***************************************************************************** *** Directories structure *** ***************************************************************************** ./readme.txt - This file. ./license.txt - GPL3 license file. ./src/ - ChibiOS/RT portable kernel source files. ./src/include/ - ChibiOS/RT include files. ./src/lib/ - ChibiOS/RT library code that can be included into user applications but is not part of the core system. The code in this directory is meant to be portable, generic and architecture indipendent. ./src/templates/ - ChibiOS/RT non portable source templates, new ports are started by copying the templates into a new directory under ./demos/ and/or ./ports/. ./ports/ - Architecture specific portable files. ./demos/ - Demo programs for specific archtectures/boards. ./ext/ - External libraries or other code not part of ChibiOS/RT but used in the demo applications. ./test/ - Test code, used by some demos. ./docs/Doxifile - Doxigen project file. ./docs/html/index.html - ChibiOS/RT documentation (after running doxigen). The documentation is also available on the project web page: http://chibios.sourceforge.net/ ***************************************************************************** *** Current ports/demos *** ***************************************************************************** Current ports under ./demos: ARM7-LPC214x-GCC - ChibiOS/RT port for ARM7 LPC2148, the demo targets the Olimex LPC-P2148 board. This port can be easily modified for any processor into the LPC2000 family or other boards. The demo can be compiled using YAGARTO or any other GCC-based ARM toolchain. Full demo. ARM7-LPC214x-GCC-min - Minimal demo for LPC214X. ARM7-LPC214x-G++ - Yet another LPC214X demo but this one is done using G++ in order to provide a C++ template project to the ChibiOS/RT users. ARM7-AT91SAM7X-GCC - Port for Atmel AT91SAM7X256. The demo program targets the Olimex SAM7-EX256 board. ARM7-AT91SAM7X-WEB-GCC - Port for Atmel AT91SAM7X256. The web demo program targets the Olimex SAM7-EX256 board. ARMCM3-ST32F103-GCC - ARM Cortex-M3 port. The demo targets the Olimex STM32-P103 board. AVR-AVRmega128-GCC - Port on AVRmega128. A special thanks to Vladimir for the work done on the AVR port. The demo program targets the Olimex AVR-MT-128 mini terminal board. AVR-AT90CANx-GCC - Port on AVR AT90CAN128, not tested on hardware yet. MSP430-MSP430x1611-GCC - Port on Texas Instruments MSP430F1611, the demo targets the Olimex MSP430-P1611 board. It is not tested on hardware yet, consider it work in progress. Win32-MinGW - ChibiOS/RT simulator and demo into a WIN32 process, MinGW version. ***************************************************************************** *** Plans *** ***************************************************************************** - We are looking into adding an exception clause to the ChibiOS/RT license in order to allow linking with non-GLP code under certain conditions. The license change will happen before the 1.0.0 release, we are almost there, everything looks very stable now. - Evaluate other architectures for a possible ChibiOS/RT port. An important selection parameter will be the availability of FOSS toolchains. Currently we are evaluating the MicroBlaze. - Creation of a reduced ChibiOS/RT kernel targeted to lesser 8bit micros and educational purposes, the name will probably be ChibiOS/SX, we are still discussing it. - File System implementation as side project. Basic requirements: Thread safe, concurrent accesses, proper buffers cache. - Tickless kernel option, high resolution timers. ***************************************************************************** *** Releases *** ***************************************************************************** *** 0.6.8 *** - FIX: Fixed a bug in the priority inheritance mechanism, the bug was only a problems when the CH_USE_MESSAGES_PRIORITY was enabled, this option is disabled by default in ChibiOS/RT so it should not affect any user. - CHANGE: The function chEvtSend() and chEvtSendI() are now renamed in chEvtBroadcast() and chEvtBroadcastI(), the old names are still available but are deprecated. - Made the default BASEPRI levels (CM3 port) configurable into chcore.h. - Many improvements to the documentation. - All the fixes and changes in this release were suggested/submitted by Leon Woestenberg (thank you). *** 0.6.7 *** - NEW: New chThdCreateFast() API, it is a simplified form of chThdCreate() that allows even faster threads creation. The new API does not support the "mode" and "arg" parameters (still available in the old API). - OPT: Removed an unrequired initialization and made other small optimizations to the chThdCreate(). - OPT: Improvements to the test framework, now a virtual timer is used instead of software loops into the bechmarks in order to have more stable results. - New benchmark added to the test suite. - Added the C++ wrapper entries to the documentation. - Fixed the documentation entry for the chThdCreate() API. - Removed redundant ifdefs from the ch.h header. *** 0.6.6 *** - NEW: Improved test suite, now the suite is divided in modules and the code is much easier to understand. The new framework simplifies the inclusion of new test cases and makes possible to verify the exact sequence and the timing of test events. - NEW: New API chSysInTimeWindow() that checks if the current system time is within the specified time window. - FIX: Mutex test #1 in the test suite corrected, it failed to... fail. - FIX: Fixed a problem in the STM32 port USART1 driver. - FIX: Fixed a problem in the MMC/SD driver in the LPC2148 demo. - Added the definitions for packed structures to the chtypes.h files. - Improvements to the makefiles, now each source group has its own .mk include file. Now it is no more required to rewrite everything in each makefile. *** 0.6.5 *** - NEW: Web server demo for the AT91SAM7X256, the demo integrates the uIP stack and its demo applications. - NEW: EMAC driver added to the AT91SAM7X port. - FIX: Small fix to the ARM7 startup files. It used a short jump in the reset vector and that could fail in some memory configurations. - Documentation improvements. *** 0.6.4 *** - NEW: MSP430 port, the port code compiles correctly but it is not tested yet. The port requires the MSPGCC toolchain. - NEW: Added a CH_ARCHITECTURE_xxx define to the various chcore.h files, it allows to write port-dependent code. - NEW: Added to the documentation the technical notes about the currently supported ports. - FIX: In the ARM7 and ARMCM3 ports chanced the bool_t base type from int8_t to int32_t, this produces a bit faster and smaller code. It is nowhere required the bool_t type to be one byte sized. - FIX: Small fixes to the template files, there were some leftovers of the old type names. - FIX: Modified the ARM demos makefiles in order to make them more compatible with GCC 4.3.0, it seems the new GCC assumes -mthumb-interworking and -mabi=apcs by default, at least the builds I tested did so, now the makefiles explicitly assert -mno-thumb-interworking and -mabi=apcs-gnu in order to produce better code. - Added an Ethernet driver for AT91SAM7X EMAC, not complete yet, it will be required by a uIP web server demo under ChibiOS/RT coming in some next release. *** 0.6.3 *** - NEW: ARM Cortex-M3 port completed. The demo program targets the STM32F103 chip from ST Microelectronics on an Olimex STM32-P103 board. - FIX: Fixed a minor error in ./ports/ARM7-LPC214x/vic.h, it should not affect anything. - FIX: Minor fix: in chThdCreate() a working area size equal to UserStackSize(0) was asserted as an error when in debug mode. It is now allowed. - FIX: Increased the stack size for the threads in the test suite to 128 bytes because THUMB/THUMB2 modes seem to use a lot more stack than ARM mode. *** 0.6.2 *** - NEW: Added C++ wrapper around the ChibiOS/RT core APIs, now it is possible to use the OS in a fully object oriented application. The wrapper offers classes that encapsulate threads, semaphores, mutexes, timers etc. Normal C APIs are still accessible from C++ code as usual. - NEW: Added a new LPC2148 demo using the new C++ wrapper, it is a good example of C++ used for an embedded application. The demo does not use RTTI nor standard libraries so the resulting code is very compact. - Enhanced the chSemSignalWait() API to return the wakeup message just like the other "Wait" semaphore functions do. - Fixed a minor problem in the ARM7 port, the extctx structure definition was missing one field, the effect was to allocate stacks 4 bytes shorter than the declared size. - Fixed a compile time error into the chThdSleepUntil() macro. - Fixes in various headers to make some macros compatible with both C and C++. - Fixed a regression in the LPC214x minimal demo that broke interrupt handling. - Some fixes to the doxigen documentation. - More work done on the ARM-CM3 port but it is still not complete. *** 0.6.1 *** - Removed some redundant checks from the scheduler code: improved threads flyback time, reduced interrupts service time. - Nice scheduler speed improvement obtained by removing the 2nd parameter to the chSchReadyI() API and manually assigning the message value only where is really needed (very few points in the code). - More space savings and speed improvements obtained by removing the -fno-strict-aliasing option from the makefiles, now the kernel compiles without any warning even without this option. - Removed the -falign-functions=16 option from the AT91SAM7X demo makefiles, the Atmel chip does not require it, the option is still present on the LPC21xx demos. This saves significant program space. - Started work on ARM Cortex-M3 architecture. The target chip is the STM32F103 on a Olimex STM32-P103 board. - Added a threads state diagram to the documentation. - Various fixes to the doxigen documentation. *** 0.6.0 *** - Code refactory, all the old sized-integer definitions like LONG32, UWORD16 etc are now replaced by the proper definitions provided by the compiler into stdint.h. - Code refactory, the previous system types style using a t_ in front of the name has been replaced with the standard trailing _t. The system now uses the size_t type defined into stddef.h. Some type names were modified in order to not match commonly used type names. - The above changes have an impact on some API prototypes but we can't help it, the changes were required because the type names were a concern for some users. - Implemented a serial driver in the AVR port. - Implemented a simple HD44780 LCD driver into the AVRmega128 demo. - Reworked the AVR AT90CAN128 port to share the common AVR code. - Modified the test suite to be compatible with 8 bit micros. - MSVC demo dropped, it is still possible to use the MinGW demo as simulator in Win32. - Fixed a minor error in sam7x_serial.h and lpc214x_serial.h. - The kernel is *unchanged* compared to version 0.5.3 except for the type names but the change is important enough to make this a recommended update. *** 0.5.5 *** - Added an AVRmega128 port. The previous AT90CANx port is still present but it will be redone after the AVRmega128 port is complete because it will share most of it. The demo is very simple, it will be expanded in next releases. - Reorganized the code of the two ARM7 ports, now all the common ARM7 code is in ./ports/ARM7. This will make maintenance and new ARM7 ports much much easier. - Simplified the directory structure under ./ports. - Added to the readme a section with our future plans/ideas. - The kernel is *unchanged* compared to version 0.5.3, just the new port and the new demo were added. *** 0.5.4 *** - Port for Atmel AT91SAM7X256 introduced, the port should be useable also on SAM7S and SAM7XC but no tests were performed. Other SAM7 processors should also be useable with limited changes. The demo currently just performs basic operations, will be enhanced in next ChibiOS/RT releases, see the demo readme.txt file. - Small fix to the thumb mode IRQ code on the LPC214x port, removed some extra code. - The kernel is *unchanged* compared to version 0.5.3, just the new port and the new demo were added. *** 0.5.3 *** - Removed the chMsgSendTimeout() API, it was conceptually flawed because, after sending a message, the sender *has* to wait for the answer or the next sender in queue would receive it instead (the messages server has no way to know that the sender is gone because a timeout). A workaround would make the messages subsystem much heavier and this is not acceptable. - Removed the test case for chMsgSendTimeout() from the test suite. - Space saved by reorganizing the timeout code into a single scheduler function chSchGoSleepTimeoutS(). - Space optimizations in the semaphores code. - The API chThdSleepUntil() become a macro saving some more code space. - Because all the above changes the kernel code (ARM) is over 700 bytes smaller. *** 0.5.2 *** - Fixed a small problem in the main header file ch.h. - Small reordering in the fields of the Thread structure in order to optimize the space when messages are not used. *** 0.5.1 *** - NEW: Priority enqueing for messages can be optionally enabled by specifying the P_MSGBYPRIO option when creating a message server thread. This change allows the implementation of a priority ceiling protocol into message servers threads. Threads serving messages by priority and threads serving messages in FIFO orded can exist at the same time in the system. This feature can be enabled or disabled by toggling the option CH_USE_MESSAGES_PRIORITY into the chconf.h file (disabled by default, old behavior). Note: This option brings a small overhead when sending a message regardless if in FIFO or priority order, if you dont need priority ordering for your messages it is better to keep the feature disabled in chconf.h. - Added to the ARM demos load scripts the capability to load code in RAM instead flash, the function must be marked as: __attribute__((section(".ramtext"))) The option -mlong-calls should be specified in the makefile too or the function declared with the "long-call" attribute. - Fixed the MSVC demo project files. - Fixed some syntax incompatibilites between GCC and MSVC into chmtx.c. *** 0.5.0 *** - NEW: Mutexes, the new mechanism provides a complete implementation of the "priority inheritance" algorithm as a tool for work around the priority inversion problem. The Mutexes are not meant to replace the Semaphores that still are the best synchronization mechanism between interrupt handlers and high level code, something that Mutexes cannot do. Soon an article will be added to the wiki describing pro and cons of the various mechanisms and the correct use cases. - RT Semaphores subsystem removed, the Mutexes implements a better solution for the same problem. - Fixed a bug in the round robin scheduling mode, see the bug tracker for details and a fix for previous versions. - More performance improvements to the scheduler. The ready list insertion sequence is now reversed, it is scanned starting from the highest priority end. This has an important side effect into the chSchWakeupS() that makes most of the ready list insertions happen in constant time (extraction is done always in constant time). The worst case is always proportional to the number of threads in the ready list but the normal case is much more often constant than linear. See the new benchmarks added to the test suite. - Added mutexes test cases and new benchmarks to the test suite. - Modified the test suite in order to have each test case to have the same alignment enforced on functions. This is done to reduce MAM/Cache alignment effects on the measurement. - IRQ entry/exit code is now encapsulated into two new macros, see chcore.h for details. - All the asm code previously in chcore2.s is now inline asm code in chcore.c (ARM port), chcore2.s removed. - Moved all the board specific definitions/code into two new files: board.c and board.h. Moved all the files no more board-dependent under ports/ (ARM port). - Improved the kernel performance in THUMB mode by better exploiting MAM locality in some critical functions. The context switch benchmark shows 5% improved speed. *** 0.4.5 *** - Moved the serial IRQ handlers and VIC vectors initialization inside the serial drivers. Now the serial-related code is all inside the driver. - Moved all the other interrupt handlers from chcore2.s into chcore.c as inline asm code. The interrupt code now is faster because one less call level. - Fixed a minor problem in chSysHalt() now it disables FIQ too and makes sure to keep the processor in the state it had when it was halted. Note: This is not a kernel bug but something specific with the ARM port, the other ports are not affected. - Fixed the macro chThdResumeI(), it had a regression. *** 0.4.4 *** - Fixed a very important bug in the preemption ARM code, important enough to make this update *mandatory*. Note: This is not a kernel bug but something specific with the ARM port, the other ports are not affected. - Fixed a nasty bug in the pure THUMB mode threads trampoline code (chcore2.s, threadstart), it failed on THUMB threads returning with a "bx" instruction. The bug did not affect ARM mode or THUMB with interworking mode. Note: This is not a kernel bug but something specific with the ARM port, the other ports are not affected. - Fixed a bug in chIQGetTimeout(), interrupts were not re-enabled when exiting the function because a timeout. The problem affected that API only. - Fixed a potential problem in chSysInit(), it should not affect any past application. - Added a chDbgAssert() API to the debug subsystem. - Cleaned up the kernel source code using chDbgAssert() instead of a lot of "#ifdef CH_USE_DEBUG", it is much more readable now. - Now the threads working area is filled with a 0x55 when in debug mode, this will make easier to track stack usage using a JTAG probe. - Added an I/O Queues benchmark to the test suite. - Removed the chSchTimerHandlerI() routine from chschd.c and moved it into chinit.c renaming it chSysTimerHandlerI() because it is not part of the scheduler. *** 0.4.3 *** - Size optimization in the events code, now the chEvtWait() reuses the chEvtWaitTimeout() code if it is enabled. - Size optimization in the semaphores code, now the chSemWaitTimeout() just invokes the chSemWaitTimeoutS() inside its system mutex zone. Same thing done with chSemWait() and chSemWaitS(). - Size optimization in the queues code. - Modified the return type of chSemWait() and chSemWaitS() from void to t_msg, this allows to understand if the semaphore was signaled or reset without have to access the Thread structure. - Added a threads create/exit/wait benchmark to the test suite, the system is capable of 81712 threads started/terminated per second on the reference LPC2148 board. The figure is inclusive of two context switch operations for each thread. - Minor improvement in the LPC214x serial driver, unneeded events were generated in some rare cases. - Fixed a chSysInit() documentation error. - Fixed a chEvtWaitTimeout() documentation error. - Added a new debug switch: CH_USE_TRACE, previously the trace functionality was associated to the CH_USE_DEBUG switch. *** 0.4.2 *** - Added a minimal ARM7-LPC demo, you can use this one as template in order to create your application. It is easier to add subsystems back to the small demo than remove stuff from the large one. - Introduced support for "pure" THUMB mode, it is activated when all the source files are compiled in THUMB mode, the option -mthumb-interworking is not used in this scenario and this greatly improves both code size and speed. It is recommended to either use ARM mode or THUMB mode and not mix them unless you know exactly what you are doing. Mixing modes is still supported anyway. - More optimizations in the scheduler, updated the performance spreadsheet. - Fixed a problem with the thread working area declarations, the alignment to 4 bytes boundary was not enforced. Now it is defined a new macro WorkingArea(name, length) that takes care of both the allocation and the alignment. Example: static WorkingArea(waThread1, 32); It is expanded as: ULONG32 waThread1[UserStackSpace(32) >> 2]; Now the demos use the new declaration style. - Fixed a small problem in sleep functions introduced in 0.4.1. *** 0.4.1 *** - Modified the initialization code in order to have a dedicated idle thread in the system, now the main() function behaves like a normal thread after executing chSysInit() and can use all the ChibiOS/RT APIs (it was required to run the idle loop in previous versions). Now it is also possible to use ChibiOS/RT with a single main() thread and just use it for the I/O capabilities, Virtual Timers and events. Now you don't have to use multiple threads if you don't really need to. - Added a spreadsheet in the documentation that describes the advantages and disadvantages of the various optimization options (both GCC options and ChibiOS/RT options), very interesting read IMO. - The GCC option +falign-functions=16 is now default in the Makefile, it is required because of the MAM unit into the LPC chips, without this option the code performance is less predictable and can change of some % points depending on how the code is aligned in the flash memory, unpredictability is bad for a RTOS. This option however increases the code size slightly because of the alignment gaps. - Fine tuning in the scheduler code for improved performance, deeper inlining and other small changes, about 5% better scheduler performance. - Increased the default system-mode stack size from 128 to 256 bytes because some optimizations and the THUMB mode seem to eat more stack space. - Included a Makefile in the LPC2148 demo that builds in THUMB mode. - Const-ified a parameter in the chEvtWait() and chEvtWaitTimeout() APIs. - Removed the CPU register clearing on thread start, it was not really useful, it is better to maximize performance instead. - Cleaned up the ARM port code. Now it is easier to understand. - Cleaned up the LPC2148 demo in main.c, it is now well documented and explains everything, I assumed too much stuff to be "obvious". *** 0.4.0 *** - NEW, added a benchmark functionality to the test suite. The benchmark measures the kernel throughput as messages per second and context switches per second. The benchmark will be useful for fine tuning the compiler options and the kernel itself. - NEW, implemented a debug subsystem, it supports debug messages and a context switch circular trace buffer. The debug code can be enabled/disabled by using the CH_USE_DEBUG in chconf.h. The trace buffer is meant to be fetched and decoded by an external tool (coming soon, it can be accessed using JTAG in the meanwhile). - Added new API chThdGetPriority() as a macro. - Implemented panic messages when CH_USE_DEBUG is enabled. - Added a thread identifier field to the Thread structure, it is used only for debug. - Global variable stime modified as volatile. - API chSysGetTime() reimplemented as a macro. - Fixed a regression with the CH_CURRP_REGISTER_CACHE option. - Fixed a problem in the LPC2148 interrupt handling code, a spurious interrupts fix recommended on the NXP data sheet proved to be a very bad idea and not about real spurious interrupts also... - Fixed an harmless warning message in buzzer.c. *** 0.3.6 *** - Added SSP (SPI1) and ext.interrupts definitions to the lpc214x.h file. - Added SSP driver for the LPC2148. - Added experimental MMC/SD block driver to the LPC2148 demo in order to support file systems. The driver features also events generation on card insert/remove, hot plugging supported. - Added missing chThdSuspend() declararion in threads.h. *** 0.3.5 *** - Space optimization in events code. - Changed the behavior of chEvtWaitTimeout() when the timeout parameter is set to zero, now it is consistent with all the other syscalls that have a timeout option. - Reorganized all the kernel inline definitions into a single file (inline.h). - Fixed a minor problem in the interrupt initialization code for the LPC214x demo, regrouped the VIC-specific code into vic.c/vic.h. - Fixed a bug into the LPC2148 serial driver (limited to the serial port 2). - Implemented HW transmit FIFO preloading in the LPC2148 serial driver in order to minimize the number of interrupts generated, it is possible to disable the feature and return to the old code which is a bit smaller, see the configuration parameters in ./ARM7-LPC214x/GCC/lpc214x_serial.h. - Some more work done on the AVR port, it is almost complete but not tested yet because my JTAG probe broke... *** 0.3.4 *** - Fixed a problem in chVTSetI(). - New API, chVTIsArmedI(), it is a macro in delta.h. - New API, chThdResumeI(), it is a macro in threads.h. This function is just an alias for chSchReadyI() but makes the code more readable. - New API, chThdSuspend(). New switch CH_USE_SUSPEND added to chconf.h. *** 0.3.3 *** - Modified the chVTSetI(), now for the "time" parameter can have value zero with meaning "infinite". This allows all the APIs with timeout parameters to be invoked with no timeout. - Fixes in the documentation. - Renamed some APIs in the "Sch" group to have an S suffix instead of I. *** 0.3.2 *** - Modified the chSysInit() to give the idle thread absolute priority, the priority is then lowered to the minimum value into the chSysPause(). This is done in order to ensure that the initializations performed into the main() procedure are finished before any thread starts. - Added chThdSetPriority() new API. - Added a generic events generator timer modulee to the library code. - Modified the ARM7-LPC214x-GCC demo to show the use of the event timer. - Added the "#ifdef __cplusplus" stuff to the header files. - Removed an obsolete definition in ./src/templates/chtypes.h. *** 0.3.1 *** - Test program added to the demos. Telnet the MinGW and MSVS demos and type "test" at the "ch>" prompt. On the LPC214x demo the test is activated by pressing both the board buttons. The test performs tests on the ChibiOS/RT functionalities. The test code is also a good example of APIs usage and ChibiOS/RT behavior. - Fixed bug in chEvtWaitTimeout(), the timeout code performed an useless dequeue operation. - Fixed a bug in chSemWaitTimeoutS() and chSemWaitTimeout(), the semaphore counter was not atomically updated on a timeout condition. - Fixed bug on RT semaphores, the priority queuing was broken. - Fixed a bug in the MinGW demo, the chThdExit() code was not correctly reported to the thread waiting in chThdWait(). - Fixed a function declaration in semaphores.h. - Lists code moved into chlists.c from various other places optimized and reorganized. - The list of the threads waiting in chThdWait() is now a single link list, this saves some space. - Cleaned the template files code, the files contained some obsolete declarations. - Code optimization in chSemWaitTimeoutS(), chSemWaitTimeout() and chSemSignalWait(). - Code optimization in chEvtSend(). - Code optimization in chVTDoTickI(). - Added a Semaphore pointer to the Thread structure, this allows to know on which semaphore a thread is waiting on. It takes no space because it is located in the union inside the Thread structure. This also allowed a minor optimization inside chSemWaitTimeout() and chSemWaitTimeoutS(). - Changed the priority type to unsigned in order to make it compatible with a byte value, this is very important for 8 bits architectures. - Modified the MinGW and MSVS demos to use 1ms ticks instead of 10ms as before. *** 0.3.0 *** - ChibiOS/RT goes beta. - Diet for the threads code, some simple APIs become macros. - Thread Local Storage implemented as a single API: chThdLS(). The API simply returns a pointer into the thread working area, see the documentation on the web site. - Moved some documentation and images from the web site into the Doxigen generated HTMLs. *** 0.2.1 *** - Optimizations in the RT semaphores subsystem. The support for this subsystem should still be considered experimental and further changes may happen in future versions. - Bug fix in the virtual timers handling code, now the timers can be re-armed from within the callback code in order to create periodic virtual timers. - Modified the t_prio type in the demos to be 32bits wide instead of 16bits, this results in a better code in critical sections of the kernel. *** 0.2.0 *** - Introduced support for ARM in thumb mode. - Optimized context switching when thumb-interworking is not required, one less instruction. - Minor fixes to the ARM demo. *** 0.1.1 *** - Some fixes into the documentation - Renamed the makefiles to Makefile, upper case M. *** 0.1.0 *** - First alpha release