Release Notes for Development Tools: 15.0.1 (build: 437-94d9a84) ================================================================ Previous major release: 14.4.1 (build: 235-acbb966) (rc3) OVERVIEW OF CHANGES SINCE LAST MAJOR RELEASE -------------------------------------------- * Added support for development using xcore.ai family of products - Compiler support for new architecture. In particular, new FPU instructions supported - Simulator support for architecture core and chip-level features, including use of external memory and "software memory" via the new minicache - Assembler support for writing VPU code and new instructions - Debugger support for new architecture - XTAG firmware support for JTAG interface - Support for XCORE-AI-EXPLORER board product - Continued support for existing xCORE-XS1 and xCORE-200 based products * Enhanced support for programming in C - Inclusion of the lib_xcore system library and headers marks a shift in emphasis towards programming the xcore in C, rather than XC - The lib_xcore system library allows equivalents of XC constructs including select{} and par{} to be written without leaving the C language - XC compiler still included, though it is recommended that new code be written in C * Removed xTIMEcomposer IDE - Marks a move towards allowing developers to partner the XMOS tools with a development environment of their choosing - Greater emphasis on command-line usage of the tools and the debugger * Removed xta static timing analysis tool - Internal and external surveys point to very low usage of this tool * xflash - Support for xcore.ai added - Now supports use of "software memory" * The discontinued xtag2 is now unsupported - Users should upgrade to the newer xtag3 KNOWN ISSUES ------------ * Linux - Recent Linux distros such as Fedora and Ubuntu have dropped the required version of libtinfo. If you see an error similar to: error while loading shared libraries: libtinfo.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory ...you will need to install the required library: Fedora: yum install ncurses-compat-libs Ubuntu: apt-get install libtinfo5 * MacOS - This toolkit release is not properly signed, meaning that the stricter security rules on MacOS Catelina will cause security dialogs to be raised when the tools are run. This design advisory: https://www.xmos.ai/download/Design-Advisory---Running-xTIMEcomposer-on-MacOS-Catalina(10-January-2020).pdf) describes the workaround. SUMMARY OF CHANGES SINCE 15.0.0 (build: 426-5e0576c) (rc4) ---------------------------------------------------------- * LPDDR and using larger address spaces - Improved LPDDR support on xcore.ai (Bug 18386): - Enabled automatic DLL calibration, which makes LPDDR reliable up to 100MHz - Changed order of LPDDR controller register setup - Fixed a compiler crash which occurred when deduplicating constant pool entries (Bug 18398) * FPU - Improved XS3 single-precision floating-point division and square root routines, making better use of the XS3 FPU (Bug 18384). - Corrected behaviour of xsim w.r.t. the FMAKE XS3 instruction. This bug did not affect XS3 hardware, where the instruction was already correctly implemented (Bug 18405). * xrun/xgdb/xscope - Conducted extensive testing of xTAG and target features such as connect, download, debug, xscope, normal termination, abnormal termination (such as the target being reset during a connection or the xgdb process being killed): - using Linux Centos 64-bit and Windows 10 Pro hosts - with xcore200 and xcore.ai targets - Support for xscope APIs and message printing from a hardware target has been largely restored to the level of functionality provided in the 14.4.1 tools. Note xscope and port tracing with xsim should not be used in this release. - xgdb will no longer attempt to access the XMOS website prior to connecting to a target via an XTAG - Improved reliability when using multiple xtags from a Windows host (Bug 18426) - Improved behaviour when debugging code using multiple HW threads (Bug 18336) - Added work-around for silicon bug present in xs2a and xcore.ai devices such that input clk can now be used from 8 to 30 MHz (previously the tools failed when the input clock was increased above 26 MHz). (Bug 17159). Also resulted in some improvements to JTAG "bypass" selection. - Stopped creation of extraneous xscope.xmt.gtkw, xscope.xmt.vcd and xscope.xmt files when --xscope options are used. (Bug 18353) - Text written to fd 1 or 2, or streams stdout or stderr from the target via the xscope transport now appear on the console when launched via either xrun or via xgdb (Bug 18350) - Fixed xrun such that output to stdout via the xscope stream appears on the host console just as it does when the app is launched via xgdb (Bug 18407) - xscope output data is now written to the .vcd file as it is generated (rather than at app termination or graceful xgdb exit) (Bug 18402) - Stopped writing of invalid data to TestMode register when connecting to a device via xtag. Instead use predefined reset values for xs2a and xs3a. (Bug 18401) - Improved reliability of xscope bi-directional operation by increasing internal USB timeout specifications. (Bug 18408) Note the user must still fragment their data in to a maximum of 256 bytes per upload transaction. Also note on Windows hosts the host-side application must be built in 32-bit mode. - Improved reliability of xgdb when stepping through code on the xcore.ai target (Bug 18424) - The low-level xgdb command "csr" now works when the target node id is non zero (Bug 18421) * Misc - Suppressed non-memory resource reporting by xMap when lib_xcore is used, as it is only appropriate to produce resource usage stats when programming in the XC language. - Replaced out-of-date releaseNotes.txt with simpler version.txt for identification of toolkit version. SUMMARY OF CHANGES SINCE 15.0.0 (build: 422-f8fb16a) (rc3) ---------------------------------------------------------- * xrun/xgdb - Better handling of xrun arguments 18382 - Fix xtag reboot following unexpected termination from target running xscope lossless stream - Tidy workaround to 18370 - Handle xgdb cases where command requires connection but there isn't one - Update to use XTAG FW #32-d54d758 (fixes crash when USB-reset sent from host) * Misc - Minor fixes to lib_xcore (missing instructions, more efficient) - Fixes to stack size calculation when using FPU on Phoenix 18381 - Pull in latest xflash which is able to load programs which use SW memory - Modifications to assembler xas such that it can handle assembly output from Clang 9