8 rows of 16 characters with TI's existing font), and + fix the bugs related to displaying this "small screen" (!LSCREEN) UI on a + physically larger LCD - we would like to display it on our 176x220 pixel UI + development board. + +4) Extend the UI code to allow the possibility of COLOURDISPLAY && !LSCREEN, + i.e., a small (96x64 pixels) color display like on the C139. Have this + 96x64 pixel color UI displayed on our 176x220 pixel UI development board. + +5) Work on getting the actual UI into shape, keeping the two configurations of + 176x220 pixel color (future FreeCalypso Libre Dumbphone) and 96x64 pixel + color (Mot C139) as actively supported ones. Do all development on our + 176x220 pixel UI development board. + +6) Once the UI-enabled firmware works decently on our development board in both + 176x220 and 96x64 configurations, add native C139 LCD support (not C-Sample + emulation) to R2D, adapt Condat's display driver as necessary if we are still + using it (if we don't find a way to get rid of it by this point), and run + our 96x64 pixel color UI config on real C139 hardware. At this point we + should have practically usable end user FreeCalypso fw on the C139. + +7) While the less demanding and more casual phone users will be happy with the + feeble C139 if it runs our FreeCalypso fw, those of us who desire the + Ultimate Awesome Libre Dumbphone will be able to take our 176x220 pixel UI + development board and start turning it into an actual FreeCalypso Libre + Dumbphone handset. This will be the point when we can move the ringtone + output from the piezo buzzer to the loudspeaker (Melody E1) and start making + other changes for better-than-C139 hardware. + +Of course the biggest difficulty with the above plan is that it requires +designing and building a new piece of hardware as its very first critical step. +My personal plan is to kill two birds with one stone: design the board in such +a way that it can be used both as a development board for the above plan and as +a close-to-final prototype for my desired FC Libre Dumbphone handset - although +not completely final, as this board would absolutely need to be usable in its +bare form on a lab bench without plastics, which calls for a somewhat different +design than a final handset product. + +Anyone who disagrees with my approach, anyone who is against designing and +building new custom hardware at high cost and who is instead interested first +and foremost in pre-existing hardware targets like Mot C139 is more than welcome +to delve into the code themselves and try their own hand at fixing the code to +make it practically usable on the C139. However, I have to warn you: if you +spend a significant amount of time working with TI's code and develop an +affection for it, it is quite possible that you will start to feel the way I do +in terms of desiring a D-Sample-like platform for development. + +Why Mot C139? +============= + +Out of the known repertoire of pre-existing Calypso-based phones whose existence +has been discovered by OsmocomBB and for which we already have some foundations +of support in FreeCalypso, Mot C139 is the most suitable one for the purpose of +turning it into a Libre Dumbphone by way of aftermarket firmware. Here are the +problems with the other ones: + +* Pirelli DP-L10 is my absolute favourite with an end user hat on, but the + unwanted extra chips for the unwanted-for-us WLAN and camera functionality + are a killer. There are no schematics for the phone and no documentation for + any of these chips, and we don't know how to power them down. In a fully + quiescent state with all Calypso sleep modes enabled and with both LCD and + keypad backlights off, the board still draws about 87 mA from the battery, + which will kill a fully charged battery in about 10 hours of complete idle. + Furthermore, it is not possible to turn on the loudspeaker without going + through the W56940 ringtone chip, and the reset line for this chip comes from + a GPIO on the completely undocumented camera chip - thus without a way to + control this reset line we may not be able to program the W56940, and without + that programming we may not be able to turn on the loudspeaker, ruining all + usefulness of this phone. + +* Mot C11x/12x family is good in terms of not having any undocumented hardware, + but the tiny RAM capacity is a bummer. These lowest-end phones have only + 256 KiB of IRAM (Calypso internal RAM) and 256 KiB of XRAM (board-level RAM), + whereas the next-step-up C139/140 has 512 KiB of XRAM. It is a significant + difference for us: while we fit into C139's 512 KiB with no sweat, it would + require some very unpleasant and unrewarding work to trim the fat and + reshuffle our memory usage to fit into the 256+256 arrangement on C11x. + Furthermore, most C11x/12x phones have only 2 MiB of flash, which would again + require major contortions to fit into, whereas all C139/140 phones have 4 MiB. + +* Mot C155/156 seem nice, but there is a problem: these phones ring with a + loudspeaker driven by a ringtone generator chip instead of a piezo buzzer + driven by the Calypso, and their ringtone generator chip is Sunplus SPMA100B. + No documentation could be found for that chip, and if we can't program it, we + won't be able to make the phone ring or operate its loudspeaker in any other + way. Furthermore, the LCD controller in these phones is much less obvious + than the one in the C139/140.