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RE: [dsdp-tm-dev] scope of target descriptions

Hi Aaron,

thanks very much for re-posting this.

In order to facitiltate further discussions on these
generalized target descriptions, I'd suggest that you
file a bugzilla enhancement request against TM, e.g.
"Need generalized target descriptions", and add a 
link to the bug number on the DD/Spirit page.

Through the bugzilla entry, we'll get discussions
that are easily trackable, and anyone who wants to
get involved can register on CC of the bug entry.

Cheers,
Martin
--
Martin Oberhuber - WindRiver, Austria
+43(662)457915-85
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dsdp-tm-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:dsdp-tm-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Spear, Aaron
> Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 9:09 PM
> To: Device Debugging developer discussions; Target Management 
> developer discussions
> Subject: [dsdp-tm-dev] scope of target descriptions
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> Per the TM call today, this is a reposting/cross posting.  
> Descriptions
> of targets is something that is obviously not just related to device
> debugging, but is part of the charter of the TM project as well.  In
> general a target can span many things: remote Linux/AIX/Windows/etc
> server, embedded RTOS via Ethernet, bare iron core via JTAG, the host
> workstation, etc.  To date, the target description discussions that I
> have been trying to facilitate discussion about revolve 
> around low level
> target details.  Cores, bits in registers, memory maps and such.  (see
> requirements doc on this page:
> http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/DSDP/DD/Spirit , and the 
> many threads
> on the dd list related to target descriptions or SPIRIT)
> 
> I am curious what thoughts there are about the need for a more
> generalized description of targets, where an "embedded" target is
> perhaps only one type of target.  It would seem to me that we 
> need some
> repository of target description factories, and from it we can get
> descriptions of different types of targets where the information is
> specialized to the type of target.  You can for example have different
> "views" of the same target.  On one hand, debugging a processor with a
> JTAG probe that happens to be running Linux you may see a flat memory
> map and all peripherals.  For a user level Linux application via an
> agent, for all intents and purposes you see a completely different
> memory map and limited set of registers.  So obviously there must be
> different target descriptions for these different connection methods. 
> 
> regards,
> Aaron 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx 
> > [mailto:dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Spear, Aaron
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 11:10 AM
> > To: Device Debugging developer discussions
> > Subject: RE: [dsdp-dd-dev] How do you want to use target 
> descriptions?
> > 
> > Hi Ted,
> > 
> > I think that I will likely start creating something that 
> > people can play with to get some more feedback.  I am going 
> > to poke around a bit and see if there are any companies using 
> > SPIRIT right now that would be willing to contribute some 
> > Java code to read SPIRIT files.  (hint hint)  Next step would 
> > be creation of an "target file importer" that read SPIRIT 
> > files into data structures, and then a simple "target view" 
> > plug-in that shows a tree with details of a target, and is a 
> > demonstration of how to use the new target interfaces.
> > 
> > cheers,
> > Aaron 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Williams, Ted
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 9:30 PM
> > To: Device Debugging developer discussions
> > Subject: RE: [dsdp-dd-dev] How do you want to use target 
> descriptions?
> > 
> > 
> > hi Aaron,
> > 
> > The "SPIRIT importer" sounds good. I'm uneasy with the two 
> > stage approach, but I don't claim to understand the details 
> > well enough, yet.
> > Are you planning to code the initial version of the library? 
> > ;) I'm working on a gdb prototype built on top of an 
> > osgi/async/expression framework we plan to contribute soon. 
> > At the moment, I'm mainly interested in access to register 
> > details. Something more than a hack, but still experimental, 
> > would be great. 
> > 
> > ted
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Spear, Aaron
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 12:44 PM
> > To: Device Debugging developer discussions
> > Subject: [dsdp-dd-dev] How do you want to use target descriptions?
> > 
> > Hello everyone,
> > 
> > I wanted to kick up another thread to solicit some thoughts 
> > on what we should DO with target description information.  It 
> > seems that from a requirement standpoint, what I have 
> > proposed seems to more or less address everyone's needs.  The 
> > next steps are
> > 1) extending SPIRIT such that everything we need is there
> > 2) actually figuring out what DSDP wants to have in place as 
> > far as an architecture to USE this information.
> > 
> > Regarding use of SPIRIT info:
> > 
> > >From what I gather, in the EDA world vendors do one of a couple of
> > things with SPIRIT format files.
> > 1) They use XSLT scripts or other custom translation 
> > utilities to transform SPIRIT files into some other format 
> > that they use internally.
> > They then read those files into some internal data structures 
> > that their tool uses directly.
> > 2) They directly read SPIRIT files into internal data 
> > structures that their tool uses directly.
> > 
> > While it would be compelling to have a degree of separation 
> > from the details of the format (and thus be insulated from 
> > changes), My colleagues in the EDA side of Mentor have told 
> > me that many SPIRIT vendors have run into great pain using 
> > the translation approach.  I don't really have experience one 
> > way or another about this.  
> > 
> > At this point, I am kind of thinking that perhaps we should 
> > just define a set of interfaces/data structures that define 
> > the target in terms of our needs, and then write a "SPIRIT 
> > importer" that can be used to read information from SPIRIT 
> > files into these data structures.  Conceivably then other 
> > vendors can write importers for their legacy file formats 
> > into these same data structures as well.
> > 
> > The data structures can have objects to represent targets, 
> > cores, address spaces, memory maps, registers, peripherals, 
> > bit fields, etc.
> > These objects all have a set of attributes (ISA's and such 
> on cores).
> > More or less an object representation of what I have in the 
> > current doc at http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/DSDP/DD/Spirit
> > 
> > Issues or thoughts about this approach:
> > 1)  I wonder if it would be better to have a less rigid 
> > description of targets (not a fixed hierarchy).  In 
> > particular, I am relatively confident that the model that I 
> > see in my head will work fine for current RISC's and DSP's, 
> > but describing a target that is perhaps not a traditional 
> > processor (an FPGA?) might be cumbersome.  Still, you have to 
> > have the knowledge somewhere.
> > 
> > 2) This is pretty low level.  Do we need "categories" of 
> > targets?  I am guessing that the link in the RSE to debugging 
> > is going to have to leverage these descriptions somehow (and 
> > produce the interfaces for a debugger to use when starting to 
> > debug)  Not all debuggers will need this sort of level of detail.
> > 
> > thoughts on this?  Sure why not?
> > 
> > Aaron
> > 
> > --
> > Aaron Spear
> > Debug Tools Architect/Staff Engineer
> > Mentor Graphics
> > 
> > 
> > 
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