MultiCore ELF Generator Tool

Takes multiple ELF files as input and combines their segments to create a minimal single ELF file with ELF header, program header table, custom note segment and the data segments.

Prerequisites

Install the required libraries to your system specified in requirements.txt by:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Script arguments

1. --core-img : Path to individual binaries of each core. It is a mandatory argument. Input is given in this format -

   --core-img=0:<core0_binary.out> --core-img=1:<core1_binary.out>
   

2. --output : The output file name. It is a mandatory argument.

   --output=<filename>.mcelf
   

3. --merge-segments : Enable merging segments based on a tolerance limit. Default value is false.

4. --tolerance-limit : The maximum difference (in bytes) between the end address of previous segment and start address of current segment for merging the segments. Default value is zero.

5. --ignore-context : Enable merging of segments that are of different cores. Default value is false.

6. --xip : XIP section's start and end address seperated by a colon. It creates a new file .mcelf_xip. It is a mandatory argument. In case of no XIP regions, use --xip=None (XIP is disabled even though file exists). Argument format when XIP region exists:

   --xip=0x60100000:0x60200000
   

7. --xlat : SOC specific Address Translation. SOC JSON located in devideData/AddrTranslate folder. Default value is 'None'. (UNDER DEVELOPMENT, RESERVED FOR FUTURE USE)

   --xlat=deviceData/AddrTranslate/am263xjson
   

8. --sso : Shared static objects. (UNDER DEVELOPMENT)

9. --max_segment_size : Maximum allowed size of a loadable segment. This feature can only be used with merge_segments disabled. Default values is 8192 bytes.

10. --otfaConfigFile : Path to JSON file containing the OTFA config. Disabled by default with value None.

MCUSDK integration

• The script should be cloned inside {MCU_SDK_PATH}/tools/boot path.

• genimage.py script called in makefile of all examples and tests. It generates a .mcelf image for all the projects.

• Macros for arguments 3-8 are defined in devconfig/devconfig.mak file.

Compiling C code

The assumption here is that gcc is used to compile the code on windows and linux.

imports.mak is the file where compiler path has been set. By default it uses the compiler that is on the path of the machine.

It is important to compile the c code by both 32bit and 64bit compiler. If not done, then 32bit python will not be able to call c code.

Use the following command to compile the gmac code: gmake -C .\c_modules\gmac\

On windows, Download 64bit mingw-gcc from: https://winlibs.com (version >= 14.2.0). For 32bit version of mingw-gcc can be downloaded from https://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/ (version >= 6.3.0)

On Linux, gcc is already installed and hence no need to download and install it.