Application/System manager (Linux system calls over CSP)

An application has been developed to expose the Linux-side of the PicoCoreMX8MP over CSP as app-sys-manager (node 21 as of writing), providing a remote interface to run system calls on the Linux system. The application is registered as a systemd service, so it starts automatically when the system boots up.

The app-sys-manager can be used for various tasks such as:

  • Suspending linux (A53 cores into WFI) - this also brings this node down, so it must be woken up from the Cortex-M7 via its wake_a53 parameter

    • set suspend_a53 to any value to suspend the A53 cores

    • set suspend_on_boot to any value greater than or equal to 1 to suspend the A53 cores on boot (This is a persistent setting)

  • Installing Vimba drivers

    • set vimba_install to any value to install Vimba drivers

  • Start/stop camera control process

    • set mng_camera_control n start the camera control application as node number n (n=0 kills any running camera control process)

  • Start/stop image processing (DIPP) process

    • set mng_dipp n start the DIPP application as node number n (n=0 kills any running DIPP process)

  • Switching the Cortex-M7 binary between the main (/home/root/disco_scheduler.bin) and stage files (/home/root/_stage_disco_scheduler.bin)

    • set switch_m7_bin to any value to switch the Cortex-M7 binaries - NOTE: Switching the Cortex-M7 binary is disabled for now, as it only makes sense if file upload to the Linux filesystem gets implemented.

  • Rebooting PicoCoreMX8MP

    • run reboot command (affects Cortex-M7 application as well). This uses the default CSP reboot hook.

Primary operation sequence diagram Conceptual overview of the primary operation sequence

Payload Nodes in the CSP network

When the system is fully up and running, the PicoCoreMX8MP will contain the following nodes in the CSP network:

  • Node 4: Cortex-M7 (low-power operations and csp_proc server)

  • Node 21: Cortex-A53 (app-sys-manager)

  • Node x: Camera control application

  • Node y: Image processing pipeline (DIPP) application