<Artyom>
kristainpaul I want to thank you for pointing me towards TDC-project :)
<kristianpaul>
oh, how it went?
<Artyom>
I could start it on my board and I saw some text through UART :)
<kristianpaul>
yay !
<Artyom>
But I have several questions... Can I ask you?
<kristianpaul>
oh absoulutelly
<Artyom>
First of all I want to uderstand where can I put my own program? In the example all the code is placed in the FPGA block-RAM. But if the program is big then where it can be placed?
<kristianpaul>
it dint booted a bios?
<kristianpaul>
okay, of course that port cant run linux
<Artyom>
I think it boot bios...
<kristianpaul>
but you usually can copmile you own standalone program and link it with the bios i think, or load by bios
<Artyom>
but in what memory can I store the programs? Can it be some external flash-memory?
<kristianpaul>
ah this bios is a bit limited
<kristianpaul>
but there is other milkymist bios with more options let me point it to it
<kristianpaul>
flash-memory yes
<kristianpaul>
but of course that means you need add support for that in your board
<kristianpaul>
even the same bios on my M1 board can boot trought network
<Artyom>
will the prgram be exacuted from flash in this case? Or it first should be loaded from flash to some fpga-block memory at first?
<kristianpaul>
first is loaded to ram, i think its called execute-in-place
<kristianpaul>
but in the TDC port dont seems like it
<Artyom>
What can be used as RAM? Only FPGA-block memory or also DDR SDRAM?
<kristianpaul>
yes DDR ram is posible too, but requires more of work
<kristianpaul>
s/ram/sdram
<Artyom>
Is DDR SDRAM slower then FPGA block memory?
<kristianpaul>
i dont think so
<kristianpaul>
at least the implementation milkymist uses seems to be good
<Artyom>
And final questions: Do I need different Makefiles and *.ld files for compiling programs for SDRAM or block memory?
<kristianpaul>
hum thats a good one
<kristianpaul>
for block memory i think i came from a .rom file i'm, not sure i have look all tdc soc
<kristianpaul>
can you join /j #milkymist btw :-) i think lekernel there can explain better about block memory
<kristianpaul>
but for sdram as i said, with the bios you can load programs to memory
<Artyom>
kristainpaul: thank a lot for your answers. They help me to plan how to study milkymist :)
<kristianpaul>
of course sdram usually provides more
<wpwrak>
i shouldn't try to be faster than i am ;-)
<Artyom>
thanks a lot :)
<Artyom>
How is your work with gps? Did you start the board with the front-end clock?
<kristianpaul>
i wanted to boot...
<kristianpaul>
but i wotn
<kristianpaul>
wont*
<kristianpaul>
i mean, besides the gclk pin i got is not buffered or something, so i must declare that pin like not a main clock (wich of course is not true)
<Artyom>
you couldn't use GCK pin for external reference clock?
<kristianpaul>
i do, but the pin is not part bufg,
<kristianpaul>
but is gclk
<kristianpaul>
so xst complains about it :(
<kristianpaul>
part of BUFIO2
<Artyom>
And what is the result? DDCM doesn't work?
<kristianpaul>
i set dcm to generate 81900 hz clock, but i tried no boot..
<kristianpaul>
i havent to time to check if i met timings, wich i bet i dint after declare that CLOCK_DEDICATED_ROUTE = FALSE;
<Artyom>
Did you try to check this signal with scope?
<kristianpaul>
how check, signal from DCM out? no i havent yet i wil yes
<kristianpaul>
busy week, i now i travel again back to pasto, trying to reach the cathedral at ipiales :)
<kristianpaul>
i'm really considerin get a part time work :)
<Artyom>
you can just assign signal from DCM to some pin and use the scope to check it...
<Artyom>
Seems that you like to travel :)
<Artyom>
it's a good season now?
<kristianpaul>
all is cheap now yes :), but now is familly travel, i just recomend visit pasto and where we go..
<kristianpaul>
s/where/there
<kristianpaul>
Artyom: i worst case i have a spartan3 board to test
<kristianpaul>
but i still want to use M1 and worth it ;)
<Artyom>
what board do you have? :)
<kristianpaul>
Avnet Spartan-3A Evaluation Kit
<Artyom>
And I have also digilent s3eboard...
<kristianpaul>
Artyom: bw aware own libc from this bios, i had surprises for printf and floats
<Artyom>
ok... It seems that I will have to spend couple of months playing with milkymist SoC before I will be able to make something useful ;)
<kristianpaul>
osgps is not that complex to be intetrated in the bios as a comand i think
<kristianpaul>
also the isr have examples already (uart code)
<kristianpaul>
at least for one tracking channel i hope i can run, even if you dont have sdram