EIE4-FYP/demo

Bare Metal Demo App

This directory provides a minimal bare metal demo app that demonstrates how to easily create a bare metal C application and load it/run it on the CPU of a SoC.

Build and Load over LiteX-Term

To build a LiteX SoC for the Arty board (available in LiteX-Boards) and build the demo app for it, execute the following commands:

python3 -m litex_boards.targets.digilent_arty --build --load
litex_bare_metal_demo --build-path=build/digilent_arty

Where --build-path is the build path to the Arty build directory. The Arty board is used here but almost any another board supported in LiteX-Boards could be used. When no external RAM is provided directly by the board, --integrated-main-ram-size argument could be used to add some integrated RAM in the SoC and be able to execute the demo from it. (ex --integrated-main-ram-size=0x8000 will add 32KB of integrated RAM).

Loading the compiled demo app can be done in different ways as explain in LiteX's wiki

Since our app is small and for simplicity we'll just load it over serial here: $ litex_term /dev/ttyUSBX --kernel=demo.bin

You should see the minimal demo app running and should be able to interact with it:

--============== Boot ==================--
Booting from serial...
Press Q or ESC to abort boot completely.
sL5DdSMmkekro
[LITEX-TERM] Received firmware download request from the device.
[LITEX-TERM] Uploading demo.bin to 0x40000000 (9264 bytes)...
[LITEX-TERM] Upload complete (9.8KB/s).
[LITEX-TERM] Booting the device.
[LITEX-TERM] Done.
Executing booted program at 0x40000000

--============= Liftoff! ===============--

LiteX minimal demo app built Dec 10 2020 17:13:02

Available commands:
help               - Show this command
reboot             - Reboot CPU
led                - Led demo
donut              - Spinning Donut demo
litex-demo-app> led
Led demo...
Counter mode...
Shift mode...
Dance mode...
litex-demo-app> donut
Donut demo...

                                      $$$$$@@@@@
                                  $##########$$$$$$$$
                                ###*!!!!!!!!!***##$$$$$$
                              ***!!====;;;;===!!**###$$$$#
                            **!===;;;:::::;:===!!**####$##
                          !*!!==;;:~-,,.,-~::;;=!!**#######!
                          !!!!=;:~-,.......-~::==!!***#####*
                          !!!!==;~~-.........,-:;==!!***###**!
                          !**!!=;:~-...     ..-:;=!!!********!
                        ;!*#####*!!;.       ~:;==!!!******!!=
                        :!*###$$$$#*!      :;==!!!!!****!!!=;
                        ~=!*#$$$@@@$$##!!!!!!!!!!!!****!!!!=;
                          ;=!*#$$$@@@@$$#*******!*!!*!!!!!==;~
                          -;!*###$$$$$$$###******!!!!!!!===;~
                          -;!!*####$#####******!!!!!!==;;:-
                            ,:=!!!!**#**#***!!!!!!!====;:~,
                              -:==!!!*!!*!!!!!!!===;;;:~-
                                .~:;;========;=;;:::~-,
                                  .--~~::::~:~~--,.
litex-demo-app>

Replace the LiteX BIOS with the Demo App

In some cases, we'll just want to replace the LiteX BIOS with our custom app. This demo can be used as a basis to create a such custom app.

The demo will be recompiled to target the ROM of the SoC:

litex_bare_metal_demo --build-path=build/arty/ --mem=rom

The SoC can then be re-compiled to integrate the demo app in the ROM with:

python3 -m litex_boards.targets.digilent_arty --integrated-rom-init=demo.bin --build --load

When loading the bitstream, you should then directly see the demo app executed:

LiteX minimal demo app built Dec 10 2020 17:13:02

Available commands:
help               - Show this command
reboot             - Reboot CPU
led                - Led demo
donut              - Spinning Donut demo
litex-demo-app>

Going further

To create more complex apps, feel free to explore the source code of the BIOS or other open source projects build with LiteX on the GitHub wiki.