[U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8

[U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8

[TigerLiu at viatech.com.cn]

Hi, experts:

Does U-boot have any plan to support ARMv8 SOC?

Nvidia has decleared 64bit SOC plan.

So, i think bootloader for ARMv8 SOC is urgent now.

 

Although ARM Ltd recommended UEFI firmware as ARMv8's bootloader.

But not a requirement.

On Consumer Electronics market, Uboot has huge influence.

So, Does U-boot have any plan to support ARMv8 SOC?

 

 

Best wishes,

[U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8

[Abraham Varricatt]

Hello Tiger,

On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 8:32 AM,  <TigerLiu@viatech.com.cn> wrote:
> Hi, experts:
>
> Does U-boot have any plan to support ARMv8 SOC?

I'm replying to this because I'd like some confirmation on the
development process.

u-boot is an open source bootloader. It isn't run by a single
organization (though it IS headed by denx). Architecturally the
software can be divided into multiple processor and development
boards.

Now, if organization A is developing a new processor (along with
development board) and they want to use u-boot as the bootloader, they
would need to write the necessary /cpu sections by themselves and post
it as a patch to the u-boot mailing list. Assuming it meets the coding
standards, it will usually get accepted. After that, organization A
would need to develop the necessary board additions and submit that as
a patch as well.

Why are things done this way? From the mailing list perspective, it is
organization-A which wants to port u-boot to their brand new
processor/development board. Thus, organization-A will need to do the
hard work to make it happen. organization-A is, of course, free to ask
for help or assistance from the mailing list and is encouraged to use
the architecture independent modules (part of u-boot) in their
development.

Looking it at from another perspective, it is rather arrogant (and
rude) of organization-A to build a brand new processor, come in here
and expect u-boot to magically support it. Most people don't work for
free. And even if they wanted to, since the rest of the mailing list
does not have physical access to the new processor/board, how much
help can you _reasonably_ expect?

>
> Nvidia has decleared 64bit SOC plan.
>
> So, i think bootloader for ARMv8 SOC is urgent now.

Coming back to your specific case, I would think it best to ask nVidia
if they have any plans to support u-boot on the new ARMv8 SOC.

Can someone more experienced from the list confirm/deny my understanding?

-Abraham V.

[U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Abraham,

In message <CANiE1qoyXV10iDghK=qK9=Wjb2yueWC7U2MTRt-sSUyY5QiSJQ@mail.gmail.com> you wrote:
> 
> u-boot is an open source bootloader. It isn't run by a single
> organization (though it IS headed by denx). Architecturally the
> software can be divided into multiple processor and development
> boards.
> 
> Now, if organization A is developing a new processor (along with
> development board) and they want to use u-boot as the bootloader, they
> would need to write the necessary /cpu sections by themselves and post
> it as a patch to the u-boot mailing list. Assuming it meets the coding

This is not strictly correct.  Anybody interested in support for some
piece of hardware can implement it and submit the patches - this is
not necessarily the vendor of the chip or the board.  So if Tiger Liu
is interested in support for some specific ARMv8 hardware, he could
implement it himself, or hire some external experts to implement it
for him - or wait until some other member of the community submits
patches.

> Looking it at from another perspective, it is rather arrogant (and
> rude) of organization-A to build a brand new processor, come in here
> and expect u-boot to magically support it. Most people don't work for
> free. And even if they wanted to, since the rest of the mailing list
> does not have physical access to the new processor/board, how much
> help can you _reasonably_ expect?

Correct.  Some hardware vendors actively support the community, for
example by providing free eval boards to active community members, and
especially by providing full documentation for their hardware.  Others
don't.  You can see this pretty easily by the level of support for
such hardware in mainline U-Boot.  For example, look around how much
support for Qualcomm chips we have in mainline, just to name one.


In general the old rule applies: Scratch where it itches.  If I don't
have free access to such hardware, and if no (paying( customer asks me
to do it, I see little reason to spend time and efforts for some
specific new piece of hardware - there are so many of them...

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
A committee is a group that keeps the minutes and loses hours.
                                                      -- Milton Berle

[U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8

[bhupesh.sharma at freescale.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de [mailto:u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de]
> On Behalf Of TigerLiu at viatech.com.cn
> Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 8:33 AM
> To: u-boot at lists.denx.de
> Subject: [U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8
> 
> Hi, experts:
> 
> Does U-boot have any plan to support ARMv8 SOC?
> 
> Nvidia has decleared 64bit SOC plan.
> 
> So, i think bootloader for ARMv8 SOC is urgent now.
> 
> 
> Although ARM Ltd recommended UEFI firmware as ARMv8's bootloader.
> 
> But not a requirement.
> 
> On Consumer Electronics market, Uboot has huge influence.
> 
> So, Does U-boot have any plan to support ARMv8 SOC?
> 

I am sure you must have seen patches from David Feng (added in cc) for u-boot support
for ARMv8 foundation model (see reference [1]).

It compiles fine for me with the Linaro 'aarch64-linux-gcc' toolchain and is able to boot
ARMv8 foundation model. With my SMSC ethernet related changes (already part of David's v16 patchset),
I am able to TFTP standard vanilla Linux images onto the foundation model (along with a simple
busybox RFS) and boot Linux on the same and test some simple applications like tftp on linux.

This base code can be easily used to add support for a 'real' ARMv8 based SoC.

Hope this helps.

[1] https://www.mail-archive.com/u-boot at lists.denx.de/msg127876.html

Regards,
Bhupesh

[U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8

[TigerLiu at viatech.com.cn]

Hi, sharma:
Thanks for your answer!
How to get u-boot source code which includes arch/arm/cpu/armv8 dir?
I used "git clone git://www.denx.de/git/u-boot.git" to download source
code.
But not find arm64 patch code in the downloaded source code.

Best wishes,

[U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8

[bhupesh.sharma at freescale.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: TigerLiu at viatech.com.cn [mailto:TigerLiu at viatech.com.cn]
> Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 12:25 PM
> To: Sharma Bhupesh-B45370; u-boot at lists.denx.de
> Cc: fenghua at phytium.com.cn
> Subject: Re: [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8
> 
> Hi, sharma:
> Thanks for your answer!
> How to get u-boot source code which includes arch/arm/cpu/armv8 dir?
> I used "git clone git://www.denx.de/git/u-boot.git" to download source
> code.
> But not find arm64 patch code in the downloaded source code.
> 

Hi Tiger,

David's patches have still not made it into the DENX u-boot tree.
If you are using a thunderbird email client to get email messages from DENX's u-boot list,
go to MARC mailing list for u-boot (see [1]) and download all patches as '[Download message RAW]'
and apply them over the top of your git-tree in correct patch order with 'git am -3'

1. http://marc.info/?l=u-boot&m=138699294830148&w=2

Regards,
Bhupesh

[U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8

[bhupesh.sharma at freescale.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de [mailto:u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de]
> On Behalf Of bhupesh.sharma at freescale.com
> Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 12:59 PM
> To: 'TigerLiu at viatech.com.cn'; 'u-boot at lists.denx.de'
> Subject: Re: [U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: TigerLiu at viatech.com.cn [mailto:TigerLiu at viatech.com.cn]
> > Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 12:25 PM
> > To: Sharma Bhupesh-B45370; u-boot at lists.denx.de
> > Cc: fenghua at phytium.com.cn
> > Subject: Re: [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8
> >
> > Hi, sharma:
> > Thanks for your answer!
> > How to get u-boot source code which includes arch/arm/cpu/armv8 dir?
> > I used "git clone git://www.denx.de/git/u-boot.git" to download source
> > code.
> > But not find arm64 patch code in the downloaded source code.
> >
> 
> Hi Tiger,
> 
> David's patches have still not made it into the DENX u-boot tree.
> If you are using a thunderbird email client to get email messages from
> DENX's u-boot list, go to MARC mailing list for u-boot (see [1]) and
> download all patches as '[Download message RAW]'
> and apply them over the top of your git-tree in correct patch order with
> 'git am -3'
> 
> 1. http://marc.info/?l=u-boot&m=138699294830148&w=2
> 

Sorry for the typo, I meant:

a. If you are using a thunderbird email client to get email messages from DENX's u-boot list,
you can directly download David's v16 ARM patches from there (as RAW patches), or

b. Go to MARC mailing list for u-boot (see [1]) and download all patches as '[Download message RAW]'
and apply them over the top of your git-tree in correct patch order with 'git am -3'

1. http://marc.info/?l=u-boot&m=138699294830148&w=2

> Regards,
> Bhupesh
> _______________________________________________
> U-Boot mailing list
> U-Boot at lists.denx.de
> http://lists.denx.de/mailman/listinfo/u-boot
> 

[U-Boot] [U-boot] Uboot's plan for ARMv8

[Tom Rini]

On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 11:02:43AM +0800, TigerLiu at viatech.com.cn wrote:

> Hi, experts:
> 
> Does U-boot have any plan to support ARMv8 SOC?

I think the short answere here is that it's not quick to merge in brand
new arch support (it's more than just adding a new SoC family, it's
adding in a new processor family too) but we're on track to have ARMv8
support in the next release.  I would then expect that..

> Nvidia has decleared 64bit SOC plan.

... any nvidia ARMv8 platforms to come in via the u-boot-tegra tree and
other ARMv8 platforms to come in via their respective platforms (if
i.MX9000, which I just made up, is where Freescale does ARMv8, it can
still go via u-boot-imx as far as I'm concerned) unless that custodian
really wants someone else to own it.

-- 
Tom
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