atomthreads/ports/stm8/README

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Library:      Atomthreads
Author:       Kelvin Lawson <kelvinl@users.sf.net>
Website:      http://atomthreads.com
License:      BSD Revised

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STM8 PORT

This folder contains a port of the Atomthreads real time kernel for the
STM8 processor architecture.

All of the cross-platform kernel code is contained in the top-level 
'kernel' folder, while ports to specific CPU architectures are contained in
the 'ports' folder tree. A port to a CPU architecture can comprise just one
or two modules which provide the architecture-specific functionality, such
as the context-switch routine which saves and restores processor registers
on a thread switch. In this case, the kernel port is split into two files:

 * atomport.c: Those functions which can be written in C
 * atomport-asm.s: The main register save/restore assembler routines

Each Atomthreads port requires also a header file which describes various
architecture-specific details such as appropriate types for 8-bit, 16-bit
etc variables, the port's system tick frequency, and macros for performing
interrupt lockouts / critical sections:

 * atomuser.h: Port-specific header required by the kernel for each port

A few additional source files are also included here:

 * stm8_interrupt_vector.c: List of interrupt handlers for vector table
 * tests-main.c: Main application file (used for launching automated tests)
 * stm8s-periphs/*.*: Peripheral drivers as delivered by ST (no changes
     to distributed code).

Atomthreads includes a suite of automated tests which prove the key OS
functionality, and can be used with any architecture ports. This port
provides an easy mechanism for building, downloading and running the test
suite to prove the OS on your target.

The port was carried out and tested on an STM8S105C6 running within an
STM8S-Discovery board, utilising the Cosmic compiler tools. It is possible
to use it with other processors in the STM8 range, as well as other 
hardware platforms and compilers, with minimal changes. Platform and 
compiler specific code has been kept to an absolute minimum.


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PREREQUISITES

The port works out-of-the-box with the Cosmic compiler tools for building.
Applications are generated in .s19 form and can be programmed with any
supporting programming software, including the free STVP (visual
programmer tool). At this time ST do not provide a command-line programmer
application suitable for use with STM8.

The Cosmic compiler and STVP are currently Windows-only applications. For
users of other operating systems the Cosmic compiler may work in 
environments like Wine, but the USB programming tools are less likely to
be supported. Both the compiler and the USB programming tool for
STM8S-Discovery (STVP) can, however, be run successfully within a VM such
as VirtualBox.

The core software prerequisites are therefore:
 * Cosmic STM8 compiler
 * Programming software (e.g. ST's STVP tool)

Optionally, application build, program and debug can be carried out
using ST's visual debug tool, STVD.

Use with alternative compiler tools may require some modification, but you
can easily replace STVP by your own favourite programmer if required.


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MEMORY MODEL

The sample build configurations use the Cosmic modsl0 memory model. This
places all data outside of the short 0x0-0x255 page0 area, which allows
large data blocks such as thread stacks to fit. You could instead use the
more efficient mods0 memory model which places data in the short page0
area, and force large data areas like thread stacks outside of page0 by
adding @near modifiers or specifying data areas by the linker file etc.

The default configuration is modsl0 (place outside of page0) to allow for
the most portable application compilation, with the option of optimising
this by placing data in page0 if desired. There is no requirement that you
compile your applications using the modsl0 memory model.


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BUILDING THE SOURCE

You may build Atomthreads using whichever build environment you desire. For
your convenience we provide both a ready-rolled Makefile-based build system
and an STVD visual debugger project. The STVD project permits easy
building, programming and debugging, but does not easily support building
a wide range of application builds within the same project, which is
useful for building the numerous automated tests. For the automated tests
you may find it easier to use the Makefile which automatically builds all
automated tests.


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BUILD VIA STVD PROJECT

For building applications using STVD you can use the sample project file
atomthreads-sample.stw. This builds a sample full application which runs
the "sem1" automated test. Applications can be downloaded directly to the
target hardware (e.g. STM8S-Discovery) and run via the integrated
debugger. Press the exclamation button to run, and confirm that the LED
flashes once per second (if running on an STM8S-Discovery) to ensure that
the test has passed. 

This is also a good starting point for building your own applications:
simply modify the file tests-main.c which starts the test application.
You can run any of the other automated tests by replacing the file sem1.c
within the project by another of the tests within the atomthreads tests
folder. This is rather painful using a GUI interface, and you may prefer
to use the Makefile-based system instead which builds all automated 
tests in one command.


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BUILD VIA MAKEFILE

A Makefile is also provided for building the kernel, port and automated
tests. This is particularly useful for building the automated tests
because many different independent applications need to be built which is
not easily achieved within the STVD environment.

For a Windows system you can obtain a Make application suitable for use
with the Cosmic compiler from:

 * http://www.cosmic-software.com/comp_utils/GNU_Make.zip

Assuming you install the above into C:\Program Files\GNU_MAKE, you
should set up your environment variables as follows:

 * set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\GNU_MAKE;C:\Program Files\COSMIC\STMS_16K
 * set MAKE_MODE=DOS


The full build is carried out using simply:

 * make

All objects are built into the 'build' folder under ports/stm8. The build
process builds separate target applications for each automated test, and
appropriate .stm8 or .s19 files can be found in the build folder ready for
downloading to and running on the target. Because of the limited resources
on the STM8, and the large amount of automated tests, each test is built
and run as a separate application.


All built objects etc can be cleaned using:

 * make clean


The Atomthreads sources are documented using Doxygen markup. You can build
both the kernel and STM8 port documentation from this folder using:

 * make doxygen


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PROGRAMMING MAKEFILE-BUILT APPLICATIONS TO THE TARGET DEVICE

When developing within STVD, programs can be downloaded directly to the
target. If, however, you are building applications separately using a
Makefile or similar, then you are not able to program the application
using STVD. The tools delivered by ST do not appear to offer any easy way
of downloading and running applications built externally. For the time
being the following (slow) development workflow is possible (note that
these settings apply to the STM8S-Discovery):

 * Build app using Makefile.
 * Open STVP and configure to use Swim ST-Link for CPU STM8105C6.
 * Program using STVP.

Unfortunately STVP does not reset and start the CPU running. The
following can be used to do this:

 * cd \Program Files\STMicroelectronics\st_toolset\stvd\swim
 * ..\gdb7.exe --command=gdbswim_stlink.ini
 * emulator-reset-port-mcu usb://usb stm8s105c6
 * run

Your application should now be programmed and running.

If you wish to run another application, you must stop GDB using Ctrl-C
and request STVP to communicate with the USB debugger again (either by
selecting "Configure ST Visual Programmer" or just closing and reopening
the STVP application). You can then download a new application and repeat
the GDB steps. You must force a USB reconnect within STVP because it loses
communication with the debugger while GDB is in use.

This is clearly not a very efficient workflow but it appears that at
this time there are no applications for simple programming and running
of applications to the STM8S-Discovery hardware. Other development
platforms and debugger hardware may have better tools available, this
only applies to the Discovery.


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STM8S-DISCOVERY SPECIFICS

There are very minimal board-specific aspects to the STM8 port so it is
trivial to run Atomthreads on other STM8 platforms.

The test application makes use of an LED on one of the GPIO ports of the 
Discovery board to indicate whether the automated tests passed or failed.
This is not a core port feature and would not be required in user
applications.

If you are using a CPU other than the STM8S105C6 you should modify
stm8s_conf.h to specify your CPU. You may also wish to enable in that file
any CPU peripherals which you wish to use.


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RUNNING THE AUTOMATED TESTS

Atomthreads contains a set of generic kernel tests which can be run on any
port to prove that all core functionality is working on your target.

The full set of tests can be found in the top-level 'tests' folder. Each of
these tests is built as an independent application in the 'build' folder.
Run them individually using the STVP process described above. For example
to run the 'kern1.c' test usr STVP to program it, and GDB to start the
application running.

To view the test results, watch the LED on the STM8S-Discovery. This will
flash once per second if the test passed, and once every 1/8 second if the
test failed.

Most of the tests complete within a few seconds, but some (particularly
the stress tests) can take several seconds, so be patient. 

The full suite of tests endeavours to exercise as much of the kernel code
as possible, and can be used for quick confirmation of core OS
functionality if you ever need to make a change to the kernel or port.

The test application main() is contained in tests-main.c. This initialises
the OS, creates a main thread, and calls out to the test modules.


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WRITING APPLICATIONS

The easiest way to start a new application which utilises the Atomthreads
scheduler is to base your main application startup on tests-main.c. This
initialises the OS and calls out to the test module entry functions. You
can generally simply replace the call to the test modules by a call to your
own application startup code.


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RAM FOOTPRINT & STACK USAGE

The Atomthreads kernel is written in well-structured pure C which is highly
portable and not targeted at any particular compiler or CPU architecture.
For this reason it is not highly optimised for the STM8 architecture, and
by its nature will likely have a higher text and data footprint than an
RTOS targeted at the STM8 architecture only. The emphasis here is on
C-based portable, readable and maintainable code which can run on any CPU
architecture, from the 8-bitters up.

A good rule of thumb when using Atomthreads on the STM8 architecture is
that a minimum of 1KB RAM is required in order to support an application
with 4 or 5 threads and the idle thread. If a minimum of approximately
128 bytes per thread stack is acceptable then you will benefit from the
easy-to-read, portable implementation of an RTOS herein.

The major consumer of RAM when using Atomthreads is your thread stacks.
Functionality that is shared between several kernel modules is farmed out
to separate functions, resulting in readable and maintainable code but
with some associated stack cost of calling out to subroutines. Further,
each thread stack is used for saving its own registers on a context
switch, and there is no separate interrupt stack which means that each
thread stack has to be able to cope with the maximum stack usage of the
kernel (and application) interrupt handlers.

Clearly the stack requirement for each thread depends on what your
application code does, and what memory model is used etc, but generally
you should find that 128 bytes is enough to allow for the thread to be
switched out (and thus save its registers) while deep within a kernel
or application call stack, and similarly enough to provide stack for
interrupt handlers interrupting while the thread is deep within a kernel
or application call stack. You will need to increase this depending on
what level of stack the application code in question requires.

While 128 bytes has so far been found to be sufficient for the stack
needs of all of the automated test module threads, the main test thread
does typically require more due to the additional variables and
subroutines called.

You may monitor the stack usage of your application threads during runtime
by defining the macro ATOM_STACK_CHECKING and calling
atomThreadStackCheck(). This macro is defined by default in the Makefile
so that the automated test modules can check for stack overflows, but you
may wish to undefine this in your application Makefiles when you are happy
that the stack usage is acceptable. Enabling ATOM_STACK_CHECKING will
increase the size of your threads' TCBs slightly, and will incur a minor
CPU cycles overhead whenever threads are created due to prefilling the
thread stack with a known value.

With careful consideration and few threads it would be possible to use
a platform with 512 bytes RAM, but not all of the automated test suite
would run on such a platform (some of the test modules use 6 threads: a
main thread together with 4 test threads and the idle thread).

The RAM layout used for the automated test applications is as follows:

RAM Top:
* Startup Stack (64 bytes)
* Data & BSS area (thread stacks, other application data)
RAM Bottom.

This is not prescribed, you may use whichever layout you wish for your
applications.

The startup stack area starts at the top of RAM and is only used for first
initialisation of the OS and main thread. This uses 64 bytes and could be
reused once the OS is started, but for the purposes of the automated test
applications it is not reused. Generally you would ensure that this is
reused in your own application code.

The application's data starts at the bottom of RAM, and this includes all
of the thread stacks which are statically allocated arrays. The idle
thread, main thread, and automated test thread stacks are allocated here.

If your application includes a large amount of data which is nearing the
top of RAM, then you must be careful that conflicts do not occur with the
startup stack. The startup stack uses the 64 bytes from RAMTOP down. This
is not reserved with the linker, so you will receive no warning if your
own data encroaches on this area. It may not matter because the startup
stack is only used before the OS is started, but if the data here cannot
be corrupted before the OS is started then you should make other
arrangements, such as moving the startup stack elsewhere or placing data
which can be overwritten in this area. To check whether your application
data overlaps with the startup stack you can view the MAP file for the
application. This shows how much RAM is used by the data and BSS areas.
If you have 2048 bytes RAM, then you will need to ensure that the
application data uses less than (2048-64) bytes, or be sure that it is
safe to utilise that area for the startup stack before the OS is started.

The default layout provided with Atomthreads matches the STM8S-Discovery
with 2KB RAM. The linker file reserves the first 0x500 bytes for data
areas. The region from here up to the end of RAM (0x800) is used for the
the 64 byte startup stack and any other data you require. You may wish
to place some of your thread's stacks in the area above 0x500, or you may
prefer to increase the size of the data area beyond 0x500. A simple
layout would be to allow everything up to (RAMTOP-64) to be used for
application data, leaving the top 64 bytes for use by the startup stack.
This way the linker would warn you if your application data overlapped
with the startup stack.

As mentioned previously, this RAM layout is only the one utilised by the
test applications. You may choose whatever layout you like.

Note that on this platform data can be placed at address 0x0, but the
Atomthreads kernel performs validity checks on pointers to ensure they
are not NULL pointers (point to address 0x0). For this reason the
example projects (STVD and Makefile) force the linker to not use address
0x0 and instead start the page0 space at 0x2. This ensures that the
linker does not place any data at address 0x0, and hence all NULL-ptr
checks are still suitable checks for valid pointers. This does, however,
waste 2 bytes. For your own projects you can force this within STVD by
editing the project linker settings (Input -> Zero Page start at 0x2)
or by editing the linker .LKF file as can be seen in atomthreads.lkf.


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