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fc-loadtool flash program-bin changed to use binary protocol
author Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
date Sat, 07 Mar 2020 18:34:39 +0000
parents 8c6e7b7e701c
children e66fafeeb377
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1 Dumping and programming flash
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2 =============================
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3
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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:
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6
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7 Dump of 4 MiB flash (e.g., Openmoko GTA01/02 or Mot C139/140) at 115200 baud:
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8 12m53s
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9
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10 The same 4 MiB flash dump at 812500 baud: 1m50s
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11
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12 Dump of 8 MiB flash (e.g., Mot C155/156) at 812500 baud: 3m40s
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13
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14 Because of the architecture of fc-loadtool and its loadagent back-end, the run
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15 time of a flash dump operation depends only on the serial baud rate and the
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16 size of the flash area to be dumped; it should not depend on the USB-serial
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17 adapter type or any host system properties, as long as the host system and
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18 serial adapter combination supports the desired baud rate. In contrast, flash
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19 programming and fc-xram loading operations are quite different in that their
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20 run times do depend on the host system and USB-serial adapter or other serial
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21 port hardware - this host system dependency exists because of the way these
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22 operations are implemented in our architecture.
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23
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24 Here are some examples of expected flash programming times, all obtained on the
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25 Mother's Slackware 14.2 host system:
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27 Flashing an Openmoko GTA02 modem (K5A3281CTM flash chip) with a new firmware
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28 image (2376448 bytes), using a PL2303 USB-serial cable at 115200 baud: 7m35s
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29
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30 Flashing the same OM GTA02 modem with the same fw image, using a CP2102
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31 USB-serial cable at 812500 baud: 1m52s
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32
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33 Flashing a Magnetite hybrid fw image (2378084 bytes) into an FCDEV3B board
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34 (S71PL129N flash chip) via an FT2232D adapter at 812500 baud: 2m11s
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36 These times are just for the flash program-bin operation, not counting the
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37 flash erase which must be done first. Flash erase times are determined
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38 entirely by physical processes inside the flash chip and are not affected by
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39 software design or the serial link: for each sector to be erased, fc-loadtool
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40 issues the sector erase command to the flash chip and then polls the chip for
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41 operation completion status; the polling is done over the serial link and thus
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42 may seem very slow, but the extra bit of latency added by the finite polling
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43 speed is still negligible compared to the time of the actual sector erase
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44 operation inside the flash chip. In contrast, the execution time of a flash
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45 program-bin operation is a sum of 3 components:
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47 * The time it takes for the bits to be transferred over the serial link;
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48 * The time it takes for the flash programming operation to complete on the
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49 target (physics inside the flash chip);
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50 * The overhead of command-response exchanges between fc-loadtool and loadagent.
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51
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52 Programming flash using program-m0 or program-srec
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53 ==================================================
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54
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55 Prior to fc-host-tools-r12 flash programming via flash program-m0 or
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56 program-srec commands was much slower than flash program-bin. The reason for
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57 this performance discrepancy was that the original implementation of these
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58 commands from 2013 was very straightforward: they operated in one pass, reading
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59 the S-record image file, and as each individual S-record was read, it was turned
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60 into an AMFW or INFW command to loadagent. In the case of *.m0 files generated
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61 by TI's hex470 post-linker, each S-record carries 30 bytes of payload, thus the
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62 flashing operation proceeded in 30-byte units, incurring the overhead of a
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63 command-response exchange for every 30 bytes. In contrast, our current flash
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64 program-bin implementation sends 256 bytes of payload per each AMFW or INFW
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65 command; this larger unit size decreases the overhead of command-response
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66 exchanges between fc-loadtool and loadagent.
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67
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68 Why do we need flash program-m0 and program-srec commands at all, why not
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69 simply convert all SREC images to straight binary first and then program with
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70 flash program-bin? The reason is that S-record images can contain multiple
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71 discontiguous program regions with gaps in between. All of our current
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72 FreeCalypso firmwares built with TI's TMS470 toolchain contain a few small gaps
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73 in the fwimage.m0 file, filled with 0xFF bytes when converted to straight binary
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74 with mokosrec2bin, but TI's own firmwares built for 8 MiB flash configurations
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75 often had much bigger gaps in them.
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76
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77 As of fc-host-tools-r12 we finally have a more efficient solution for flashing
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78 discontiguous SREC images: our new implementation of flash program-m0 and
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79 program-srec commands begins with a preliminary pass (pure host operation, no
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80 target interaction) of reading the S-record image file; the payload bits are
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81 written into a temporary binary file (automatically deleted afterward), while
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82 the address and length of each discontiguous region are remembered internally.
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83 Then the actual flash programming operation proceeds just like program-bin,
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84 reading from the internal binary file and sending 256 bytes of payload at a time
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85 to loadagent, but using the remembered knowledge of where the discontiguous
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86 regions lie.
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87
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88 XRAM loading via fc-xram
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89 ========================
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90
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91 Our current fc-xram implementation is similar to the old 2013 implementation of
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92 flash program-m0 and program-srec commands in that fc-xram sends a separate ML
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93 command to loadagent for each S-record, thus the total XRAM image loading time
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94 is not only the serial bit transfer time, but also the overhead of command-
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95 response exchanges between fc-xram and loadagent. The flash programming times
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96 listed above include flashing an FC Magnetite fw image into an FCDEV3B, which
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97 took 2m11s; doing an fc-xram load of the same FC Magnetite fw image (built as
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98 ramimage.srec) into the same FCDEV3B via the same FT2232D adapter at 812500
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99 baud takes 2m54s.
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101 Why does XRAM loading take longer than flashing? Shouldn't it be faster because
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102 the flash programming step on the target is replaced with a simple memcpy()?
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103 Answer: fc-xram is currently slower than flash program operations because the
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104 latter send 256 bytes at a time to loadagent, whereas fc-xram sends one
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105 S-record at a time; the division of the image into S-records is determined by
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106 the tool that generates the SREC image, but TI's hex470 post-linker generates
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107 images with 30 bytes of payload per S-record. Having the operation proceed in
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108 smaller chunks increases the overhead of command-response exchanges and thus
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109 increases the overall time.
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110
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111 Additional complication with FTDI adapters and newer Linux kernel versions
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112 ==========================================================================
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114 If you are using an FTDI adapter and a Linux kernel version newer than early
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115 2017 (the change was introduced between 4.10 and 4.11), then you have one
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116 additional complication: a change was made to the ftdi_sio driver in the Linux
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117 kernel that makes many loadtools operations (basically everything other than
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118 flash dumps which are entirely target-driven) unbearably slow (much slower than
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119 the Slackware 14.2 reference times given above) unless you execute a special
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120 setserial command first. After you plug in your FTDI-based USB-serial cable or
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121 connect the USB cable between your PC or laptop and your FTDI adapter board,
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122 causing the corresponding ttyUSBx device to appear, execute the following
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123 command:
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parents: 618
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124
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125 setserial /dev/ttyUSBx low_latency
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126
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127 (Obviously change ttyUSBx to your actual ttyUSB number.) Execute this
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128 setserial command before running fc-loadtool or fc-xram, and then hopefully you
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129 should get performance that is comparable to what I get on classic Slackware.
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130 I say "hopefully" because I am not able to test it myself - I refuse to run any
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131 OS that can be categorized as "modern" - but field reports of performance on
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132 non-Slackware systems running newer Linux kernels (4.11 or later) are welcome.