2012-08-01 2012R1 Linux distribution for BF60x is offially released today.

ADSP-BF60x is the new generation Blackfin® dual-core processor announced by Analog Devices in late March, 2012. See news at http://www.analog.com/en/press-release/03_28_12_ADI_Blackfin_Processors_Accelerated_Visio/press.html To engage customers into the BF60x based product development earlier, we are pleased to announce the 2012R1 Linux stable release for the BF60x family.

This release includes 3 packages: 2012R1-RC6-BF60X buildroot Linux distribution, 2012R1-RC2 GNU toolchain and 2012R1-RC4-BF60X Das U-boot. The buildroot Linux distribution is introduced for ADI BF60x and future processors. An overview and basic guide can be found at http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/doku.php?id=buildroot_on_blackfin . BF5xx processors are still supported in the uClinux distribution, but they are not part of this BF60x specific Linux release. Das U-boot and GNU toolchain support both BF60x and BF5xx. But, they are only tested against BF60x in this release. Overall, this 2012R1 stable release is for BF60x only.

The released binary images, source code and testing results are free to download from the same web site. We appreciate your bug reports and suggestions. These should be submitted via the appropriate support forums, listed at the end of this document.

New features in this release:

[GNU Toolchain]
- Toolchain stays with GCC 4.3. Das u-boot stays with 2011.09. Linux kernel is updated to 3.3.0. Buildroot is based on 2011.05 release.
- CPU type BF606, BF607, BF608 and BF609 are supported by GCC. LDR utility is revised to generate BF60x style LDR binary. JTAG debug utility are upgraded to know BF609. GDB stays at v6.6. binutility moves up to 2.21.
- uClibc stays at v0.9.29 with new functions exp2, exp2f, log2 and log2f functions supported.

[Das U-boot]
- Das U-boot support 4 boot modes for BF609, SPI master boot, NOR flash boot, UART boot and SD boot.
- EMAC, SD, UART, I2C/TWI, USB, SPI, SPI flash, NOR flash uboot drivers are ported to BF609 EZ-Kit.

[Linux Kernel]
- Port DMA, EMAC, RSI/SD, UART, I2C/TWI, USB, SPI flash, NOR flash, CAN, Rotary, watchdog and GP timer Linux drivers to BF609.
- Develop new Linux drivers for BF609 EZ-Kit, such as SEC, SPI, CRC, link port, etc.
- Add ieee1588 hardware time stamp support in BF609 EMAC driver. Support IEEE1588 v2 protocol in new PTPd2 server with average 500ns time offset.
- MCAPI library and ICC driver is implemented to support inter core communication between Linux on BF60x core 0 and CrossCore® Embedded Studio application on core 1. GNU bare metal MCAPI support for core 1 is also available.
- Develop new ADV7842 and ADV7511 HDMI V4L2 video out and video in drivers for BF60x-Ezkit video extenders. Video format 720P at 50/60Hz is supported.
- VS6624 V4L2 camera driver are enabled via BF609 style EPPI controller.
- ad1761 ASOC sound drivers are enabled on top of new BF609 SPORT controller.
- USB video camera driver for NOMMU architecture is validated on BF609 EZ-Kit.
- Enable Linux power management and CPU frequency features for BF609. New wake up sources are supported.

[Others]
- Set up new Jenkins based test framework to ease debugging and progress tracking.
- Bring up new buildroot Linux distribution for bf60x and future processors. Most user packages in uClinux distribution as well as many other packages are included.

Please read the release notes for more information:
http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/doku.php?id=uclinux-dist:release-notes:2012r1-bf6xx
http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/doku.php?id=toolchain:release-notes:2012r1
http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/doku.php?id=bootloaders:u-boot:release-notes:2012r1-rc1-bf60x

Find 2012R1-RC6-BF60X Linux distribution source code, bootable images and test results at http://sourceforge.net/projects/adi-buildroot/files/2012R1/

Find 2012R1-RC2 toolchain binaries, source code and test results at http://sourceforge.net/projects/adi-toolchain/files/2012R1-BF60X/

Find 2012R1-RC4-BF60X uboot source code, bootable images and test results at http://sourceforge.net/projects/adi-buildroot/files/2012R1/

Any questions, please send email to respective mailing list or the Analog Devices Engineer Zone Communities.

Linux and application issues:
adi-buildroot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
http://ez.analog.com/community/dsp/software-and-development-tools/linux-blackfin

Toolchain and debugging tool issues:
adi-toolchain-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
http://ez.analog.com/community/dsp/software-and-development-tools/gnu-toolchain-blackfin

Das u-boot issues:
adi-u-boot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
http://ez.analog.com/community/dsp/software-and-development-tools/uboot-blackfin

You can also check out the source code from the SCMs

git clone http://git.code.sf.net/p/adi-toolchain/blackfin
git checkout 2012R1-RC2

git clone http://git.code.sf.net/p/adi-buildroot/code
git checkout 2012R1-RC6-BF60X

git clone http://git.code.sf.net/p/adi-linux/code
git checkout 2012R1-RC6-BF60X

git clone http://git.code.sf.net/p/adi-u-boot/code
git checkout 2012R1-RC4-BF60X