The SPC5xx/MPC5xxx topic

[Giovanni]

SPCs/MPCs from ST and FSL are exactly the same chip, they are co-developed by a joint venture.

Giovanni

[mobyfab]

Best dev board so far: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=TRK-MPC5634M ($99)

http://octopart.com/trk-mpc5634m-freescale+semiconductor-20124310

Edit:
Current free IDEs from FSL: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=CW_SPECIALEDITIONS
It is based on eclipse.

[Giovanni]

Hi,

Just an update about this family.

The support in ChibiOS/RT is going to improve, in the trunk we already support 3 different sub-families and the set of device drivers is going to grow quickly. Soon there will be the same level of support we already have for the STM32.

Those curious should check out the copyright notice into the SPC5xx drivers source files.

Giovanni

[mabl]

Yeah, also noticed this earlier. So these are under "ST Liberty SW License Agreement V2", so you are seriously working with ST? From what I have read from the licence, I don't like it that much but OK As long as you think it is compatible with the GPL code?

In any case, it's very cool to get official ST backing soon

[Giovanni]

Backing is a huge word, but ChibiOS will be offered with this new environment there will be resources allocated on improving driver support for the SPC5xx family and that is not just me. I will also add support for the STM32 but that is not related to ST, normal ChibiOS development.

I am confident this new IDE has an enormous potential. I am just a bit worried about the current lack of a really free compiler and debugger for PPC.

Giovanni

[mabl]

I am confident this new IDE has an enormous potential. I am just a bit worried about the current lack of a really free compiler and debugger for PPC.

Wait. There isn't even a working gcc for it? Can't we just use standard PPC?

EDIT: Found these:
http://www.cygwin.com/ml/crossgcc/2003-04/msg00009.html
http://mcs.woodward.com/support/wiki/in ... h_MotoHawk

[Giovanni]

We can use standard GCC because it supports the Book-E instruction set, in fact I am using CodeSourcery without problems.

The problem is that there is another instruction set called VLE, look at it like the Thumb equivalent for PPCs, GCC is not able to generate this code currently. Some devices, those using the e200z0 core, only support this VLE so standard GCC is not usable. Cores e200z3, e200z4 and e200z7 can run on Book-E without problems.
The problem exists only for smallish e200z0 devices (Cortex-M3 class stuff).

Patches regarding VLE have been committed in the GCC mailing lists but not yet accepted so it will not make it in time for GCC 4.8 because it is already in stage 3. Support could come in GCC 4.9 which is one year far away at earliest.

I put something is in motion for the debugger but it could take months without help. I am also looking into a Discovery equivalent mounting a monstrous dual core e200z4 device. I am really looking forward to implementing SMP support in ChibiOS, it will be fun

Giovanni