[RFC] Ideas for ChibiOS/RT 3.0

[saraben]

In the SPI driver,
The "idle" words be configurable for spiIgnore() and spiStartIgnore() or a similar function added.
Preferably set on a per call basis or alternatively on a compile configuration basis.
The use for this is for efficently filling or clearing divices with many ram locations such as LCDs or serial RAM. Sometimes FF is not what is required.
Regards
saraben

[moxon]

Hi Giovanni,

I'm developing WSN firmware (Wireless Sensor Nodes) using ChibiOS/RT 2.6.3,
and would like to help with the new 3.0 version development where I can.

I'm interested primarily in low power WSN type requirements :
1) Tickless Scheduler
2) Save/Restore state for sleep modes
3) 6lowpan stack as well as TCP/UiP stack.
4) routing algorithm control (aka Contiki)
5) more sensor drivers.

Is there a "ChibiOS developers Howto"?
Something that gives an overall process and guidelines
for how you would prefer code to be submitted for inclusion?
In particular, a guide for drivers would be helpful.
I'm working on a bunch of LCD, camera, sensor, etc. drivers.

best regards,
Tom Moxon
www.patternagents.com

[Giovanni]

Hi,

1) The tickless mode is already present in the 3.0 branch.
2) In 3.0 there are hooks for entering and leaving the idle mode that can be used to switch power mode.
3) Not sure about this part, uIP has already been ported, could you explain?
4) Not part of the RTOS itself, it would be an external layer.

In the documentation section there is a style guide about the general formatting of code and code tagging. All the drivers are descendants of a "meta driver", see under ./os/hal/templates/meta, new drivers are started from those templates and have some common functions. Under ./os/various/devices_lib there are examples of drivers for external devices.

In general try to understand and follow the patterns you can see in the organization, in general everything follows rules and is created from some kind of template.

Giovanni

[Tectu]

I'm working on a bunch of LCD, camera, sensor, etc. drivers.

You probably want to team up with the uGFX project which started as a bunch of ChibiOS/RT LCD and touchscreen drivers.


~ Tectu