vexpress: add TC2 support to 12.07 released

Registered by Ryan Harkin

The ARM Landing Team are releasing support for the Versatile Express TC2 Core Tile in the 12.07 release.

Blueprint information

Status:
Complete
Approver:
Ricardo Salveti
Priority:
Essential
Drafter:
Ryan Harkin
Direction:
Approved
Assignee:
Ryan Harkin
Definition:
Approved
Series goal:
Accepted for trunk
Implementation:
Implemented
Milestone target:
None
Started by
Ricardo Salveti
Completed by
Ryan Harkin

Related branches

Sprints

Whiteboard

There are many components to this delivery:

1) BSP/enablement patches [DONE]
The patches to enable TC2 CoreTile support are in the ARM Landing Team tree.

2) ARM's mp-sched patches [DONE]
The mp-sched patched are in the tree and the release candidate:
https://android-build.linaro.org/builds/~linaro-android/vexpress-ics-gcc47-armlt-staging-alt-open/#build=7

3) PMWG big.LITTLE MP changes [DROPPED]
The PMWG code did not make it into the tree or the release candidate due to lack of time.

4) HDLCD optimisations [DONE]
ARM is due to deliver some HDLCD driver performance optimsations that they would like to see in the release.

The HDLC patches were delivered by ARM on Thursday 12th July by email.
They have been integrated, tested and are in the release candidate

5) SP804 clock patches [DONE]

6) OSPM patches [IN PROGRESS]

6.1) CPU freq
6.2) CPU idle

ARM have delivered v3 of the motherboard firmware that supports soft resets, which is one of the requirements of the OSPM code.

ARM delivered the OSPM patches on Tuesday 17th July. Tixy worked on the patches with ARM but was unable to stabilise them.

The release candidate contains the code in the tree, but is disabled in config in order to provide a stable release containing TC2 and mp-sched patches.

7) UEFI [DROPPED]
ARM have delivered UEFI patches for TC2.

UEFI will not form part of the Ubuntu hwpack. Another blueprint adds UEFI support to hwpacks and is expected to deliver for 12.07, however, there is not enough time to deliver UEFI in 12.07 hwpacks.

It is not expected that the 12.07 Android release will contain a UEFI binary for TC2. The binary will be made available and the instructions updated to show how to get UEFI onto the board.

The latest UEFI code delivery only works on TC2. It does not work on the A9 Core Tile. ARM LT's patches for A5/A15 do not build as-is and will need some re-work.

Vassilis has fixed the issue with UEFI only booting Linux with 1 core. However, the next issue we noticed is that the kernel command line is not getting passed through. This is likely to be a similar problem with memory locations being overwritten. He will work on this issue. Mostly, it means that the default command line is used by the kernel. And the default command line is suitable for Ubuntu, but not Android; meaning that only Ubuntu releases will be bootable until we get a fix.

The single binary issue is still outstanding.

UEFI will not be released as part of the 12.07 release.

8) Gator [DONE]

ARM delivered a Gator 5.10 patch and this has been pushed out to all branches, meaning that the 12.07 release will contain a working Gator 5.10.

5.11 is expected for 12.08 release.

9) Android earlysuspend problem [DONE]

earlysuspend was fixed on Thursday 12th July and Tixy has tested the patch

10) Ubuntu [DONE]
No issues are listed with the Ubuntu release.

12.07 release will boot on TC2 CoreTile but will not have any big.LITTLE MP patches.

11) LAVA

Validation now have a TC2 board installed in the LAVA racks.

I have sent Dave Pigott an early version of the micro-SD card contents used to configure the board to run UEFI, a kernel and device tree blob so that he can begin making modifications to LAVA to support TC2.

We have also asked him to swap one A9 CoreTile with an A5 tile so that we have A5, A9 and TC2 in LAVA. A5 will require some setup in LAVA due to it using device tree to boot. However, the currrent setup does not cope with device tree configuration.

(?)

Work Items

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