On 04/03/2014 11:35 AM, Pavel Machek wrote:
Hi!
Actually socfpga board folder includes code to support both Cyclone V and Arria V soc dev kit.
ok. I expect that you are talking about 2 completely different boards which are here
http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-cyclone-v-soc.html http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-arria-v-soc.html
Can you use the same configuration on both of them at the same time? I hardly believe that everything just match.
Actually, there's third board, called SoCrates, and yes, exactly same configuration works on it and cyclone-v.
What about Arria-V?
So you better start believing :-).
Maybe I will start to believe that Altera design all board the same like position of pins for uarts, spi, ethernet, etc.
At least Sockit and Socrates are pretty similar in that regard. Apart from the things that are not ;-)
Take for example the DDR3 pins on the FPGA side. The Sockit has DDR3-RAM, the Socrates hasn't. So, the pinsetup is different for both. And when you mess that up in the prebootloader, you can't AFAIK change that later. The boards will boot just fine with the same barebox image, but that doesn't mean, that everything is setup correctly.
That is what I meant -- you still have useful box running Linux. Having something useful that boots out of the box is important.
And it seems to be same(-enough) between Socrates and Arria, too.
It is more about user expectation and explanation it was sent.
1. Here Chin was referring that it is one board http://lists.denx.de/pipermail/u-boot/2014-March/174866.html
and here you are saying that it is for all Altera's development boards. It means it is generic board support what I was telling from the start and this configuration just luckily fits to more boards.
2. Altera is likely designing boards in very similar way that use the same console, same DDRs(or working with the same timing), i2c pins, spi pins, whatever. You are just lucky that one configuration is working for more boards but they are not 100% fit. I expect that they use the same oscillator and when someone change it then this default configuration just stop to work.
That's why you should at least print any message that this is "default" or "minimum" or "fail-safe" configuration and none should use it in final product because simple it doesn't match what they have setup in design tool. Or just write that this configuration is for this development board and it also working for these development boards.
From that WARNING, everybody should be aware that they have to replace that generated files by their custom files which fit their design. Then it is clear that they have something what it boots but they have something what they shouldn't use in final product.
3. Have something useful that boots can be done with less lines than it is done right now. From my experience with Zynq you don't need 600 lines of magic setting to have something useful which boots.
4. It is just question of time when Altera release the board where different uart or oscillator is used and you won't have something useful what boot.
Thanks, Michal