1. Introduction to the Sitara Linux SDK
In this session we will review the various components of the Sitara Linux Software Development Kit (SDK) including the out-of-box application launcher, example applications, SDK installer, setup scripts, Code Composer Studio and other host tools including PinMux Utility and Flash Tool.
July 2012

3. Agenda Sitara SDK Roadmap What is a Software Development Kit (SDK)?
Sitara Linux SDK Objectives
Sitara Linux SDK Overview
SDK Development Process
Current SDK Features
Downloading the SDK
Documentation
SDK Target Components
Installing the SDK
SDK Target Development Tools
SDK Host Tools
Driving Mainline

4. What is an SDK?
Definitions and solutions vary, but we think an SDK should be….
More than just a board support package (BSP) or a Demo
An SDK should also contain tools for developing on TI parts
Pre-built libraries that customer applications can link against without requiring building their own
Documentation
Provide a known good starting point for product development
Start with the SDK reference distributions
Add and remove packages as needed

5. Sitara Linux SDK objectives
The purpose of the Texas Instruments Sitara Linux SDK is to provide customers with a unique out-of-box experience and a quick path to their application development.
The Sitara Linux SDK accomplishes this by providing
Example applications for key, high touch IP and peripherals
Tools for cross development and environment configuration
Host tools for device configuration
Documentation of SDK components
Out-of-box in < 10 minutes and Development in < 1 hour
A unified look and feel scaling across all Sitara devices from ARM9 to Cortex-A8 and beyond

6. Sitara Linux SDK overview
Board Support Package (BSP)
Linux Kernel, Bootloaders & File System
Documentation
Quick Start Guide & SW Developer’s Guide
Matrix Application Launcher
GUI based on PHP and HTML5
Touchscreen, Mouse & Keyboard, Web Browser
Example Applications
ARM Benchmarks, Power, Multimedia, Camera, Cryptography, WLAN/Bluetooth, Profiling, 3D Graphics
SDK Installer
Easy installation of all target and host software components and documentation
CCSv5
Linux aware debug
Preconfigured projects for example applications
Host Tools
Flash Tool, PinMux Utility

7. Sitara Linux SDK overview - Continued
Matrix Application Launcher
Qt Embedded
QWidget
QGLWidget
OpenGL ES
ARM
Benchmarks
Power Manager
Web Browser
System Information
System on Chip
Target Board
FBDEV
DSS2
McSPI
Touch
screen
Ethernet
V4L2
ALSA
VISA
UART
I2C
USB
McBSP
MMC/SD
3D Graphics
Gstreamer/FFMPEG
MPEG4, H.264, MPEG2, AAC, …
Wifi
BlueZ
USB Profiler
WLAN GUI

8. SDK agile development process
Daily Meeting
Items completed yesterday?
Plans for today?
Issues?
Nightly
Build & Test
2 weeks
Nightly Build & Test
Daily build using OE
Daily tests on dedicated systems using testlink
Daily
Release Planning Meeting
Review Release Cycle Backlog
Estimate Release Cycle Backlog
Commit to 1-2 weeks
Release Review Meeting
Demo release to BU
Retrospective on the Release Cycle
Alpha RC
SDK
Release
Cycles
with
Prioritized
Requirements
Beta1
Beta2
Cycle Requirements
SDK Release
Increments
Beta2
Beta1 RC
Alpha

9. Release Candidate (RC)
SDK release cycles T0
T0 + 2wks
2wks
T0 + 4wks
Alpha + 2wks
T0 + 6wks
Beta1 + 2wks
T0 + 7wks
Beta2 + 1wk
T0 + 8wks
RC + 1wk
T0 + 9wks
SysTest + 1wk
Time = 0
PSP recipe received
EVMs in hand
Alpha
(Proto1)
Cycle Start Review MRD
Complete SDK Req’s
Increment SDK version
Kickoff Nightly Builds
Cycle End
Build review
Base SDK Requirements Fulfilled
Beta1
(Proto2)
Cycle Start
Review Alpha results
Add new features and component updates
Cycle End
Build review
Beta1 Cycle Requirements Fulfilled
Beta2
(Proto3)
Cycle Start
Review Beta1 results
Add new features and component updates
Final recipes submitted by start of 2nd wk
Cycle End
Build review
Beta2 Cycle Req’s Fulfilled
Sign off from
Comp Owners
Legal, OSRB & GTC approvals
Release Candidate (RC)
Cycle Start
Review Beta 2 results
No new features
Bug fixes and patches only
Stop Nightly Build
Create Integration branch
Cycle End
Build review
RC Cycle Req’s Fulfilled
Sign off from BU
System Test
Cycle Start
Push RC to System Test for validation
Resolve Critical issues only
Remove/hide components if necessary
Release Note other issues
Cycle End
Release RC to ti.com & board vendors
Re-Integration
Integration patches pushed to Arago mainline
Occurs after the SDK release.
Cycle End
Push integration patches back to Arago mainline

10. Nightly automation overview
Open Source Mainlines
Arago and OpenEmbedded
Next Branches
Master Branches
Target Tests
Publish Build and Test Results to Arago Site
Build Next Branches
Arago Nightly Build
sdit-build01
OpenTest
Target Tests
Host Tests
Release
Host Content Build
Target Content Build
Productize
SDK Nightly Build
sdit-build01
neo
OpenTest

11. SDK automation flow - Nightly
Kernel & FS
Components
CCSv5 &
other Proprietary SW
Front End Build Server
Arago baseline distro
Back End Build Server
SDK Installers
Release
Web Server Push
SD Card contents
Webgen contents
Board Vendor
SD Card
Contents
OpenTest
TI.com
software-dl & contents
Target Tests
Host Tests

12. Obtaining the SDK
The Sitara SDK is provided on an SD card in the box with the EVM
NOTE: Some boards like the BeagleBoard and BeagleBone may come without the SDK SD card in the box
Often you will want to download the latest SDK from ti.com to get updates.
There is now a central location for finding all Sitara Linux SDKs at

13. Obtaining the SDK - Continued
Each SDK page contains not only the single SDK installer, but also has many individual SDK components pulled out for smaller and quicker downloads
Single Installer
Individual
Components

14. Documentation - Quick Start Guide

15. Documentation - Software developer’s guide
This guide is a wiki based document hosted externally at er%E2%80%99s_Guide
Wiki based for instant updates & access
Step by Step details
How to start development using this SDK
Links to additional documentation such as
Component User’s Guides
PSP release notes
Host system configuration instructions
Also provided online and within the SDK as a pdf document

16. Sitara Linux training
There is considerable Linux training material available to our customers as well when using the Sitara Linux SDK.
Within the Software Developer’s Guide there is a Sitara Linux Training link that provides both the lecture and lab content
All content is licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike (CC BY-SA v3.0)
Example training sessions include:
Hands On with Sitara Linux SDK (lecture/lab)
Linux Qt GUI Development (lecture/labs)
Optimizing Linux Boot Time
U-Boot & Linux Kernel Board Port (lecture/labs)
And many more…

17. SDK target components - Matrix Supports: All Platforms
Matrix is the out-of-box experience application contained within the SDK and is launched automatically when the development board is booted
Matrix is a PHP application running on an instance of the lighttpd web server on the target device and serving up HTML5 content
The display is a simple Qt application using webkit to render the HTML being generated
Because Matrix is a web application it can also be controlled from remote by connecting to the target board with a modern web browser
This provides interaction with the running Linux system even on boards without video display capabilities

18. Matrix - Continued
Matrix can be used to launch applications on the target system
The content displayed within the Matrix screen is dynamically created by parsing .desktop files contained within the file system.
Applications bring their own description data making adding additional functionality and demos as easy as installing the application
Where possible the .desktop fields are based on the standard specified by freedesktop.
The rest of the .desktop fields as well as additional information on Matrix can be found at

19. SDK target components - Power Supports: AM37x, Beagleboard-xM
Located in the “Power” submenu of matrix
The power submenu has applications that show:
How to transition between different CPU frequencies
Suspend and resume of the device
The options available can vary based on the capabilities of the device
User’s Guide available at de

20. SDK target components - MultiMedia Supports: AM335x, AM35x, AM37x, Beagleboard-xM
Located in the “Multimedia” submenu
Based on Gstreamer media framework
Allows building dynamic pipelines that describe the data input, transformation operations, and output.
Pipelines are flexible and behaviour can be changed based on adjusting the elements in the pipeline
All media components are open source and provided without licensing restrictions
For Sitara devices with a Neon coprocessor (Cortex devices)
The ffmpeg Neon codecs are used to accelerate video decode operations
User’s Guide available at

21. SDK Target Components - Camera Supports: AM37x
Launched with the “Camera Loopback” button
For devices with a camera input this application demonstrates how to take data from the media controller interface and output to the display.
User’s Guide available at

22. SDK Target Components - Cryptography Supports: All Platforms
Located in the “Cryptos” submenu
Uses the OpenSSL open source package to demonstrate a variety of cryptographic operations and performance metrics.
On devices with cryptography accelerators the cryptodev API is available to allow OpenSSL to take advantage of hardware acceleration.
This operation is seamless to the user and will occur automatically if the hardware is available
Cryptographic software has TSU exemption filed and the software is hosted at
User’s Guide available at

23. SDK Target Components - WLAN/BT Supports: AM335x, AM37x, AM180x
WLAN located in the “Wi-Fi” submenu
The applications demonstrate configuring the device in:
SoftAP mode - the device acts as an access point
WPA - connect to an existing network
WiFi Direct - enables peer-to-peer connections between a group of up to 8 devices
Uses the wpa-supplicant open source software stack
Wpa-supplicant software has TSU exemption filed and the software is hosted at
BT application is launched using the “Bluetooth” button
This application shows using the device to:
Connect a bluetooth HID device such as a bluetooth keyboard
Connect a bluetooth audio device to stream audio data
Qt based GUI for configuring bluetooth and scanning for devices
Uses the bluez open source software stack
Information about additional command line demos can be found at _Bluetooth_demos

24. SDK Target Components - 3D Supports: AM335x, Beaglebone, AM35x, AM37x, Beagleboard-xM
Located in the “3D” submenu
The applications demonstrate the use of the SGX graphics accelerator on devices with an SGX for 3D operations
The driver and application sources as well as the SGX libraries are provided in the Sitara SDK as part of the graphics SDK which is packaged within it.
This SDK is produced by the graphics team from the Graphics DDK from Imagination
Supports
OpenGL ES 1.1
OpenGL ES 2.0
OpenVG

25. SDK Target Components - ARM Benchmarks Supports: All Platforms
Located in the “ARM” submenu
The following benchmars are provided
Dhrystone - Measures relative CPU cycles for comparison with other processors run from L1 cache
Linpack - Measures CPU speed for single-precission floating point operations
Whetstone - Measures CPU speed for double-precission floating point operations
Lmbench benchmarks
Communication bandwidth - measure bandwidth between processes
Communication latency - measure latency for various control messages
DDR bandwidth - measure memory bandwidth
Memory latency - measure memory latency

26. SDK Target Components - Profiling Supports: All Platforms
Located in the “Profiling” submenu
The applications in this demonstrate how to use the open source Oprofile application to:
Generate different reports from assembly level to long detailed reports
Allows profiling two different applications to demonstrate how Oprofile can be used
An application where one thread waits on another in a busy wait loop. This shows the CPU utilization of the busy wait
An application where one thread waits on another and is notified using a signal. This shows the low CPU utilization that signals can provide.

27. Installing the SDK
The Sitara Linux SDK is delivered as a single installer
NOTE: The Sitara Linux SDK will also provide the option to install CCSv5 if the CCSv5 installer in found in the local directory. When installing from the SD card the CCSv5 installer is already placed in the local directory
The Sitara Linux SDK installation has been streamlined to make installation quick and easy. The customer only needs to select:
The installation location
Whether or not to install CCSv5 if present
The installer also notifies the user of important information such as
The default recommended environment
Notice of GPLv3 content within the SDK and information on how to remove it
The location of the setup scripts within the SDK for additional configuration
The installer has been designed such that “root” permission is not required to install and evaluate the SDK.

28. SDK Target Development Tools
These are the tools provided on the host to enable developing for the Sitara device.
These tools are components of the SDK that are installed on the host that are:
Run on the target
Build code to run on the target
Directly configure the target
They include
Cross Compiler
Cross Libraries
Board Support Packages
Top-level Makefiles
Setup Scripts

29. SDK Target Development Tools - Cross Compiler
The Sitara SDK contains its own GCC based ARM cross-compiler
This eliminates the need for a separate toolchain download and removes the need for the customer to provide a toolchain location
This toolchain is optimized for the processor family the SDK is targetting:
Previous CodeSourcery toolchains were made generic to ARM so that they could support both ARM9 and Cortex-A8 devices.
This meant that libraries that could take advantage of the Neon coprocessor such as libm were not utilizing the Cortex-A8 to its full potential
The toolchain included with the SDK for Cortex-A8 devices has been optimized for Cortex devices and uses the Neon coprocessor
The cross compiler is located in the linux-devkit/bin directory of the SDK
This cross compiler is also paired with a gdbserver installed on the reference file system to allow for source code debugging

30. SDK Target Development Tools - Cross Libraries
The Sitara SDK ships with many open source libraries already cross compiled and ready for linking
The libraries are located in the linux-devkit directory of the SDK
There is a script in the linux-devkit directory of the SDK called “environment-setup”. Sourcing this script will configure your development environment for cross compiling by performing actions such as:
Setting standard compile variables such as CC for the cross compiler
Adding the cross compiler to the PATH
Setting the PKG_CONFIG and other autotools settings to the cross libraries
Configuring the Qt variables
Sourcing the environment setup file will prepare the host system for target development
Users can identify if the environment-setup script has been sources because their prompt will change to say “linux- devkit”

31. SDK Target Development Tools - Board Support Package
At the top-level of the SDK there is a directory called “board-support”. This directory contains the components required to port to your custom hardware.
This includes:
The Linux kernel sources
The bootloader sources
In most cases the u-boot SPL is used in place of x-loader, which has been deprecated.
Driver source for out-of-tree drivers
The contents of this directory are usually pieces of the SDK that will require modification/configuration/rebuilding when porting to a new hardware platform
You will also find pre-built kernel and bootloader images in a “prebuilt-images” directory that can be used to boot the TI EVM

32. SDK Target Development Tools - Top-level Makefile
At the top-level of the SDK there is a Makefile and a Rules.make file. These files can be used to build the SDK components as well as to import useful settings.
Rules.make - Provides settings used by component Makefiles for building the components. These include setting for the cross compiler and machine being built.
Makefile - This Makefile contains targets to build, install, and clean most of the components of the SDK such as the board-support packages and the example applications

33. SDK Target Development Tools - Setup Scripts
At the top-level of the Sitara SDK there is a script called setup.sh. This script should be run with “root” permission and will assist in configuring the development host and EVM.
The general flow is to
Install required host side packages such as tftp server and nfs server
Prompt the user for how they would like to configure the EVM
TFTP kernel + NFS file system
SD kernel + NFS file system
TFTP kernel + SD file system
SD kernel + SD file system
Setup the TFTP and NFS images if selected
Send the configuration to the EVM

34. SDK Host Tools
These tools are intended to run on the host and assist with the configuration of Sitara devices
These tools differ from the SDK Target Development tools in that they are not performing cross-compilation or contain code meant to run directly on the target
Most of these tools can be found in the “host-tools” directory of the SDK

35. SDK Host Tools - Pinmux
This tool allows users to select the peripherals and interfaces they intend to use and identifies pin conflicts if any
Each platform has a default configuration file to serve as a starting point
The output of the tool is a sample header file that can be used as a reference to configure the u-boot bootloader for the user’s configuration
The user’s guide can be found at p/Pin_Mux_Utility_for_ARM_MPU_Pr ocessors

36. SDK Host Tools - Flash Tool
This tool was created to assist customers with flashing a board that has no existing bootloaders flashed.
This could be because the bootloaders were erased, or in production where clean memory devices are installed which do not have any software loaded yet.
The flash tool has the following features:
Open source & scalable
Supports additional NAND types through configuration files
Support ECC & ONFI
Supports UART & USB protocols
Developed in Qt

37. CCSv5 The Sitara SDK also comes with CCSv5 available as:
Download for web updates
On the 3rd partition of the in-the-box SD card
CCSv5 provides the following features
Eclipse based
Runs on Linux for debugging Linux
Multi-core debug
Run-Mode Linux debug support
Remote GDB debug
Debug Linux applications and kernel
Stop-Mode Linux support
Control target using JTAG
Enables examination of target and current Linux process
Requires installation of emulator package
In addition to the standard CCSv5 package the Sitara SDK also adds the following plugins
Remote System Explorer

38. Driving Mainline What is it?
The ability to provide our customers a stable release from the community with an incremental patch set
Scope
Mainline applies to all 3 primary components of our Linux solution
Uboot denx.de
Linux kernel kernel.org
Filesystem OpenEmbedded/Yocto
Each has its own *mainline* consisting of well documented development flows, release schedules, git trees & maintainers
Benefits
Insanely easy, “just works” Linux solutions
Easy board port to customer’s platforms
Continued support of Existing Devices
New Device development is incremental
Bandwidth to focus on more middleware/applications
Potential to enable Reference Designs

39. For more Sitara Boot Camp sessions visit: www.ti.com/sitarabootcamp
Thank you!