ADI GNU toolchain / News: Recent posts

The 2013R1 Linux release for Blackfin

Some performance and stabilization issues have been fixed since last release. Therefore, we announce the 2013R1 Linux release for both BF5xx and BF60x families to address these issues. Please upgrade to the buildroot distribution in the 2013R1 release for latest revision Linux kernel and middle wares. An overview and basic development guide for the buildroot can be found at http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/doku.php?id=buildroot_on_blackfin .... read more

The new buildroot distribution was introduced in the 2012R1 Linux release for BF60x in Aug. 2012. To help BF5xx customers to leverage new features in the buildroot distribution, we are pleased to announce the 2012R2 buildroot Linux release for both BF5xx and BF60x families. Although the uClinux related issues in 2011R1 and former releases are still supported via the Linux community on the ADI Engineering Zone, the uClinux distribution for BF5xx is discontinued since the 2012R2 release. Please upgrade to the buildroot distribution in the 2012R2 release for latest features in Linux kernel and middle wares. An overview and basic development guide for the buildroot can be found at http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/doku.php?id=buildroot_on_blackfin .... read more

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.... read more

ADSP-BF60x is the new generation Blackfin® dual-core processor announced by ADI 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 BETA1 release of the Linux distribution for the BF60x family.

This release includes 3 packages: 2012R1-BETA1-BF60X buildroot Linux distribution, 2012R1-BETA1 GNU toolchain and 2012R1-BETA1-BF60X Das U-boot. Buildroot Linux distribution is introduced for ADI BF60x and future processors for the first time. An overview and basic guide can be found at http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/doku.php?id=buildroot_on_blackfin . All BF5xx processors are still supported in the uClinux distribution, but they are not part of this BF60x specific release. Das U-boot and GNU toolchain now support both BF60x and BF5xx. But, they are only tested against BF60x in this release. That means this 2012R1 Beta release aims BF60x based products only.... read more

Posted By: Robin Getz

The Analog Devices ADZS-ICE-100B USB ICE is now supported by the open source tools. Support is included trunk, and will be included in the 2010R1 release.

For more details, check out:
http://docs.blackfin.uclinux.org/doku.php?id=hw:jtag:ice100b

Posted By: Robin Getz

There has been lots of recent work on the simulator inside of gdb - and it is getting both more stable (less crashes) and more functionally accurate (acts like the core) and complete (more Blackfin instructions have been added)

The goal is for it to be able to run every instructions that the hardware supports (there are
still a few that are missing) - there are plans to add the Core interrupt controller (already done), so developing bare metal applications, handling exceptions, etc - should work.... read more

Posted By: Robin Getz

Analog Devices has set up a survey in an attempt to determine how people use their processors. If you have 5-8 minutes, please fill it out, telling them how your experience with Blackfin (and open source) has been (good or bad).

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB2296CKJ5YNP

Thanks for taking the time to complete the survey.

Posted By: Robin Getz

Ed Sutter has recently ported Micromonitor to the Blackfin with the GNU Toolchain.

Micromonitor:
MicroMonitor (i.e. uMon) is a free embedded system boot platform centered around an extensible embedded flash file system called TFS. With TFS in the monitor, data transfer protocols like XMODEM and TFTP (also in the monitor) can refer to filenames instead of address space. The whole boot-up strategy is driven by the content of one or more files that can be scripts or executable images. The file system is accessible at the command line and through an API available to the application. The API provides a flexible means of reading and writing files in flash, plus TFS provides power-safe runtime defragmentation as the flash fills up.... read more

Posted By: Maggie Nakhla

The University of Szeged (Department of Software Engineering) in Szeged, Hungary recently added Blackfin to their GCC Code-Size Benchmark Environment (CSiBE). CSiBE is a code size benchmark for the GCC compiler. The main measurement of this benchmark is code density, which is important for embedded developers, as it directly relates to cost of the system (size of the flash).... read more