Quick start guide for SoCLib platform

SoCLib simulator allow easy experimentation with advanced multi-processor programming.

This guide explains how to run MutekH on a SoCLib hardware simulator.

The SoCLib simulator used here is easy to use but has a complex internal design due to dynamic processors model instanciation. This is really convenient if you want to experiment with different processors without modifying the simulator. This simulator allows processor heterogeneity.

If you are interested in learning SoCLib hardware simulator, or plan to use SoCLib to model your own platform, you have better reading the SocCLib tutorial first.

You are highly encouraged to first follow the User mode quick start guide which introduce more basic concepts.

The SoCLib platform

Getting SoCLib

A precompiled SoCLib platform is available ​here for test purpose. You can use this simulator and skip to the kernel part if you are in a hurry.

We need to have a working SoCLib install. SoCLib installation is explained here: ​soclib:InstallationNotes

SoCLib platform description

The SoCLib source tree contains a platform dedicated to this tutorial: soclib/soclib/platform/topcells/caba-vgmn-mutekh_kernel_tutorial/.

The simulator can be built using:

$ cd path/to/soclib/soclib/platform/topcells/caba-vgmn-mutekh_kernel_tutorial
$ make system.x

The Kernel part

Getting the sources

You'll need the MutekH source tree and its prerequisites. See InstallationNotes

hg clone http://www.mutekh.org/hg/mutekh/ -u tutorial

Writing the example source code

The kernel source code is fully configurable and can be tweaked to adapt hardware platform and application needs. Configuration is handled by a dedicated tool which check dependencies and other relationships between the large set of available configuration tokens.

What you need to do:

• Create a directory for the application.
• Write the source code in hello.c.
• Write the Makefile.
• Write the source configuration file, see BuildSystem for details.

Note: This example is available directly from examples/hello directory in source tree: trunk/mutekh/examples/hello

Getting the cross-compilers

You can rely on the tools/crossgen.mk script to build some GNU toolchains or download a precompiled toolchain. See BuildingExamples page.

Compiling the application along with the kernel

$ cd path/to/mutekh
$ make CONF=examples/hello/config BUILD=pf-tutorial:soclib-arm

This will build the kernel along with the application.

Execution

The simulator needs the final executable file name and the processor type and the number of processors of this type:

$ cd path/to/soclib/soclib/platform/topcells/caba-vgmn-mutekh_kernel_tutorial
$ ./system.x arm:4 path/to/mutekh/hello-soclib-arm.out

You may want to refer to other articles and documents available from the main page to go further.

The BuildingExamples article explain how to build other sample applications.

Other more advanced topics and guides are available from the Main page.