Transcript Automated Gateware Discovery Using Open Firmware

Automated Gateware Discovery
Using
Open Firmware
A presentation on my part time MSc research that
aims to
lay foundation for
automating gateware detection.
Presented By:
Shanly Rajan
Embedded Systems Engineer
SKA SA
CASPER WORKSHOP:20 AUGUST 2010
Overview
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Background - OS for FPGAS

Open Firmware

U-boot Open Firmware

Open Firmware design & implementation

Implementation Examples
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Research Status & Future Directions

Conclusion
Recent OS for FPGAs
Unified HW/SW OS
for PRFPGA systems
2009
2008
OS for Reconfigurable
Embedded Platforms
2004
Research Issues in OS
for reconfigurable computing
2006
BORPH OS
GATOS
FOCA
2002
1994
Virtual Hardware Operating System for Xilinx XC6002
OF
VPOS
ReconOS
FDT for FreeBSD
FDT for ROACH
Open Firmware
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Open Firmware : Hardware Independent Boot Code

Boot Time Drivers for testing machine hardware

Building Device Trees which OS later uses
Device Tree : Data Structure that holds information about the set of devices
attached to the system, including permanently installed devices and plug-in
devices, as described by an Open Firmware.
A FDT:
•
Data structure for describing
hardware
•
Passed to kernel at boot-time
•
Alternative to hard-coded
platform details
U-boot Open Firmware


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U-boot, the bootloader for the powerpc architecture in ROACH has built-in Open
Firmware (OF) support
The device-tree layout for u-boot is strongly inherited from the definition of the
Open Firmware IEEE 1275-1994 device-tree
The observation that gateware implementations on FPGA can be treated as
pluggable peripherals suggests that it can be represented in the device tree just like
any other physical peripheral
Conventional/Traditional Method : Scheme of loading existing device drivers to
operate on physical peripherals can also be extended to gateware images as well.
The research facilitates the process of identifying and operating on gateware images
by extending the exisiting infrastructure of probing devices in traditional software by
using Open Firmware.
Terminology
• Open Firmware (OF) Device Tree (DT)
– Device representation exported by Open Firmware
• Flattened Device Tree (FDT)
– Firmware-independent device tree
• Device Tree Compiler (DTC)
– Convert between .dts and .dtb
• Device Tree Source (.dts)
• Device Tree Blob (.dtb)
– Tokenized form; used by kernel
• Binding
– Documentation of how the DT describes hardware
OF Device Tree Model
root
platform
spi
bridge
Drivers registered
against bus types
uart
i2c bus
temp
platform_bus_type
pci bus
ethernet
i2c_bus_type
pci_bus_type
Open Firmware Implementation
Gateware Implementations
Uboot OF Bootloader
root
{
………………..
Ethernet
Serial
Data Capture
........………..
………………
………………
}
Ethernet
Data Capture
Serial
Bit stream + Meta-information file
dts
Linux OF
DEVICE DRIVER
Serial UART driver
Ethernet driver
Sound driver
OF Client
Interface Calls
DEVICE TREE
EXTENSION
dtb
Serial UART example
SERIAL DEVICE
DEVICE DRIVER
Uartlite Serial bit
OPERATES
Uartlite Driver
FPGA
DESCRIPTION
FPGAV5 : serial@d0010000{
device_type = "serial";
compatible = "xlnx,opb-uartlite-1.00.b";
reg = <0xd0010000 10000>;
current-speed = <115200>;
clock-frequency = <66666666>;
xlnx,data-bits = <8>;
xlnx,odd-parity = <0>;
xlnx,use-parity = <0>;
};
EXTENDING DEVICE TREES
INVOKES MATCH
Treating katADC as a soundcard
• Current Status
Aiming to record and playback ADC data
captured into BRAMS with a modified
sound device driver and utilize sound
analysis tools for visualization and
playback.
• Future Work
– A mkfdt utility that converts FPGA
bit stream and meta information into
the required flattened device tree
format.
– Hot Pluggability
– Adding device drivers specific to radio
astronomy.
BORPH or OF FDT ??
Trade - Off
Ease of Use
Performance
Win-Win Approach
Conclusion
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Recent OS for FPGAS - Background
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Open Firmware

U-boot Open Firmware

OF design and implementation for ROACH
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OF implementation examples: serial UART
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Current progress & Future Directions
ALTERNATIVE APPROACH CONSIDERED
(EXTENDING DEVICE TREES)
Questions
•q
email : [email protected]