Looking for ARM SoC porting guidelines

[Mike Thompson]

On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 9:10 AM, Luca Ceresoli <luca at lucaceresoli.net>
wrote:

> Very interesting. I just started a project using the Nuvoton N32926,
> and mainline support in a recent kernel would be very, very
> interesting. I'd be glad to join your effort by testing your code, and
> possibly contributing.
>
> What bootloader are you using? AFAIK Nuvoton does not provide any sort
> of U-Boot, barebox or any other open source bootloader.
>

Correct.  For right now, I'm using the proprietary Nuvoton bootloaders
which are kind of a mess in terms of having to use the 15 year old ARM
Development Suite software to build.  I have a simple script which converts
a Linux Image file and device tree binary into a conprog.bin file that the
Nuvoton can boot with from the existing bootloaders.

Nuvoton is switching to a newer Keil based development environment for
their proprietary bootloader, but that's not a whole lot better.  My hope
is to get some sort of U-boot running by adapting pieces of the proprietary
bootloader, but that's a secondary priority relative to just getting basic
kernel functionality running.

Do you have any working configuration for the N32926? Boot+UART, I don't
> expect much at this early stage, but I'd like to test it as soon as you
> have one.
>

I'm still waiting for my N32926 hardware to arrive to begin a port for it.
Given the work I've done with the N32905 and the similarity between the two
chips at the basic level, I don't anticipate it taking more than a few days
to get it going.  I'll post back here when I have something to try.  At a
minimum it would include the clock framework, clock source, interrupt
driver, UART driver and other basic stuff.

Oh, and... any plans for supporting the H.264 decoder on the N32926?
>

Well, for now I'm working on the basics and the first tier of drivers to
the system so it can boot from NOR/NAND flash, SD cards and have basic USB
connectivity. I already have these items on the N32905.  I don't have any
specific plans beyond that for the N32926, but we'll see. My specific
interest is in the lower-end N32905 because of the opportunity for the chip
in the toy markets and a $3 Linux capable single chip system is really cool
:-).

Mike
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