Eclipse4Parallella

Using Eclipse IDE to cross compile for Parallella board

I have 2 Parallella Embedded boards for almost 1 year now. It's an very interesting heterogeneous system. Unfortunately, some development tools are out of date. Recently I was able to use latest Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers to cross compile for my parallella. And I realized the Epiphany RISC is easy to program.

My idea is using Eclipse IDE to improve my productivity. I'm going to use epiphany-examples/apps/hello-world as example here. I hope this is useful for some people.

Prepare

You must use a Linux system. Epiphany-ESDK only supports Linux system. I'm using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Download tools

1. Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers Or you can install Eclipse CDT(C/C++ Development Tooling) to your existing Eclipse. Eclipse need Java RunTime Environment(JRE). You can download JRE linux-x64_tar.gz file, Extract it to eclipse/jre folder. So you don't need to install anything to your system.

2. Linaro Toolchain This is Linaro Toolchain for cross compiling source code for ARM(Zynq). I'm using the latest one gcc-linaro-7.2.1-2017.11-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz. If you have xilinx vivado installed. You may not need to download this. And Please notice Parabuntu 2016.11.1 comes with gcc 4.9.2. The latest gcc 7.2.1 works fine for me now.

3. epiphany-sdk esdk.2016.11.x86_64.tar.gz This is Adapteva Toolchain for cross compiling source code for Epiphany on your x86_64 machine.

Download and extract these files.

E C project

Open your eclipse IDE. Set your workspace. You will create an Eclipse project for Epiphany (Device side)

1. Create a C project

File-> New -> Project... We are going to create a C project.

2. Project name and type

Project Name: hello_world_device

Toolchains: Cross GCC

Hello World ANSI C Project

3. Basic Setting

You don't need to change anything, just click Next

4. Configuration

Click Next

5. Configure the Cross GCC

Cross Compilier prefix:e-

Cross Compile Path: /home/minxu/Desktop/esdk.2016.11/tools/e-gnu

Change to your epiphany-sdk esdk Path.

Click Finish.

6. link e-lib

Project -> Properties -> C/C++ Build -> Settings -> Tool Settings -> Cross GCC Linker -> Libraries

Add e-lib to Libraries(-l)

7. link LDF file

Project -> Properties -> C/C++ Build -> Settings -> Tool Settings -> Cross GCC Linker -> Miscellaneous

Linker flags: -T /home/minxu/Desktop/esdk.2016.11/bsps/current/fast.ldf

Change to your epiphany-sdk esdk Path.

All the setting is done. Click Apply and Close.

8. Build your source code

Copy and paste source code e_hello_world.c

Save your file. Click Build button(mouse cursor position in the screenshot below)

If no error output in the CDT Build Console, you just built an executable file hello_world_device in Debug folder. This is the e_hello_world.elf file. You can rename it if you like. (Notice: Linux does not need .elf to indicate it's executable file)

ARM C project

You will create an Eclipse project for ARM(Zynq) (Host side)

1. Create a C project

File-> New -> Project... We are going to create a C project.

2. Project name and type

Project Name: hello_world_host

Toolchains: Cross GCC

Hello World ANSI C Project

3. Basic Setting

You don't need to change anything, just click Next

4. Configuration

Click Next

5. Configure the Cross GCC

Cross Compilier prefix:arm-linux-gnueabihf-

Cross Compile Path: /home/minxu/Desktop/gcc-linaro-7.2.1-2017.11-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf

Change to your epiphany-sdk esdk Path.

Click Finish.

6. include Path

Project -> Properties -> C/C++ Build -> Settings -> Tool Settings -> Cross GCC Compiler -> Includes

Add /home/minxu/Desktop/esdk.2016.11/tools/host/include to Include paths(-I)

Change to your epiphany-sdk esdk Path.

7. link e-lib

Project -> Properties -> C/C++ Build -> Settings -> Tool Settings -> Cross GCC Linker -> Libraries

Add to Libraries(-l)

pal
e-hal
e-loader
pthread

Library search path (-L): /home/minxu/Desktop/esdk.2016.11/tools/host.armv7l/lib

Change to your epiphany-sdk esdk Path.

8. Build your source code

Copy and paste source code hello_world.c

If you rename your hello_world_device to e_hello_world.elf in E C project, you don't need to modified the e_load file name. modified e_load file name

if ( E_OK != e_load("e_hello_world.elf", &dev, 0, 0, E_TRUE) ) {

to your executable file hello_world_device

if ( E_OK != e_load("hello_world_device", &dev, 0, 0, E_TRUE) ) {

Save your file. Click Build button(mouse cursor position in the screenshot below)

If no error output in the CDT Build Console, you finish building an executable file hello_world_host in Debug folder.

Test it on your parallella board

Open your workdspace path, find your project folder hello_world_device and hello_world_host, inside these folders,

scp/copy Debug/hello_world_device and Debug/hello_world_host to the same folder to your parallella SD card.

Power on your parallella board,

Type './hello_world_host' in your terminal/ssh terminal