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p. Linaro releases monthly binary images for the ARM "Versatile Express":http://www.arm.com/products/tools/development-boards/versatile-express/index.php including support for A9, A5, A15 (TC1), TC2 (big.LITTLE) CoreTiles and RTSM.
p. For support matters related to ARM hardware or firmware images downloaded from ARM sites, please contact "ARM support":mailto:support@arm.com
p. This release includes Linaro Android Jelly Bean and Ubuntu Precise Pangolin for Versatile Express and Real-Time System Model ("RTSM":http://www.arm.com/products/tools/software-tools/ds-5/rtsm-simulator.php). The images are able to boot A5 (using U-Boot), A9 (ATAGS), TC1 and TC2 using UEFI. Sources are also made available so you can build your own images.
h2. About the TC2 Evaluation Build
The TC2 CoreTile is the first example of a big.LITTLE system shipped by ARM and serves as a platform for development and test of big.LITTLE software. TC2 contains a tri-core Cortex-A7 cluster and a dual-core Cortex-A15 cluster linked using the CCI–400 coherent interconnect.
The release integrates big.LITTLE development work which can be traced in the big.LITTLE MP working group "git repo":http://git.linaro.org/gitweb?p=arm/big.LITTLE/mp.git;a=summary . *Note:* This repository has the following tree: big-LITTLE-MP-master-v16 that has been used for the 13.03 evaluation build. This tree includes the following patches that have been developed and qualified for correctness to enable the ARM Versatile Express V2P-CA15_A7 CoreTile (TC2) to run in full MP mode. This new functionality has been optimised for energy usage at near Cortex-A15 (big) performance. These patches are not currently ready to be submitted to the Linux mainline for integration (upstreaming), since they do not yet work seamlessly with the load-balancer. Work is ongoing to make the load-balancer more big.LITTLE aware, making the changes suitable for integration into the Linux mainline.
This release introduces optional configurable kernel support for an example implementation of ARM's Power State Co-ordination Interface (PSCI). This support is disabled by default. Using PSCI support requires the use of secure firmware that is currently available to ARM licensees upon request to ARM. Please contact support-sw@arm.com with the subject line "Access to PSCI" to get access to the firmware code.
Scheduler modifications to support big.LITTLE
** sched: Basic global balancing support for HMP: This patch introduces an extra-check at task up-migration to prevent overloading the cpus in the faster hmp_domain while the slower hmp_domain is not fully utilized. The patch also introduces a periodic balance check that can down-migrate tasks if the faster domain is oversubscribed and the slower is under-utilized.
** per-task-load-average-v3-merged: Paul Turner’s patches enabling the calculation of load on a per-task basis.
** task-placement-v2: Morten Rasmussen’s patches using the per-task load to schedule threads on the big or LITTLE cores as appropriate. The patches take into account multiple domains when making decisions on task migration, with ftrace events added for tracking these migrations. *New* Basic global balancing support for HMP - improves performance for cases where multiple 'big' threads are running but allowing the use of LITTLE cores.
** Experimental patches for making load values invariant to frequency settings. This helps reduce the chance of unnecessary up migrations to big cores.
** A patch from Thomas Gliexner which supports a IRQ affinity mask being specified in the command line. This can be used to reduce unnecessary IRQ wakeups on Cortex-A15. For instructions see the irqaffinity entry in Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
** arm-multi_pmu_v2 - enables the use of multiple PMU types or sources, for example profiling across both Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 clusters and getting results for CCI.
** scheduler-misc-v1 - miscellaneous scheduler patches complementing the MP work
Platform Support. In addition to the big.LITTLE MP work the TC2 platform support includes:
** TC2: reset CPUs spuriously woken up on cluster power up
** vexpress: add shim layer for psci backend on TC2
** vexpress: allow native pm ops backends to probe for psci suppport
** psci: add cmdline option to enable use of psci
** psci: add probe function to discover presence of a psci implementation
** psci: convert psci '-EALREADYON' error code to linux '-EAGAIN'
** vexpress: add psci support in TC2 device tree
** psci: add constants to specify affinity levels
** TC2: replace hard coded cluster and cpu values with constants
** TC2: use generic accessors to extract cpu and cluster ids
** CPUidle & CPUfreq support
** hwmon driver allowing, amongst other things, TC2's power, current and energy measurements to be read through standard sysfs interfaces
** Common clocks implementation
** Regulator driver
** Drivers for previously hard-coded configuration interfaces
** Support self-hosted debugging through idle
** In addition to the CPU PMUs the perf framework supports the CCI-400 PMUs
h2. Where To Find More Information
More information on Linaro can be found on our "website.":http://www.linaro.org/
h2. Feedback and Support
Subscribe to the important Linaro mailing lists and join our IRC channels to stay on top of Linaro development.
** Linaro Android Development "mailing list":http://lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/linaro-android
** Linaro Android IRC channel on irc.freenode.net at @#linaro-android@
* Bug reports should be filed in Launchpad against the individual packages that are affected. If a suitable package cannot be identified, feel free to assign them to "Linaro Android project":http://bugs.launchpad.net/linaro-android/+filebug.
* Questions? "ask Linaro":http://ask.linaro.org/.
* Interested in commercial support? inquire at "Linaro support":mailto:support@linaro.org
h2. Fixed in this release
h3. Generic bugs:
* "LP: #1110632":https://bugs.launchpad.net/linaro-landing-team-arm/+bug/1110632 BLS-470: Logical CPU topology view constructed wrongly affecting CPU_fast and CPU_slow masks relied on by HMP patch.
h3. Android bugs:
* "LP: #1086623":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1086623 SD card partition unavailable on vexpress with Linaro Android Jelly Bean 4.2
h3. UEFI bugs:
None listed.
h3. Generic Landing Team Bugs:
None listed.
h2. Known Issues
* "LP: #1110634":https://bugs.launchpad.net/linaro-landing-team-arm/+bug/1110634 BLS-460: Perf group counting requires 'cpu_cycles' event as the first event in the event list specified to the perf tool.
h3. UEFI Bugs:
* "LP: #1067784":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1067784 UEFI: A9 crashes on boot with Device Tree
* "LP: #1091447":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1091447 UEFI: A9 crashes on boot with ATAGS
* "LP: #942155":https://launchpad.net/bugs/942155 UEFI: TC2: copy/paste doesn't work over serial port
* "LP: #942162":https://launchpad.net/bugs/942162 UEFI: vexpress A5 & TC1: No LCD/HDLCD support
* "LP: #972623":https://launchpad.net/bugs/972623 UEFI: vexpress A9: flash to address zero
* "LP: #1117464":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1117464 UEFI/TFTP: server must provide a filename in DHCPOFFER
* "LP: #1157203":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1157203 UEFI: TC2: Shell cannot write to SD card when booting from A7 core
h3. Android Bugs:
* "LP: #873283":https://launchpad.net/bugs/873283 Taking device screenshot using ddms tool fails
* "LP: #987172":https://launchpad.net/bugs/987172 vexpress: YouTube video playback fails
* "LP: #1083175":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1083175 vexpress: Android: Recorded message is just a harsh loud noise
* "LP: #1086599":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1086599 SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark doesn't work on vexpress with Linaro Android Jelly Bean 4.2
* "LP: #1091279":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1091279 All text missing in Ethernet settings menu
* "LP: #1092492":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1092492 No boot instruction for ARM Versatile Express A9 Android Jelly Bean.
* "LP: #1097309":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1097309 serial console doesn't received characters on TC2
* "LP: #1112449":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1112449 Android Gallery app disappears on first boot
h3. Generic Landing Team Bugs:
* "LP: #1068595":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1068595 Enabling function tracer kills the system on TC2
* "LP: #1131208":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1131208 arm64: create config fragments and work with other teams to use them
* "LP: #1131078":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1131078 Juice: CONFIG_SYNC should be enabled in the kernel
* "LP: #1129005":https://launchpad.net/bugs/1129005 Intermitent failure of LTP shmat01 testcase
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