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fc-loadtool help: improve language regarding 16 MiB flash chips In FC project history, 16 MiB flash originally meant Pirelli DP-L10. Then we got FCDEV3B with the same flash (our own design), but now we are discovering more Calypso devices that used such large flash, both late Calypso era (Sony Ericsson K2x0) as well as much earlier ones (FIC FLUID devices.txt file with 2004 dates, Leonardo+ rev 5). Hence we need to migrate to more generic or neutral language in associated documentation, without giving elevated status to specific examples that drove our early project history.
author Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
date Sun, 03 Dec 2023 21:11:12 +0000
parents 4a1f0bbca58e
children
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1 Memory dump performance
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2 =======================
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4 Here are the expected run times for the flash dump2bin operation of dumping the
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5 entire flash content of a Calypso GSM device with the current version of
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6 fc-loadtool which uses the new binary transfer protocol:
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7
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8 Dump of 4 MiB flash (e.g., Openmoko GTA01/02 or Mot C139/140) at 115200 baud:
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9 6m04s
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11 The same 4 MiB flash dump at 812500 baud: 0m52s
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12
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13 Dump of 8 MiB flash (e.g., Mot C155/156) at 812500 baud: 1m44s
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14
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15 These times are a 2x improvement compared to all previous versions of
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16 fc-loadtool (prior to fc-host-tools-r13) which used a hex-based transfer
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17 protocol.
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19 Because of the architecture of fc-loadtool and its loadagent back-end, the run
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20 time of a flash dump operation depends only on the serial baud rate and the
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21 size of the flash area to be dumped; it should not depend on the USB-serial
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22 adapter type or any host system properties, as long as the host system and
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23 serial adapter combination supports the desired baud rate. In contrast, flash
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24 programming and fc-xram loading operations are quite different in that their
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25 run times do depend on the host system and USB-serial adapter or other serial
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26 port hardware - this host system dependency exists because of the way these
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27 operations are implemented in our architecture.
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29 Flash programming operations
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30 ============================
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32 Here are some examples of expected flash programming times, all obtained on the
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33 Mother's Slackware 14.2 host system:
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34
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35 Flashing an Openmoko GTA02 modem (K5A3281CTM flash chip) with a new firmware
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36 image (2376448 bytes), using a PL2303 USB-serial cable at 115200 baud: 0m19s to
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37 erase 37 sectors, 3m45s to program the image.
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39 Flashing the same OM GTA02 modem with the same fw image, using a CP2102
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40 USB-serial cable at 812500 baud: 0m19s to erase, 0m51s to program.
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41
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42 Flashing a Magnetite hybrid fw image (2378084 bytes) into an FCDEV3B board
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43 (S71PL129N flash chip) via an FT2232D adapter at 812500 baud: 0m24s to erase
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44 13 sectors (4 small and 9 large), 1m27s to program the image.
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46 Regardless of whether you execute these two steps separately or use one of our
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47 new flash e-program-{bin,m0,srec} commands, flash programming is always done in
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48 two steps: first the erase operation covering the needed range of sectors, then
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49 the actual programming operation that includes the data transfer.
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51 Flash erase times are determined entirely by physical processes inside the
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52 flash chip and thus should not be affected by software design or the serial
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53 link: for each sector to be erased, fc-loadtool issues the sector erase command
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54 to the flash chip and then polls the chip for operation completion status; the
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55 polling is done over the serial link and thus may seem very slow, but the extra
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56 bit of latency added by the finite polling speed is still negligible (at least
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57 on the Mother's Slackware system) compared to the time of the actual sector
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58 erase operation inside the flash chip. One remaining flaw is that in our
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59 current implementation the issuance of each individual sector erase command to
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60 the flash chip takes 6 command-response exchanges between fc-loadtool and
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61 loadagent; on my Slackware host system this extra overhead is still negligible
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62 compared to the 0.5s or more for the actual erase operation time, but this
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63 overhead may become more significant on host systems with higher latency.
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65 After the erase operation, the execution time of the main flash programming
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66 operation is a sum of 3 components:
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68 * The time it takes for the bits to be transferred over the serial link;
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69 * The time it takes for the flash programming operation to complete on the
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70 target (physics inside the flash chip);
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71 * The overhead of command-response exchanges between fc-loadtool and loadagent.
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72
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73 Because image data transfer is taking place in this step, flash programming at
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74 812500 baud is faster than 115200 baud, although it is not the same 7x
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75 improvement as happens with flash dumps. The present version of fc-loadtool
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76 also uses a new binary transfer protocol instead of the hex-based one used in
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77 previous versions (prior to fc-host-tools-r13); this change produces a 2x
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78 improvement for OM GTA02 flashing, but only a smaller improvement for FCDEV3B
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79 flashing.
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80
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81 Notice the difference in flash programming times between GTA02 and FCDEV3B: the
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82 fw image size is almost exactly the same, any difference in latency between
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83 CP2102 and FT2232D is less likely to produce such significant time difference
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84 given our current 2048 byte transfer block size (in fact fc-xram transfer times
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85 suggest that FT2232D is faster), thus the difference in physical flash program
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86 operation times between K5A3281CTM and S71PL129N flash chips seems to be the
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87 most likely explanation.
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88
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89 It also needs to be noted that in the current version of fc-loadtool there is
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90 no difference in performance between flash program-bin, program-m0 and
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91 program-srec operations: they all use the same binary protocol with 2048 byte
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92 transfer block size. There is no coupling between source S-records and flash
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93 programming operation blocks (2048-byte units) in the case of flash program-m0
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94 and program-srec: the new implementation of these commands prereads the entire
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95 S-record image as a separate preparatory step on the host side, the bits to be
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96 programmed are saved in a temporary binary file (automatically deleted
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97 afterward), and the actual flash programming operation proceeds from this
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98 internal binary source - but it knows about any discontiguous program regions
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99 and skips the gaps properly.
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100
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101 XRAM loading via fc-xram
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102 ========================
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103
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104 The new version of fc-xram as of fc-host-tools-r13 is dramatically faster than
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105 the original implementation from 2013, using a new binary transfer protocol.
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106 The speed increase comes from not only switching from hex to binary, but even
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107 more so from eliminating the command-response turnaround time on every S3
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108 record. The new XRAM loading times obtained on the Mother's Slackware 14.2
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109 host system are:
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110
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111 Pirelli DP-L10 with built-in CP2102 USB-serial chip, 812500 baud, loading
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112 hybrid-vpm fw build, 49969 S3 records: 0m27s
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114 FCDEV3B interfaced via FT2232D adapter, 812500 baud, loading hybrid fw build,
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115 78875 S3 records: 0m35s
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117 With the previous version of fc-xram these two loads took 1m40s and 2m54s,
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118 respectively. With the current version of loadtools XRAM loading is faster
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119 than flash programming for the same fw image as one would naturally expect (the
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120 flash programming step on the target is replaced with a simple memcpy()
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121 operation), but in the previous version XRAM loading was slower because of
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122 massive command-response exchange overhead: there was a command-response
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123 turnaround time incurred for every S3 record, typically carrying only 30 bytes
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124 of payload.
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125
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126 Additional complication with FTDI adapters and newer Linux kernel versions
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127 ==========================================================================
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128
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129 If you are using an FTDI adapter and a Linux kernel version newer than early
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130 2017 (the change was introduced between 4.10 and 4.11), then you have one
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131 additional complication: a change was made to the ftdi_sio driver in the Linux
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132 kernel that made many loadtools operations (basically everything other than
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133 flash dumps which are entirely target-driven) unbearably slow, at least with
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134 previous versions of loadtools that made many more command-response exchanges
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135 with loadagent for smaller transfer units and thus were much more sensitive to
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136 host system latency on these exchanges. We do not yet know if this FTDI
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137 latency timer issue still has a significant negative impact or not with current
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138 loadtools, but if it does, the solution is to run a special setserial command.
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139 After you plug in your FTDI-based USB-serial cable or connect the USB cable
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140 between your PC or laptop and your FTDI adapter board, causing the
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141 corresponding ttyUSBx device to appear, execute the following command:
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142
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143 setserial /dev/ttyUSBx low_latency
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144
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145 (Obviously change ttyUSBx to your actual ttyUSB number.) Execute this
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146 setserial command before running fc-loadtool or fc-xram, and then hopefully you
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147 should get performance that is comparable to what I get on classic Slackware.
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148 I say "hopefully" because I am not able to test it myself - I refuse to run any
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149 OS that can be categorized as "modern" - but field reports of performance on
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150 non-Slackware systems running newer Linux kernels (4.11 or later) are welcome,
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151 both with and without the low_latency setting. Please be sure to include your
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152 Linux kernel version and your USB-serial adapter type in your report!