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doc: new articles Binary-file-formats and Flash-programming
author Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
date Sun, 08 Mar 2020 22:15:57 +0000
parents e66fafeeb377
children f2a023c20653
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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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8 Dump of 4 MiB flash (e.g., Openmoko GTA01/02 or Mot C139/140) at 115200 baud:
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9 6m4s
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10
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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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28
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29 Flash programming operations
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30 ============================
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31
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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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38
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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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45
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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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64
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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, thus the difference in physical
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85 flash program operation times between K5A3281CTM and S71PL129N flash chips seems
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86 to be the most likely explanation.
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87
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88 Programming flash using program-m0 or program-srec
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89 ==================================================
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90
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91 Prior to fc-host-tools-r12 flash programming via flash program-m0 or
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92 program-srec commands was much slower than flash program-bin. The reason for
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93 this performance discrepancy was that the original implementation of these
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94 commands from 2013 was very straightforward: they operated in one pass, reading
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95 the S-record image file, and as each individual S-record was read, it was turned
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96 into an AMFW or INFW command to loadagent. In the case of *.m0 files generated
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97 by TI's hex470 post-linker, each S-record carries 30 bytes of payload, thus the
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98 flashing operation proceeded in 30-byte units, incurring the overhead of a
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99 command-response exchange for every 30 bytes. In contrast, our current flash
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100 program-bin implementation sends 256 bytes of payload per each AMFW or INFW
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101 command; this larger unit size decreases the overhead of command-response
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102 exchanges between fc-loadtool and loadagent.
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103
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104 Why do we need flash program-m0 and program-srec commands at all, why not
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105 simply convert all SREC images to straight binary first and then program with
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106 flash program-bin? The reason is that S-record images can contain multiple
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107 discontiguous program regions with gaps in between. All of our current
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108 FreeCalypso firmwares built with TI's TMS470 toolchain contain a few small gaps
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109 in the fwimage.m0 file, filled with 0xFF bytes when converted to straight binary
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110 with mokosrec2bin, but TI's own firmwares built for 8 MiB flash configurations
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111 often had much bigger gaps in them.
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112
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113 As of fc-host-tools-r12 we finally have a more efficient solution for flashing
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114 discontiguous SREC images: our new implementation of flash program-m0 and
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115 program-srec commands begins with a preliminary pass (pure host operation, no
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116 target interaction) of reading the S-record image file; the payload bits are
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117 written into a temporary binary file (automatically deleted afterward), while
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118 the address and length of each discontiguous region are remembered internally.
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119 Then the actual flash programming operation proceeds just like program-bin,
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120 reading from the internal binary file and sending 256 bytes of payload at a time
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121 to loadagent, but using the remembered knowledge of where the discontiguous
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122 regions lie.
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123
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124 XRAM loading via fc-xram
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125 ========================
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126
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127 Our current fc-xram implementation is similar to the old 2013 implementation of
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128 flash program-m0 and program-srec commands in that fc-xram sends a separate ML
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129 command to loadagent for each S-record, thus the total XRAM image loading time
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130 is not only the serial bit transfer time, but also the overhead of command-
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131 response exchanges between fc-xram and loadagent. The flash programming times
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132 listed above include flashing an FC Magnetite fw image into an FCDEV3B, which
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133 took 2m11s; doing an fc-xram load of the same FC Magnetite fw image (built as
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134 ramimage.srec) into the same FCDEV3B via the same FT2232D adapter at 812500
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135 baud takes 2m54s.
615
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136
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137 Why does XRAM loading take longer than flashing? Shouldn't it be faster because
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138 the flash programming step on the target is replaced with a simple memcpy()?
630
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139 Answer: fc-xram is currently slower than flash program operations because the
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140 latter send 256 bytes at a time to loadagent, whereas fc-xram sends one
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141 S-record at a time; the division of the image into S-records is determined by
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142 the tool that generates the SREC image, but TI's hex470 post-linker generates
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143 images with 30 bytes of payload per S-record. Having the operation proceed in
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144 smaller chunks increases the overhead of command-response exchanges and thus
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145 increases the overall time.
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146
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147 Additional complication with FTDI adapters and newer Linux kernel versions
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148 ==========================================================================
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149
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150 If you are using an FTDI adapter and a Linux kernel version newer than early
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151 2017 (the change was introduced between 4.10 and 4.11), then you have one
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152 additional complication: a change was made to the ftdi_sio driver in the Linux
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153 kernel that makes many loadtools operations (basically everything other than
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154 flash dumps which are entirely target-driven) unbearably slow (much slower than
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155 the Slackware 14.2 reference times given above) unless you execute a special
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156 setserial command first. After you plug in your FTDI-based USB-serial cable or
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157 connect the USB cable between your PC or laptop and your FTDI adapter board,
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158 causing the corresponding ttyUSBx device to appear, execute the following
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159 command:
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160
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161 setserial /dev/ttyUSBx low_latency
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162
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163 (Obviously change ttyUSBx to your actual ttyUSB number.) Execute this
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164 setserial command before running fc-loadtool or fc-xram, and then hopefully you
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165 should get performance that is comparable to what I get on classic Slackware.
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166 I say "hopefully" because I am not able to test it myself - I refuse to run any
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167 OS that can be categorized as "modern" - but field reports of performance on
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168 non-Slackware systems running newer Linux kernels (4.11 or later) are welcome.