Release Notes for Spectrum Digital C6000/C6400 Emulation Drivers

Spectrum Digital Inc

12502 Exchange Dr.

Suite 440

Stafford, Texas 77477

Web: http://www.spectrumdigital.com/

Ftp: ftp://ftp.spectrumdigital.com/pub/index.htm

Support: mailto:support@spectrumdigital.com

Phone: 281-494-4500

Fax: 281-494-5310

Processors Supported

TMS320C6X0X, TMS320C6X1X, TMS320C64xx (Rev 1.03 and Rev 1.10)

Operating Systems Supported

Windows NT-4 Service pack 6 or higher

Windows 2000 with service pack 2 or higher, service pack 3 recommended for improved USB support

Windows 98-SE

Windows XP, service pack 1 recommended for improved USB support

Emulators Supported:

XDS510PP, SPI510, SPI515, XDS510PP_PLUS, SPI525, XDS510USB

Code Composer Version Supported:

Release 2.20-2.21

Product Release: 2.20.03

Release Date; Jan-2004

New Features

• Fix C67xx/C62xx RTDX problem in release 2.20.02
• Update XDS510USB drivers to improve code step performance
• Update SDFlash binary to v1.60 for side-by-side support with C2000 tools
• Update SDConfig to support changes in SDFlash v1.60

History

Release 2.20.02

• Include XDS510USB driver as part of the install

Release 2.20

• Support for CCS 2.2

Installation

Installation is integrated with CCS. See CCS install instructions or Quick Start included with your emulator. To install from the Spectrum Digital ftp site download the latest drivers, unzip drivers to temp directory and run the self-extracting installation. The XDS510USB .sys and .inf files are on the root directory of your CD. They will also be placed in the <INSTALL_DIR>\specdig\xds510usb directory during the install. When you plug in the XDS510USB emulator the Windows hardware wizard will attempt to install low-level Windows drivers. If you have the install CD let Windows automatically find the drivers. If installing from the ftp site then include <INSTALL_DIR>\specdig\xds510usb in the search path.

Where To Find Things

Under the installation directory, <INSTALL_DIR> you can find the following:

• docs\pdf : Emulator user guides and schematics.
• docs\releasenotes: This file and other release notes.
• drivers: Emulation drivers, *.dvr files.
• drivers\import: CCS setup configuration files.
• specdig\SDConfig: Spectrum Digital emulator configuration utility.
• Specdig\SDFlash Spectrum Digital flash programming utility
• Specdig\xds510usb XDS510USB win32 .sys and .inf file.

SDFlash

The SDFlash utility is included for programming support. Device specific algorithm and example files are not included in the base install. You can find these in one of three places for the specific device you wish to program.

1. On the installation CD in zip format.
2. On the Spectrum Digital web/ftp site.
3. On the Texas Instruments web/ftp site.

Basic instructions on where to unzip the flash files are documented in the “project_readme.txt” file located in the “specdig\sdflash\myprojects” directory.

SDConfig

In version 2.2x of CCS you have the ability to run external emulator diagnostics during “Reset Emulator” or during CC startup in the event of an error. All of the Spectrum Digital CCS configuration files will point to SDConfig utility. When staring CCS if a serious error occurs you will get a dialog, which has an additional button for diagnostics. If you select this button then the SDConfig utility will be launched. At this point you can check your port settings and test your emulator connection. Once your emulator connection is tested you exit SDConfig and retry CCS.

Once CCS is launched you also have the same capability via the “Reset Emulator” command under the Debug menu.

Known Problems

• If you loose power on your target or emulator CCS will pop up the “Reset Emulator” dialog box. If you choose to reset the emulator then CCS will execute outstanding debug commands that have been queued up as well as clear breakpoints and go other target house keeping. However, as power was lost these commands cannot complete and will return an error code. These will be reported as errors in the CCS output window. In some cases other dialog boxes may pop up. If this occurs you can select the cancel button until you get to the “Reconnect Emulator” dialog box. At this point CCS has flushed its command queue and released the emulator connection. You can reconnect or run the diagnostic utility. This is a CCS 2.2 shortcoming, which TI is aware of. See section “Emulator Reset and Multi-Core Issues” for more details.

• Testing has shown that CCS 2.2 will stall for long periods of time for no apparent reason. If this occurs, disable CodeMaestro under the “Options->Customize” menu. You should only disable CodeMaestro when you first enter CCS with no debug windows open otherwise CCS will generally hang and require the CCS task to be killed. If the stall problem goes away then re-enable CodeMaestro. In most cases this will clear the problem.

Reset Emulator and Multi-Core Issues

Testing has shown that the Reset Emulator function with multi-core devices can have unexpected results. This problem is magnified by number of processor on the scan chain and their current debug state. If you want to do a Reset Emulator on a multi-core device then the following sequence is suggested for best results:

1. Halt all processors.
2. From one of the debuggers select the “Reset Emulator”.
3. When you get to the “Reset Emulator” dialog box it is best to uncheck the “Save Environment” box. Again, testing has shown that if there is an error during the environment save then chances of recovery are slim. Select the “Continue” button. During the reset process CCS will continue sending commands to the processors if breakpoints are still in memory. This may generate errors but can be ignored. In general ignore all error message and select OK or Cancel on any dialogs until you get to the “Reconnect Emulator” dialog.
4. Once you are at the “Reconnect Emulator” dialog you have several options. It is best to uncheck both the “Restore Environment” and “Reload Program” buttons. Again, testing has shown that these two options are primary cause of inability to recover. For Spectrum Digital emulators you should have an option to “Run Diagnostic Utility”. This allows you the chance to run SDConfig from CCS. This capability can be enabled via cc_setup if not already enabled. At this point you can power cycle your target and optionally run SDConfig. When complete, exit SDConfig is executed and select the “Reconnect” button.
5. At this point CCS should restart each debugger session and you should be back on-line. If you are using an ARM9 based multi-core device then you may experience the traditional CCS startup problem. This problem occurs with the ARM9 device that execute unknown code from un-initialized memory. Do not panic. At this point the emulator software has detected this condition and installed a HW reset trap on ARM9. Simply depress the reset button on your ARM9 target. The ARM9 device should reset and stop at the reset vector. Now simply select the “Retry” button. CCS has to fail so that the user has a chance to do the HW reset. This problem is not likely to occur if ARM9 is running from initialized memory.
6. In general CCS will recover pretty well on multi-core or multi-device systems if you do not have it save the environment and attempt to restore the environment. Testing has also shown that the state of CCS plug-ins following a Reset Emulator sequence are unknown or undefined. Some plug-ins recover without side effects, do not. The issues with plug-in recovery are not isolated to multi-core or multi-device setups. However the side effects do seem more noticeable to multi-core or multi-device setups.

Things to avoid:

1. Having your targets running and select Reset Emulator. This seems to create worse case scenarios for CCS due to queued up debug commands.
2. Cycling target power while target is running. You should only cycle target power when you have the CCS “Reconnect Emulator” dialog. At this point CCS has pretty much gone to a happy state.
3. Having CCS save and restore your environment. It is best to setup and save your environment while CCS and targets are in a known good state. In general CCS will restore a previous environment with higher level of success then one that is saved during a Reset Emulator sequence. Generally having CCS restore a minimal amount of debug state is best. You can always reload your program and or state via GEL functions and CCS commands. You have lot more control and better success rate if you control the restore. If CCS encounters an error during restore on one processor, say ARM9, then restoring the DSP state is totally unpredictable. CCS will attempt to restore state to ALL processors independent of errors on other processors. This can lead to significant instability in multi-core devices that require the MCU to pre-initialize the DSP before CCS connects.
4. Attempting a Reset Emulator operation with CCS or 3^rd party plug-ins active. The exact behavior of CCS is currently unknown in this scenario especially with 3^rd party plug-ins. In many cases BIOS plug-ins recover properly while the profiler plug-in does not. Spectrum Digital has requested that TI clearly specify the behavior of plug-ins for multi-core recovery.
5. Do NOT PANIC if you see lots of error message during a Reset Emulator sequence. Just cycle through these errors until you get to the “Reconnect Emulator” dialog. CCS is just clearing queued up debug commands.