Projects

A BondMachine project is a directory that contains all the necessary files to generate the firmware for a specific board. The project is created with the bmhelper create command line tool, which is installed with the BondMachine framework. It is configured using a Kconfig file, with commands similar to the Linux kernel (for example: make menuconfig). It is then validated and completed with the bmhelper validate and bmhelper apply commands. Once the project is applied, it is possible to generate the firmware and make all the other operations with the make command and several targets.

Project workflow

The project workflow is divided into several steps:

• project creation
• project configuration
• project validation
• project apply
• make targets execution

Project creation

An enpty project can be created with the following command:

bmhelper create --project_name project_test

This command will create a project with the name project_test in the current directory. The project will be created with the default configuration. The default configuration is defined in the bmhelper tool and can be changed with the make menuconfig command (or any other command that can be used to configure the Kconfig file).

Additionally, the bmhelper create command can be used to create a project starting from a working example. To get the list of available examples, use the following command:

bmhelper create --list-examples

To duplicate an example, use the following command:

bmhelper create --project_name project_test --example example_name

where example_name is the name of an example in the list of examples.

Project configuration

The project configuration is defined in the Kconfig file. The Kconfig file is a text file that defines the configuration possibilities of the project. It is similar to the Kconfig file used in the Linux kernel. With a kconfig compatible tool the Kconfig file can be used to generate the specific configuration.

For example, the make menuconfig command will open a menu that allows you to configure the project. The menu is similar to the menu used to configure the Linux kernel. The menu is divided into several sections. Each section contains a set of configuration. The details of each configuration are described in the help of the menu. The menu is used to configure the .config file. The .config file is used by the project Makefile to configure the project and carry out the operations.

make menuconfig

If preffered, it is possible to use a local.mk file to configure the project. The local.mk file is a text file that defines the configuration of the project directly specifying the variables. The project Makefile created by bmhelper will either use the .config file or the local.mk file to configure the project. The .config file has priority over the local.mk file. The local.mk file is useful when you want to configure the project with a script or with a tool that does not support the .config file.

Details on the configuration variables are described in the Configuration variables section.

Project validation

The bmhelper tool can be used to validate the project configuration. The validation is performed with the following command:

make validate

The validation process checks the configuration variables and the project files. For each one of them the following color codes are used:

• green : the variable or file is present and valid
• yellow : the (optional) variable or file is not present
• magenta : the (mandatory) variable or file is not present but bmhelper can create it with default values
• red : the (mandatory) variable or file is either not present or invalid

Project apply

The project configuration is applied with the following command:

make apply

The apply process creates the project files and directories. The files and directories are created in the working directory. The working directory is defined by the WORKING_DIR variable. The default working directory is the current directory. For the items marked as magenta in the validation process, the apply process will ask for confirmation before creating the file or directory with the default values. For the items marked as red in the validation process, the apply process will fail.

Firmware generation and other targets

After creating and appling a project, you can use the make command to generate firmware and perform other operations. The make command can be used with several targets. The targets are defined in the Makefile file and are described in the following sections.

make bondmachine

Create the Bondmachine and all its connecting processors.
You can view a diagram of the Bondmachine just created with the following instructions:

make show

Use graphviz to visualize the architecture generated. 

make hdl

Generate the source HDL code (i.e. working_dir/bondmachine.sv, working_dir/bondmachine.vhd)

The first workflow commands are:

make synthesis

Start the project synthesis

make implementation

Start the project implementation

make bitstream

Start the project bitstream generation

make program

program the board if connected

The second workflow commands are:

make design_synthesis

Start the project synthesis

make design_implementation

Start the project implementation

make design_bitstream

Start the project bitstream generation

make kernel_module

Create the kernel module which runs on custom buildroot linux distribution

make buildroot

Create the custom buildroot linux sdcard-image.

Configuration variables

Wether you are reading variables from the Kconfig file or from the .mk files, the syntax is the same. The following is the list of the most commonly used variables: