C6RUN-DSPARMTOOL

Texas Instruments' C6Run Software Development Tool is designed for users of TI’s heterogeneous system-on-chip processors, which contain both an ARM core and a TMS320C6000 DSP core. The C6Run tool enables the user to compile code for the DSP of a supported platform without having to learn any new programming languages, system interfaces or other TI-specific technologies. Using this tool, ARM programmers will find it easy to differentiate and improve the performance of their products by leveraging the C6000 DSP, with little or no changes to application code. C6Run provides front-end build scripts that provide a familiar command-line interface and that hide many of the details of building code for the C6000 DSP core.

The first set of the front-end tools, called c6runlib, consists of a compiler and archiver script that lets the user compile portable C code and generate an ARM-side static library. This library can then be linked with an ARM application; all of the function calls into that library actually take place on the C6000 DSP core. Essentially, the tool automatically generates a remote procedure call framework for the library functions.

The second of the these front-end tools, called c6runapp, lets the user recompile their entire application, written in portable C, so that it executes on the C6000 DSP core when run from the ARM command prompt.

Related Information:

• TI Embedded Processors Wiki: C6Run Project 

• C6Run is an open source project, licensed under the standard three clause BSD license.  As such, it can be freely modified, redistributed, etc.
• When using c6runlib tools, automatic generation of remote procedure calls for supported function types is supported.  This allows quick and easy partitioning of code simply by rebuilding the application.
• Applications built using C6Run appear as just another ARM/Linux application (no managing separate ARM and DSP executables).
• C6Run framework provides proxies for all C I/O operations (printf, scanf, file I/O), such that those operations take place on the ARM core.  All computation operations can run on the DSP, while file access or another general purpose processing can happen on the ARM core.

You Will Need

The C6Run tool is intended to be used on a Linux host system, with the following components available:

• TI DSP/BIOS v5.41.x
• TI XDCtools v3.16 or higher
• TI C6000 Code Generation Tools v6.1.15 or higher
• TI DSP/BIOS Link v1.65.00.02 or higher
• TI LinuxUtils v2.25.04.10 or higher
• TI Local Power Manager v1.24.02.09 or higher