Balloon Release (OUTDATED)

The Balloon Release is NOT COMPATIBLE with the snapshot "January 2016" or previous releases or snapshots. If you want to test or integrate your development with our firmware you need a FEC flashed with the Release Firmware. Below you can find the links to the firmware and how to flash a FEC.

New features and bug-fixes in Balloon Release

  • New WR logging and monitoring capabilities
  • Add to WR PPSI the Peer Delay Sync mechanism
  • General Bug fixes of the wrpc-sw and wr-core
  • Fixed all the FPGA timing constrains problems
  • New Timing Run-Time Environment building and deployment system
  • Fixed flash controller
  • Added access to separate Message Signalled Interrupt (MSI) bus subsystem to all SoC devices
  • Increased DM/ECA timestamp resolution to native 1 ns
  • Increased number of usable DM CPU cores to 8
  • DM now supports core/schedule synchronization via MSI
  • Updated ECAv1 to ECAv2
  • New ECAv2 tools are now available: saft-ctl, saft-io-ctl, saft-clk-gen, ... (tutorial)

Known Issues of Balloon Release

  • The WR Switches losses Ethernet packets under a wide range of bandwidth and network topologies, report
  • Single 200ns drifts of the synchronization, only detected in FECs
  • Overrun of the WR End Point buffer under certain traffic conditions
  • The GSI VME Vetar FEC and CERN VME Svec have problems working in the same rack bug report
  • Jumps of 8ns in the SERDES output bug report

Supported Hardware

The hardware supported in this Release:

Form Factor Carrier WR add-on Commissioning Remark
standalone EXPLODER5A WREX1/WREX2A EXPLODER5ADB2 click
PCIe PEXARIA5A WREX1 PEXARIA5DB1/2 click "fixed" PEXARIA5 boards are compatible
SCU2 SCU2 WREX1 (MIL)  
SCU3 SCU3 on carrier (MIL)  
VME VETAR2A WREX1 VETAR1DB2A click
Table: Hardware for nodes.

Timing Receiver Nodes

Gateware Images

Type FPGA Bitstream CPLD Bitstream date
PEXARIA5A exploder5_scso_tr.rpd, sof, jic pexaria5-cpld.jed 2016-Dec-31
EXPLODER5A pcie_control.rpd, sof, jic exploder5-cpld.jed 2016-Dec-31
SCU2 scu_control2.rpd, sof, jic -- 2016-Dec-31
SCU3 scu_control3.rpd, sof, jic -- 2016-Dec-31
VETAR2A vetar2a.rpd, sof, jic -- 2016-Dec-31
Table: Bitstream tarballs for the Timinmg Receiver Nodes.

Nightly builds for the balloon gateware/firmware/software are available here

Info about the FPGA and CPLD Bitstreams, here

Software

Type Path in SL7 Servers Comment
build environment for software N/A provided by CSCOFE
run-time system for timing /common/export/timing-rte/R8-balloon_0 nfsinit: 20_timing-rte -> ../global/timing-rte-R8-balloon_0
Table: Software.

For the complete FECs stack you need also FESA. FESA 4.0 is the compatible release for Balloon.

If you have a local installation re-install please Etherbone and Saftlib software from bel_projects, and remember that the ECA-tools are deprecated.

make etherbone-install
make etherbone-saftlib
make tools-install

For building and deployment the Timing Run-Time Environment please checkout the wiki where it is explain how to checkout the software and build it. Remember that you have to checkout the balloon release.

Data Master

Type FPGA Bitstream Firmware toolSorted ascending remark date
PEXARIA5A ftm.rpd, sof, jic ftm.bin ftm-ctl Check! 2016-Dec-31
Table: Images for data master on PEXARIA5A.

Info about the FPGA and CPLD Bitstreams, here

Getting the sources code of the Balloon Release from our GIT Repository

If you want to check the source code this Release is in the branch "ballon" in bel_projects.

git clone --recursive git@github.com:GSI-CS-CO/bel_projects.git
git checkout balloon
git submodule init
git submodule update --recursive

How to...

Know if my FEC is booting from Balloon Run Time Environment

Possibility 1: View Info Files

OS
[ruth@scuxl0815 ~]# cat /etc/os-release 
GSI embedded release 7 (build 2016-08-11)

If that file does not exist or includes different information, please contact CSCOIN.

Timing Run Time Environment
[ruth@scuxl0815 ~]# cat /etc/timing-rte_buildinfo 
GSI Timing RTE 22-12-2016_09-15-48 
Compiled by dbeck using ./build-rte.sh on asl742.acc.gsi.de - Linux  3.10.0-327.28.3.el7.x86_64
CI_CD Project
 - https://github.com/GSI-CS-CO/ci_cd.git
 - master*@3a0d1e8
 - Dirty
BEL_PROJECTS
 - https://github.com/GSI-CS-CO/bel_projects.git
 - balloon@dec8dd0
 - Nothing to commit

Most important information to check:
Bel Projects CI_CD
balloon@dec8dd0 master*@3a0d1e8

Possibility 2: Using Tools

OS
[ruth@scuxl0815 ~]# uname -r
3.10.101-rt111-scu01

In case of a different kernel, please contact CSCOIN.

Etherbone and Saftlib Version
[ruth@scuxl0815 ~]# eb-mon -e dev/wbm0
etherbone 2.1.0 (v2.1.0-4-g809617b): Apr 29 2016 02:26:04 / built by dbeck on Dec 22 2016 09:14:50 with asl742.acc.gsi.de running CentOS Linux release 7.2.1511 (Core)

[ruth@scuxl0815 ~]# saft-ctl bla -fi
saftlib source version                  : saftlib 1.0.9 (v1.0.9-1-g246e15d): Dec 13 2016 16:39:35
saftlib build info                      : built by dbeck on Dec 22 2016 09:15:42 with asl742.acc.gsi.de running CentOS Linux release 7.2.1511 (Core) 

Most important information to check:
Etherbone Version Saftlib Version
v2.1.0-4-g809617b v1.0.9-1-g246e15d

Know if I Have a Valid Firmware

[ruth@scuxl0815 ~]# eb-info dev/wbm0
Project     : scu_control
Platform    : scu3 +comexpress
FPGA model  : Arria II GX (EP2AGX125EF29C5)
Source info : balloon-1319
Build type  : Balloon_release
Build date  : Sat Dec 31 04:46:01 CET 2016
Prepared by : Jenkins Nightly Build <csco-tg@gsi.de>
Prepared on : tsl002.acc.gsi.de
OS version  : Debian GNU/Linux 8.6 (jessie), kernel 3.16.0-4-amd64
Quartus     : Version 16.0.0 Build 211 04/27/2016 SJ Standard Edition

  dec8dd0 ftm-ctl: added solid generic status function for FESA class
  3dea586 ftm: bumped version numbers
  e67587c Merge branch 'balloon' of github.com:GSI-CS-CO/bel_projects into balloon
  3c7ad89 build:change the FPGA version in ArriaV devices
  0c9fa34 saftlib: updated to v1.0.9

Most important information to check:

Build type Source Info Last Commit Build Data
Balloon_release balloon-1319 dec8dd0 >= 21/12/2016

Test a Timing Receiver running Balloon

If you need timing events for integration purposes or testing, connect your FEC in the Integration System and you will get events from the Balloon-Data Master.

Another option is to inject events from the Run Time System, this related how-to can help you.

Bitstreams

Types of Bitstream Platform Description How to Flash or Program
rpd Altera Raw Programming Data File. This file contains the TR Gateware. It's used to write the gateware into the flash memory of the TR. It is persistent eb-flash
sof Altera SRAM Object File. This file contains the TR Gateware. It's used to write to program the FPGA. It is not persistent Quartus Programmer
jic Altera JTAG Indirect Configuration File. This file contains the TR Gateware. It's used to program the FPGA. It is not persistent Quartus Programmer
jed Xilinx This file contains the special Gateware for the CPLD on the TR. It is persistent Xilinx Programmer

More Information

  • building and deployment of software and drivers (including SCU), see here and here
  • flashing timing receivers with new images (including SCU), see here
  • some hints for FECs, see here
Topic revision: r26 - 20 Aug 2019, DietrichBeck
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