Microsoft's Azure RTOS ThreadX SMP for Cortex-A9

                              Using the GNU Tools

1.  Building the ThreadX run-time Library

First make sure you are in the "example_build" directory. Also, make sure that
you have setup your path and other environment variables necessary for the GNU
development environment.

At this point you may run the build_threadx.bat batch file. This will build the
ThreadX run-time environment in the "example_build" directory.

You should observe assembly and compilation of a series of ThreadX source
files. At the end of the batch file, they are all combined into the
run-time library file: tx.a. This file must be linked with your
application in order to use ThreadX.


2.  Demonstration System

The ThreadX demonstration is designed to execute under the ARM Cortex-A9x4 FVP.

Building the demonstration is easy; simply execute the build_threadx_sample.bat
batch file while inside the "example_build" directory.

You should observe the compilation of sample_threadx.c (which is the demonstration
application) and linking with TX.A. The resulting file DEMO is a binary file
that can be downloaded and executed.


3.  System Initialization

The entry point in ThreadX for the Cortex-A9 using GNU tools is at label
Reset_Handler in startup.s. After the basic core initialization is complete,
control will transfer to __main, which is where all static and global pre-set
C variable initialization processing takes place.

The ThreadX tx_initialize_low_level.s file is responsible for setting up
various system data structures, the vector area, and a periodic timer interrupt
source. By default, the vector area is defined to be located in the Init area,
which is defined at the top of tx_initialize_low_level.s. This area is typically
located at 0. In situations where this is impossible, the vectors at the beginning
of the Init area should be copied to address 0.

This is also where initialization of a periodic timer interrupt source
should take place.

In addition, _tx_initialize_low_level determines the first available
address for use by the application, which is supplied as the sole input
parameter to your application definition function, tx_application_define.


4.  Register Usage and Stack Frames

The GNU compiler assumes that registers r0-r3 (a1-a4) and r12 (ip) are scratch
registers for each function. All other registers used by a C function must
be preserved by the function. ThreadX takes advantage of this in situations
where a context switch happens as a result of making a ThreadX service call
(which is itself a C function). In such cases, the saved context of a thread
is only the non-scratch registers.

The following defines the saved context stack frames for context switches
that occur as a result of interrupt handling or from thread-level API calls.
All suspended threads have one of these two types of stack frames. The top
of the suspended thread's stack is pointed to by tx_thread_stack_ptr in the
associated thread control block TX_THREAD.



    Offset        Interrupted Stack Frame        Non-Interrupt Stack Frame

     0x00                   1                           0
     0x04                   CPSR                        CPSR
     0x08                   r0  (a1)                    r4  (v1)
     0x0C                   r1  (a2)                    r5  (v2)
     0x10                   r2  (a3)                    r6  (v3)
     0x14                   r3  (a4)                    r7  (v4)
     0x18                   r4  (v1)                    r8  (v5)
     0x1C                   r5  (v2)                    r9  (v6)
     0x20                   r6  (v3)                    r10 (v7)
     0x24                   r7  (v4)                    r11 (fp)
     0x28                   r8  (v5)                    r14 (lr)
     0x2C                   r9  (v6)
     0x30                   r10 (v7)
     0x34                   r11 (fp)
     0x38                   r12 (ip)
     0x3C                   r14 (lr)
     0x40                   PC


5.  Improving Performance

The distribution version of ThreadX is built without any compiler
optimizations. This makes it easy to debug because you can trace or set
breakpoints inside of ThreadX itself. Of course, this costs some
performance. To make it run faster, you can change the build_threadx.bat file to
remove the -g option and enable all compiler optimizations.

In addition, you can eliminate the ThreadX basic API error checking by
compiling your application code with the symbol TX_DISABLE_ERROR_CHECKING
defined.


6.  Interrupt Handling

ThreadX provides complete and high-performance interrupt handling for Cortex-A9
targets. There are a certain set of requirements that are defined in the
following sub-sections:


6.1  Vector Area

The Cortex-A9 vectors start at address zero. The demonstration system startup
Init area contains the vectors and is loaded at address zero. On actual
hardware platforms, this area might have to be copied to address 0.


6.2  IRQ ISRs

ThreadX fully manages standard and vectored IRQ interrupts. ThreadX also supports nested
IRQ interrupts. The following sub-sections define the IRQ capabilities.


6.2.1 Standard IRQ ISRs

The standard ARM IRQ mechanism has a single interrupt vector at address 0x18. This IRQ
interrupt is managed by the __tx_irq_handler code in tx_initialize_low_level. The following
is the default IRQ handler defined in tx_initialize_low_level.s:

    EXPORT  __tx_irq_handler
    EXPORT  __tx_irq_processing_return
__tx_irq_handler
;
;    /* Jump to context save to save system context.  */
    B       _tx_thread_context_save             ; Jump to the context save
__tx_irq_processing_return
;
;    /* At this point execution is still in the IRQ mode. The CPSR, point of
;       interrupt, and all C scratch registers are available for use. Note
;       that IRQ interrupts are still disabled upon return from the context
;       save function.  */
;
;    /* Application ISR call(s) go here!  */
;
;    /* Jump to context restore to restore system context.  */
    B       _tx_thread_context_restore


6.3  FIQ Interrupts

By default, Cortex-A9 FIQ interrupts are left alone by ThreadX. Of course, this
means that the application is fully responsible for enabling the FIQ interrupt
and saving/restoring any registers used in the FIQ ISR processing. To globally
enable FIQ interrupts, the application should enable FIQ interrupts at the
beginning of each thread or before any threads are created in tx_application_define.
In addition, the application must ensure that no ThreadX service calls are made
from default FIQ ISRs, which is located in tx_initialize_low_level.s.


6.3.1  Managed FIQ Interrupts

Full ThreadX management of FIQ interrupts is provided if the ThreadX sources
are built with the TX_ENABLE_FIQ_SUPPORT defined. If the library is built
this way, the FIQ interrupt handlers are very similar to the IRQ interrupt
handlers defined previously. The following is default FIQ handler
defined in tx_initialize_low_level.s:


    EXPORT  __tx_fiq_handler
    EXPORT  __tx_fiq_processing_return
__tx_fiq_handler
;
;    /* Jump to fiq context save to save system context.  */
    B       _tx_thread_fiq_context_save
__tx_fiq_processing_return:
;
;    /* At this point execution is still in the FIQ mode. The CPSR, point of
;       interrupt, and all C scratch registers are available for use.  */
;
;    /* Application FIQ handlers can be called here!  */
;
;    /* Jump to fiq context restore to restore system context.  */
    B       _tx_thread_fiq_context_restore


7.  ThreadX Timer Interrupt

ThreadX requires a periodic interrupt source to manage all time-slicing,
thread sleeps, timeouts, and application timers. Without such a timer
interrupt source, these services are not functional. However, all other
ThreadX services are operational without a periodic timer source.

To add the timer interrupt processing, simply make a call to
_tx_timer_interrupt in the IRQ processing. An example of this can be
found in the file tx_initialize_low_level.s in the Integrator sub-directories.


8.  Thumb/Cortex-A9 Mixed Mode

By default, ThreadX is setup for running in Cortex-A9 32-bit mode. This is
also true for the demonstration system. It is possible to build any
ThreadX file and/or the application in Thumb mode. If any Thumb code
is used the entire ThreadX source- both C and assembly - should be built
with the "-apcs /interwork" option.


9. VFP Support

By default, VFP support is disabled for each thread. If saving the context of the VFP registers
is needed, the following API call must be made from the context of the application thread - before
the VFP usage:

void    tx_thread_vfp_enable(void);

After this API is called in the application, VFP registers will be saved/restored for this thread if it
is preempted via an interrupt. All other suspension of the this thread will not require the VFP registers
to be saved/restored.

To disable VFP register context saving, simply call the following API:

void    tx_thread_vfp_disable(void);


10.  Revision History

For generic code revision information, please refer to the readme_threadx_generic.txt
file, which is included in your distribution. The following details the revision
information associated with this specific port of ThreadX:

04-02-2021  Release 6.1.6 changes:
            tx_port.h                           Updated macro definition

09-30-2020  Initial ThreadX 6.1 version for Cortex-A9 using GNU tools.


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