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THE SERVER/LOADER TOOL
FOR HUNT ENGINEERING MODULE CARRIERS

Allowing you to load and control your entire HERON system from a single tool. Available as a command line tool or as a library that you can call from your own program on the Host PC.

• The HUNT ENGINEERING Server/Loader is a component of the HERON Application Development Framework for C6000 DSPs.
• Supports all HUNT ENGINEERING Host boards via the HUNT ENGINEERING API software.
• Loads FPGA modules
• Configures HEART connections
• The Server/Loader is provided in three forms, which use identical DSP code:
  - A Code Composer Studio plug-in – for use during development of systems using Code Composer Studio.
  - A command line tool – for final system deployment where there is no Host Application program.
  - A C callable library file – for embedding into a Host Application program.

• What does it do for me?
  The "Loader" tool provides a way to download application code to a network of DSP processors, via the FIFO connections provided by the hardware. Its use of the Host API and HERON-API components of the framework make the tool hardware independent.
  It uses a simple text file to describe the FIFO connections in the system, and interprets the COFF files generated by the Code Generation tools, formatting them for the DSPs to use as boot files. Those COFF files may contain any DSP code, and will normally have HERON-API and DSP/BIOS functions embedded in them.
  The "server" component allows the user’s DSP application to access the Host machine’s I/O services. These services are accessed through a STDIO library linked to the DSP application – a list of the functions available is shown at the end of this datasheet.
• When would I use it?
  The Loader is used to take care of booting and initialising the system using the FIFO connection between the host and the DSP system.
  The Server is then able to respond to calls from the STDIO library, and access the host machine hardware as necessary. This allows data to be loaded and stored (file I/O) and user input and output to be compiled as part of the DSP application, without the need to develop Host side programs to support this.
• Which version do I need?
  When a system is finally deployed, it is unlikely that the IDE part of the framework (Code Composer Studio) will be used. At this stage the Server/Loader would be used to start the system running. If there is no Host based Application code, the "command line tool" would be used. If there is a Host based Application program, then this program can use the "Loader" and "Server" functions as C/C++ callable library functions. Both of these versions are provided for all Host machine operating systems that are supported by the Host API (e.g. Win2k/Win XP/ Linux).
  During development of such an application however, Code Composer Studio will be used to generate and debug the Host DSP code. In this case the eXpressDSP plug-in version of the Server/Loader could be used. This provides the same functionality as the other versions, but from within the IDE environment where the interaction between the tools can be correctly controlled. This eXpressDSP component can only operate in the Host OS’s that are supported by Code Composer Studio (e.g. Win 95/Win 98/Win NT)
  All three versions are delivered in the standard package.
  There is a port for Linux that provides a command line and library version.

Illustration of a network description file:

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Board description
# BD API Board_type Board_Id Device_Id
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  BD API hep8a   0 0
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Nodes description
# ND BD_nb ND_NAME ND_Type CC-id HERON-ID filename(s)
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  c6 0 HERON1 ROOT (1) 00000001 heron1.out
  c6 0 HERON2 NORMAL (0) 00000002 heron2.out
#---------------------------------------
# Bootpath description.
# BOOTLINK ND_NAME PORT ND_NAME PORT
#--------------------------------------
  BOOTLINK HERON1 2 HERON2 0
#------------------------------------------------
# Number of the link connected to the host system
# HOSTLINK PORT
#------------------------------------------------
  HOSTLINK 0
# TOHOST 0
# FROMHOST 0

Server Functions

Operations on files
remove rename

File Access Functions
fclose fflush fopen freopen setbuf setvbuf

Formatted Input/Output Functions
fprintf fscanf printf scanf sprintf sscanf vfprintf vprintf vsprintf

Character Input/Output Functions
fgetc fgets fputc fputs getc getchar gets putc putchar puts ungetc

Direct Input/Output Functions
fread fwrite

File Positioning Functions
fseek ftell rewind

Error Handling Functions
feof ferror perror

Communication with the Environment
srv_exit srv_system

Network Loading Functions
bootloader

  Server/Loader User Manual