TASKING TriCore-PCP VX-toolset v2.5r1

RELEASE NOTE


SUMMARY

This release note describes the changes and new features of all TASKING TriCore products since v2.4r1.

The following parts are described:

The solved and known problems are not part of this release note, they are described in solved_2_5r1.html, which is delivered with the product.

The main reason for this release is:


AVAILABLE PRODUCTS

With this release TASKING introduces a C compiler for TriCore's Peripheral Control Processor. Depending on your software license, this PCP C compiler is bundled with the product or not. If you purchased one of the (existing) products: 07-200-160-012, 07-200-160-024 or 07-200-160-044, the PCP C compiler is not part of the toolchain. However, you may note that the directory structure has slightly changed to accommodate the new compiler. The default installation directory now is TriCore v2.5r1 and the ctc subdirectory contains the TriCore compiler. If the product contains a PCP C compiler as well, it can be found in the cpcp subdirectory.

New product 07-200-160-025 contains the combination of a traditional TriCore VX-toolset and additionally a PCP C compiler product. With the PCP C compiler product one can build PCP relocatable output files. These output files are then to be linked against TriCore code build with the traditional TASKING TriCore VX-toolset. How to build an absolute elf file using both toolsets is shown in the PCP examples. The manuals for the PCP C compiler can be found in the doc directory of the PCP C compiler product.


PCP C COMPILER

The PCP C compiler is an ISO C99 standard C compiler for the PCP architecture, based on TASKING's Viper technology. However it should be kept in mind that the PCP has a restricted architecture with only a few registers available. In order to be able to create a compiler for this restricted architecture, it is required to define a set of limitations.

Limitations and Restrictions


CONTROL PROGRAMS

With the TASKING TriCore-PCP VX-toolset one first need to build a PCP relocatable output file. This relocatable output file can be created by using the control program in the cpcp\bin directory. To prevent the linker to start the locate phase you need to specify an additional option -cl. The invocation to create a relocatable PCP output file therefore is:

$(ROOTDIR)\cpcp\bin\ccpcp -cl <pcp_options> <pcp_sources> -o <pcp_output>

The PCP output file next needs to be linked against TriCore code build with the regular TASKING TriCore VX-toolset as found in the ctc directory. The invocation of the control program is as follows:

$(ROOTDIR)\ctc\bin\cctc <pcp_output> <tc_options> <tc_sources> -o <combined_output>

This way an absolute elf file is created, containing both the TriCore and the PCP code. Since there is no EDE support for the PCP C compiler yet, this build process is not automated.


CROSSVIEW

Features

The TriCore simulator that comes with the product simulates the Peripheral Control Processor, by starting a PCP plugin simulator.

CrossView allows you to set up breakpoints in both TriCore and PCP code. Once a breakpoint is hit, the program stops and a blue marker indicates the current Program Counter. From here you can single step through the code. On each single step, the simulator steps both the TriCore and the PCP code. You can select which code - TriCore or PCP - should get the focus while single stepping, by making the proper selection in the "Target | mode" menu.

The general purpose PCP registers can be watched from a register window, by selecting PCP_RO through PCP_R7 in the "View | Register" menu.

Limitations

Currently CrossView can not show a stack trace for PCP code. The PCP tools create a static stack, and CrossView can not retrieve the return addresses if no stack or frame pointer is available. DWARF Debugging Information Format v3.0 enables to retrieve this kind of information, but this will be introduced in a subsequent version of the tool.
All stack related features, such as stack breakpoints and return from function won't work as well for the same reason.

Furthermore the debug capabilities as described above are available for the simulator only. Hardware support is considered in a later stage.


PCP PLUGIN SIMULATOR

To simulate the Peripheral Control Processor, the standard TriCore Instruction Set Simulator (tsim) starts a PCP plugin simulator (pcp). This is set up in a configuration file named DConfig that is located in the etc directory. This file tells the TriCore ISS to start up the PCP plugin with the specified options.

The available command line options for the PCP plugin simulator are:

OptionArgumentDescriptionDefault
cmem_baseaddressCode memory address configuration0xf0060000
cmem_sizesizeCode memory size configuration0x7fff
pram_baseaddressParameter memory address configuration0xf0050000
pram_sizesizeParameter memory size configuration0x3fff
preg_baseaddressPcp register memory address configuration0xf0043f00
preg_sizesizePcp register memory size configuration0xcc
psrn_baseaddressPcp service register node memory address configuration0xf0043fd0
psrn_sizesizePcp service register node memory size configuration0x2f

If a non default derivative is used, it might be necessary to change the options in this file. The default derivative for the simulator is the tc1920b.


NOTE ON DERIVATIVES WITHOUT EXTERNAL MEMORY

In order to build the examples for derivatives without external memory, there is a workaround to prevent error messages within the linking phase. For all derivatives without external memory (TC116X, TC1762, TC1764 and TC1766) you need to make the following adjustment:

EDE users

Go to menu "Project | Project Options..." and go to the page "Linker | Script File | Internal Memory". On this page change the SPRAM in such a way that the column "Alloc" gets the value ON and the column "Type" gets the value ROM.

Command line users

Open your own project LSL file or open the included "<derivative_name>.lsl" file (present in the include.lsl subdirectory of the product). Adjust the type of the SPRAM into ROM:

    memory spram
    {
	...
	type = rom;
	...
    }


NOTE ON LIBRARY SOURCES

In previous versions of the toolchain the library sources were extracted during the installation process and were available in the lib\src, lib\src.cpp and lib\src.stl directories. As from this version on, the library sources are packed in an archive. In the case you want to refer to the library sources and provided that you have a valid license key, you can extract the archive. To extract for instance the C library sources, go to the lib\src directory and run the local tool "install-lib-sources". Note that in the case you are evaluating the product as trial version, you will not be allowed to extract the sources.

Copyright 2007 Altium BV