[meta-xilinx] ZC702 support in Xilinx meta-xilinx

[Elvis Dowson]

Hi Sipke,
I like the idea of creating meta-board ayers, but do you intend to build a meta-board layer for each development board? e.g meta-zedboard, meta-zc702, meta-zc706, meta-zc770, meta-vc707, meta-vc709, etc?

I've seen the meta-intel layers, as well, and the thing that comes to mind is that the Xilinx platforms are a bit unique in that things are not fixed and are hardware programmable by nature.

For all classes of development boards across the Spartan, Artix, Kintex and Virtex families, you can end up using the microblaze processor, with kernel support derived from a single source for the kernel and bootloader. You can supply defconfigs and dts files and patches in a single layer or multiple layers, but do you intend to create a meta-layer for each board? There will be a lot of commonality between boards, so while I really like the concept of using meta-board layers, at some point the return on investment for the split doesnt pay back, versus just simply supplying a board specific machine-config in a common layer.

Perhaps you should organize using SOC_FAMILY in meta layers instead, e.g meta-microblaze, meta-zynq-7, etc, and then create meta-board layers like meta-zedboard, meta-zc702, meta-zc770, etc that leverage those meta SOC_FAMILY layers. This way you would have core SOC support, and others can leverage of example meta-board layer templates.

Additionally while on this topic, any thoughts on how one would maintain different configurations for a board, using different kernel sources, e.g Xilinx and Analog Devices, and manage this in an easy way in a custom board layer and switch between them?

Elvis Dowson

On Apr 23, 2013, at 10:26, Sipke Vriend <sipke.vriend at xilinx.com> wrote:

> Hi Philip,
> 
> I've pushed the current state of our kernel and u-boot recipes in 
> github.com/Xilinx/meta-xilinx.
> They are both in development, but show our current thoughts on how they
> might look. Only a meta-zedboard bsp layer at this point, but the ZC702 fill follow 
> the same concept. There will still be some refactoring, including fragments 
> for defconfigs and dts.
> The meta-workarounds/misc/build folder has the corresponding local.conf 
> files as examples.
> 
> Regards
> Sipke
> 
> 
>> On 04/17/2013 12:20 AM, Sipke Vriend wrote:
>>> Hi Philip,
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: meta-xilinx-bounces at yoctoproject.org 
>>>> [mailto:meta-xilinx-bounces at yoctoproject.org] On Behalf Of Philip Balister
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, 17 April 2013 3:53 AM
>>>> To: meta-xilinx at yoctoproject.org
>>>> Subject: [meta-xilinx] ZC702 support in Xilinx meta-xilinx
>>>> 
>>>> Will Xilinx take patches adding support for the zc702 to their
>>>> meta-xilinx layer? I'd like to start adding it to my layer stack so I
>>>> can make sure it works for me (and I do not get any breakage from the
>>>> other changes in the layer :)
>>> 
>>> If the 'patches' you are referring to are something not already exemplified 
>>> in your repository then feel free to email me with requests or suggestions. 
>>> Our work is very developmental so real patches are not desired at this point. 
>>> Currently we have been using all layers as pseudo-patches, i.e inspiration 
>>> for our work in an attempt to ensure our 'bottom rung architecture' layer 
>>> is successful.
>>> 
>>>> I am trying to avoid chasing layers to find the best one for each
>>>> situation and also would like the zynq community to have a central place
>>>> for a BSP.
>>> 
>>> I guess that falls into our plan, though remember our layer will  
>>> possibly be more minimalistic than needed by some - i.e will require a
>>> layer on top.
>> 
>> Can you push your zynq kernel recipe? That is really my main focus at
>> the moment.
>> 
>> Philip
>> 
>>> 
>>> We are planning to model our meta-xilinx similar to meta-intel where the core 
>>> architecture items are in the root directory of meta-xilinx and then there will be 
>>> numerous meta- folders for each supported bsp or bsp group. This is not visible in 
>>> repository currently.
>>> Source code wise (kernel, uboot, qemu) all recipes will firstly be based on Xilinx 
>>> repositories and will select known stable commits.
>>> 
>>>> Philip
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> meta-xilinx mailing list
>>>> meta-xilinx at yoctoproject.org
>>>> https://lists.yoctoproject.org/listinfo/meta-xilinx
> 
> 
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