Vybrid FAQ

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Vybrid FAQ

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Vybrid FAQ

This document will cover some of the most commonly asked questions we've gotten about Vybrid.

Anything requiring more in-depth discussion/explanation will be put in a separate thread. All new questions should go into their own thread as well.

Vybrid Logistics:

Where can I find a datasheet, reference manual,and more?

The Freescale Vybrid website

Where can I find schematics, layouts, and more on the Vybrid tower board TWR-VF65GS10?

The Freescale TWR-VF65GS10 tower board website

Software:

Which core does MQX run on?

MQX can run on the A5, on the M4, or on both cores at the same time. It's very flexible!

Can Linux run on the M4 core?

No, it requires an MMU which only the A5 has.

Where can I find MQX?

At http://freescale.com/mqx

4.0.1 has support for Tower board

4.0.2 will add support for Auto EVB (not yet released and available only to specific auto customers)

I can't get USB1 to work with MQX

See this thread "USB1 not working in MQX 4.0.1 (Tower) and 4.0.2 (Auto)?"

Where can I find Linux?

For F-series parts, the Linux BSP and support is provided by Timesys. You can register for access here:
https://linuxlink.timesys.com/register/freescale/

Vybrid Dual-Core:

How do I start the M4/secondary core?

Two steps:

1) SRC->GPR[2] = <start address> + 1; //since M4 is thumb

2) CCM->CCOWR = 0x15a5a; //Start secondary core


Now the M4 core (or secondary core) will start executing, while the primary core moves on to next instruction.

Is there a limitation on when I can turn on the M4 core?

No, you can literally turn it on as one of the first instructions that the A5 executes. Just be aware in code about which core would set up shared modules like clocks.

I have a Vybrid tower board which has a dual core part. How do I only use the A5 core?

Simply don't turn on the M4 clock. You have to explicitly enable the M4 core to start it.

What can I do on a tower board which has a A5 primary part, but I'm interested in evaluating an M4 primary part?

See this thread

Are there limitations on which core can access which modules?

Generally both cores can access any of the peripherals modules and memory. The exceptions are that only the A5 has access to the MMU and L2 cache. Only the M4 has access to the Tightly Coupled Memory (TCM).

Also only the A5 has TrustZone, meaning that for a completely secure boot, you must have an A5 primary part.

Is there hardware coherency checking?

No, all coherency must be done in user software.This is an important consideration when caching a shared memory space between the cores.

Can I reset just one core?

Because so much of the Vybrid platform is shared between the two cores, there is not a mechanism to just reset one of the cores. See this thread for more information: Reset A5 without interfering on M4

What is this Multi-Core Communication (MCC) I hear about?

It's an API developed between Freescale and Timesys to provide easy communication between the A5 and M4 cores. You can use it to transfer data between Linux on A5 and MQX on M4, or between MQX on both cores. You are not required to use it, as it is just a software option, but it will probably make your coding easier. Documentation on it can be found on the Timesys website and in the MQX release in the "docs" folder

Is MCC the same as MQX's Multi-Processor Communication (MPC)?

No, MPC has been in MQX for years, and is used for two physically separate MCUs to communicate/share data over a UART or Ethernet connection. This would cause unnecessary overhead on Vybrid, as which both cores are on the same die and share memory, so hence MCC was created.

Vybrid General:

How do I know if I have a 1.1 part?

It will be marked with 1N02G.

A 1.0 part will be marked 0N02G.

Software can also look at address 0x80. It will be "11" on 1.1 parts. It'll be "10" on 1.0 parts.

Rev G boards onwards have 1.1 parts.

What changed between 1.0 and 1.1? Will I need to rewrite my code or redesign my board?

Very few fixes would affect code or board design, so 99% of people would be OK. You can successfully run Linux and MQX on both 1.0 and 1.1 parts with *no* changes in the software or hardware.

The only issue we've seen on some custom boards is when DDR settings weren't optimized, and thus some failures occurred due to normal process shift when new silicon arrived. Once the settings are tweaked to be centered and optimal, then the same code worked on 1.0 and 1.1 parts. This was not required for all boards.

I sampled a part that has no L2 cache, and the code that worked fine on the tower board no longer works on the non-L2 part. What's going on?

The Vybrid tower board has a part which has L2 cache. Most software was developed for that board, and thus assumes the part has L2 cache and tries to enable it. If your part does not have L2 cache and an attempt is made to configure the L2 cache, then it will crash your system. Remove that code.

What is this trade-off between L2 cache and internal SRAM?

All chips have 512KB of "System" SRAM with ECC protection.

On chips without an L2 cache, there is an additional 1MB of graphics RAM for a total of 1.5MB of internal RAM.

On chips with an L2 cache, there is an additional 512KB of graphics RAM for a total of 1.0MB of internal RAM.

The chip on the TWR-VF65GS10 has an L2 cache, and thus has a total of 1.0MB of internal RAM

Can the graphics RAM be used for things besides the DCU graphics buffer?

Yes, it can be used and divided up for any purpose, including extra RAM for software. The name is only used to designate that it does not have ECC protection, and that it has the pixel convertor feature available.

Do I have to use a NPN transistor to supply the 1.2V core voltage? Can I just power it directly?

See the following thread for a detailed discussion on the pros/cons of doing that: Re: Power supply for Vybrid core

I'm trying to use the DCU and nothing is coming out!

Make sure the TCON module is in bypass mode

I'm trying to boot an M4 primary part and it's not working. Why?

The boot header information and location that header is at would be the same irregardless of the primary core. The exception is the start address. If using an M4 primary part, remember you must add +1 to the address since the M4 is thumb only.

Vybrid Tower Board:

I just got a Rev G board, and everything seems broken compared to my old board. Why?

See this thread

Why don't I see any output on the TWR-SER?

You need to either adjust the terminal port used, or adjust the jumpers to direct the default terminal port to the TWR-SER. See this thread

Why can't I debug with the OpenSDA port?

By default the virtual-serial app is used as the OpenSDA app. You'll need to load the CMSIS-DAP app in order to start debugging. See this thread

When using CMSIS-DAP with DS-5, sometimes my program download fails, particularly if it's a large amount of data. How can I fix this?

Use the Updated CMSIS-DAP application

My board has stickers that say "SCH-27442 REV G" (or G1) and "700-27442 REV H" (or Rev J). What board revision do I have?

That is a Rev G or Rev G1 board. At the time of this writing (October 2013) Rev G1 is the latest version.

What is this OpenSDA I keep hearing about?

See this thread

How do I choose between different boot devices on the Tower board?

Jumper J22 is used to select the boot mode and device. See Page 10 of the TWR-VF65GS10 Quick Start Guide for details and jumper settings.

My board is acting weird. It sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, or crashes after a while. What's going on?

Make sure you have both ends of the dual USB cable that came with your board connected. Depending on what programs you're running, like Linux playing an mpeg file on the TWR-LCD-RGB, a single USB port may not be able to supply all the necessary power.

I'm powering via the elevator board, and sometimes things are flaky. What's going on?

There is a potential voltage drop in high-current situations with the current elevator boards. This is being fixed, and more robust elevator boards will be available in July. In the meantime, we do not recommend powering via the elevator. Use J3 on the Vybrid MPU board instead. Also see this comment.

What other things can cause issues?

Make sure you're not booting off the SD Card or QuadSPI when trying to debug other code. Since that code might have already been running, then it can interfere, for example in clock setup, with the code you're trying to load into DDR/SRAM and debug. Also if trying to boot off the QuadSPI and nothing is programmed into it, then odd things may happen. The best thing to try is to remove the jumpers on J22, pins 1-2 and 3-4, which puts the board into serial boot loader mode and prevents other code from running.

How do I program the QuadSPI?

IAR 6.50.3 or later supports built-in programming on one of the QuadSPIs. This is being added to DS-5. You can also use the QuadSPI Loader project in the bare-metal sample code to program the QuadSPI. Instructions are in \src\projects\quadspi_load\readme.docx

Tools:

I'm having connection and debug issues with 5.14, why?

There are some bugs in DS-5 5.14. Please upgrade to 5.15.1


What is the difference between the versions of ARM DS-5?

There are two Vybrid specific versions of ARM DS-5 available:

  • The DS-5 Vybrid Tower Starter Kit is a node-locked 1-year 256KB code size limited license that is complimentary with each Vybrid Tower board purchase. It will only work with the Vybrid tower board.
  • The DS-5 Vybrid Edition is a node-locked 1-year 1MB code size limited license that has several advanced features. It is available if you buy a TWR-VF65GS10-DS5 tower kit. It will work with any custom Vybrid board.


The two versions above will work for Vybrid only. Further details can be found on the ARM DS5 Vybrid page. The normal full version of ARM DS-5 will give you access to Vybrid plus other Freescale and ARM devices.


Can I debug both cores at once? How do I do that?

Yes. In DS-5 you can connect to the board either via CMSIS-DAP with only a USB cable, or by using a DStream, and debug both cores at once in the same debugger. The instructions for using DS-5 that come with MQX go through an example of doing this with the pingpong MCC example, can can be found in the doc\tools\ds5 directory. You can also read the DS-5 QSG


You can also debug both cores in IAR by opening two instances of IAR with a JLink debugger. Instructions can be found in MQX in the
\doc\tools\iar folder


What should I watch out for when debugging both cores?

When entering debug mode on either core, it enables a system-wide internal debug signal which will halt timers and watchdogs. So for instance, if the M4 core is using the PIT, and only the A5 core is halted, the PIT will still stop counting (unless PIT_MCR[FRZ]=0). Or if using the LPTimer, all the clock sources for it will be stopped when either core is stopped.

I get errors when I open the bare-metal code example projects. Why?

They are built with the latest releases as there are several new Vybrid features. Please ensure you are using at least:

IAR 6.50.6

DS-5 5.15.1

Comments

Anthony,

Do we have a document explaining the DS-5 Editions?

- Full DS-5

- TWR edition limited to 256KB code size

- Vybrid controllers limited to 1MB code size

Luis

I updated the FAQ with that info. It'll also be on the web when Vybrid launches.

Hi Anthony,

Do you have a script file for DS-5 to initialize the QSPI similar to vf65gs10_a5_ddr.ds for DDR?

Regards,

/Joel

I found the J22 jumper on the Vybrid board that allows me to boot directly from QSPI without init code. That solves my issue.

I have a customer request... Customer does not want to use internal LDO and prefers to use an external 1.2V source.  First, what are the advantages, disavantages?? What is the recommendations for this use case, connections, pins used, not used?Which pins need to be connected to ground? Left floating?etc.

  Naoum covers that in this thread. It's not straight foward:Re: Power supply for Vybrid core

  I'll add a link to it though since that is a common question

To expand on the "I'm powering via the elevator board, and sometimes things are flaky. What's going on?" question, one of the things I've found to be flaky is that the USB1 port (J12) does not work properly when powering the system via the elevator board.  In particular, the version of Linux distributed with the board (Rev. G) will be unable to enumerate any devices connected to that port and will print error messages like the following to the serial port:

fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
hub 1-0:1.0: Cannot enable port 1.  Maybe the USB cable is bad?
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
hub 1-0:1.0: Cannot enable port 1.  Maybe the USB cable is bad?
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
fsl-ehci fsl-ehci.0: port 1 reset error -110
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device number 5 using fsl-ehci
usb 1-1: device not accepting address 5, error -71
usb 1-1: new full speed USB device number 6 using fsl-ehci
usb 1-1: device not accepting address 6, error -71
hub 1-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 1
hub 1-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 1
hub 1-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 1

Powering the system via J3 on the main board solves this problem.

Are there any other specific known issues when powering the system via the elevator board?

Hello Ian,

there are two issues:

1. Old Tower elevator module (rev.A to ref F) is not able to support more than approximately 300mA correctly due to drop on 3.3 LDO (1.3V) and schottky diode on both rails 3.3V and 5V(0.26 to 0.45V depending on the current). For example full set TWR-VF65+TWR-SER2+TWR-LCD-RGB with OOBE demo playing video takes approximately 0.9A. This issue is solved in tower elevator rev.G which can give you up 1.5A if your USB will give it to you (used LD29150DT33R LDO and MBRA210LT3G) - check your module. Default configuration of jumpers on the Vybrid module takes energy only from 5V rail from the Tower elevator module but you can change it to take energy from both rails.

2. The Vybrid module uses OpenSDA circuit (Virtual serial channel and CMSIS-DAP). The problem is that if you power the Tower module from the Tower elevator, OpenSDA is not powered and hold whole system in RESET state through RESET_B line because of ESD protection diodes inside K20 chip. It is going to be fix in rev.H of the Vybrid tower module.

So if you want to power whole Tower system with the Vybrid module from the Tower elevator you need to have the Tower elevator module rev.G or higher and isolate RESET_B line or power OpenSDA circuit from another USB cable. Most of energy will go from Tower elevator.

/Jiri

Does KDS 2.0 (Kinetis Design Studio V2.0.0) can support Vybrid MQX 4.1.2 ?

Hi Apollo,

And to answer your question directly, no, KDS does not support Vybrid. KDS is for Kinetis devices only and there are no plans to support Vybrid with it.

-Anthony

I have Vybrid CPU board Rev H with Elevator Rev H (SCH-26006 REV H, 700-26006 REV D) and trying to power the system from the Elevator USB J5. I cannot download with J-Link to the Vybrid unless I also supply power to Vybrid CPU USB J3. Is this a limitation of my hardware or is there a misapplied jumper? I recall being able to power the Vybrid Rev G boards from the Elevator without having to also connect to the Vybrid USB J3.

Hi Nancy,

look here: Vybrid TWR-VF65 debug

/Jiri

Thank you, Jiri. That did the trick.

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Last update:
‎05-10-2013 09:02 AM
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