Re: [U-Boot] [RFC] Kbuild support for ARM FIT images

Wolfgang Denk
2013-02-22T06:55:52Z

Dear Jason,

In message <20130221232821.GA2823@obsidianresearch.com> you wrote:
>
> > > own seems to be rather static and stable, and unlike software there is
> > > no way I can change it (soldering irons don't count).
> >
> > There is other hardware available (for example FPGA based) where this
> > does not apply.
>
> Agreed.. We do that here as well, the DT is also used to describe the
> functionality inside FPGA(s). We do things like declare a GPIO
> controller inside the FPGA, then stack the bitbang MDIO/I2C on top of
> that, then declare a bunch of devices on those busses. DT makes this
> extremely straightforward.
>
> However, it is critical that the DT, kernel and FPGA are matched
> together - we always arrange things so that the DTB, kernel and FPGA
> config are bundled together and update atomically during firmware
> upgrade.

Agreed.

> Xilinx's Zynq is a great example of this kind of stuff, FWIW. IIRC

Indeed - Xilinx's Zynq, Altera's SoC FPGA, and others.

Such highly flexible hardware configurations require a new level of
software support that by far exceeds the classic static setups of more
"PC-like" systems where the only change you would expect is adding or
removing some PCI cards or the like.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

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