On-chip Subsystems and Peripherals
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On-chip Subsystems and Peripherals — Hardware Support

Hardware support

On-chip memory

The ST LM3S parts include on-chip SRAM, and on-chip FLASH. The RAM consists of up to 64KiB and the FLASH can be up to 512KiB in size depending on model.

Typically, an eCos platform HAL port will expect a GDB stub ROM monitor to be programmed into the LM3S on-chip ROM memory for development, and the board would boot this image from reset. The stub ROM provides GDB stub functionality so it is then possible to download and debug stand-alone and eCos applications via the gdb debugger using serial interfaces or other debug channels. The JTAG interface may also be used for development if a suitable JTAG device is available. For production purposes, applications are programmed into external or on-chip FLASH and will be self-booting.

On-Chip FLASH

The package CYGPKG_DEVS_FLASH_LM3S provides a driver for the on-chip flash. This driver conforms to the Version 2 flash driver API. It queries the microcontroller's device capabilities registers to determine the size and layout of the flash at runtime.

Cache Handling

The LM3S does not contain any caches, however, the variant HAL supplies the cyg/hal/hal_cache.h header to satisfy generic code. This header describes zero sized caches and provides null macros for the required functions.

Serial I/O

The LM3S variant HAL supports basic polled HAL diagnostic I/O over any of the on-chip serial devices. There is also a fully interrupt-driven serial device driver suitable for eCos applications for all on-chip serial devices. The serial driver consists of an eCos package: CYGPKG_IO_SERIAL_CORTEXM_LM3S which provides configuration for the generic CYGPKG_IO_SERIAL_ARM_PL011 driver package. Using the HAL diagnostic I/O support, any of these devices can be used by the ROM monitor for communication with GDB. If a device is needed by the application, either directly or via the serial driver, then it cannot also be used for GDB communication using the HAL I/O support. An alternative serial port should be used instead.

The HAL defines CDL interfaces, CYGINT_HAL_LM3S_UART0 to CYGINT_HAL_LM3S_UART4 for each of the possible UARTs. At present no LM3S device has more that 3 UARTs, so these interfaces contain support for future expansion. The platform HAL CDL should contain an implements directive for each such UART that is available for use on the board. This will enable use of the UART for diagnostic use.

The LM3S UARTs provide only TX and RX data lines, although the PL011 macrocell is theoretically capable of RTS/CTS flow control.

Interrupts

The LM3S HAL relies on the architectural HAL to provide support for the interrupts directly routed to the NVIC. The cyg/hal/var_intr.h header defines the vector mapping for these.

GPIO

The variant HAL provides support for packaging the configuration of a GPIO line into a single 32-bit descriptor that can then be used with macros to configure the pin and set and read its value.

Clock Distribution

The variant HAL provides support for packaging the clock control parameters of a device into a single 32-bit descriptor that can then be used with macros to enable and disable the device's clock.

I2C Support

The variant HAL provides a driver for the I²C bus device. There is a configuration option, CYGNUM_HAL_LM3S_I2C_BUS0_CLOCK, that defines the clock speed at which the bus operates. The platform HAL must define the set of devices attached to the bus.

SPI Support

The SSI device is based on the ARM PL022 SSP primecell and SPI support is provided via the separate CYGPKG_DEVS_SPI_ARM_PL022 driver. The platform HAL must define the bus instances and devices attached to them.

Profiling Support

The LM3S HAL contains support for gprof-base profiling using a sampling timer. The default timer used is Timer 0. The timer used is selected by a set of #defines in src/lm3s_misc.c which can be changed to refer to a different timer if required. This timer is only enabled when CYGPKG_PROFILE_GPROF is enabled, otherwise it remains available for application use.

Clock Control

The platform HAL must provide the input clock frequency (CYGARC_HAL_CORTEXM_LM3S_INPUT_CLOCK) in its CDL file. This is then combined with the following options defined in this package to define the default system clocks:

CYGHWR_HAL_CORTEXM_LM3S_CLOCK_SOURCE
This defines the source of the main system clock. It can take one of six values: INT selects the internal ocillator, INTby4 selects the internal ocillator divided by 4, MAIN selects the main ocillator, PLL selects the PLL, 30K selects the 30KHz internal clock, 32K selects the 32KHz internal clock. It defaults to PLL.
CYGHWR_HAL_CORTEXM_LM3S_CLOCK_SYSCLK_DIV
This defines the divider applied to the 400MHz PLL output to generate the system clock. This can take values between 1 and 16. The default value is 4, giving a 50MHz system clock.
CYGHWR_HAL_CORTEXM_LM3S_CLOCK_PWM_DIV
This defines the prescaler divider for the Pulse Width Modulator. It may take any power of 2 value between 1 and 64. The default is 1.

The actual values of the system clock, in Hz, is stored in the global variable hal_lm3s_sysclk. The clock supplied to the SysTick timer, SYSCLK/4, is also assigned to hal_cortexm_systick_clock. These variables are used, rather than configuration options, in anticipation of future support for power management by varying the system clock rate.

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