Intel Communities: Message List

Re: MPI on the SCC

webadmin@intel.com — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:02:04 GMT

There's a new version of RCKMPI that we just uploaded to the public SVN today.

http://marcbug.scc-dc.com/svn/repository/trunk/rckmpi2/

We haven't had a chance to use it much yet. If you try it out, can you post your experiences here?

Re: MPI on the SCC

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:50:07 GMT

Lots of people have built custom kernels for the SCC. The very latest SCC Linux code is now on github. It works with sccKit 1.4.2. You can load it with 1.4.1.3 but if I do that I lose connectivity to the cores. It's been working fine with the 1.4.2 beta. What I've done is just build the default SCC Linux from its sources. And for a custom SCC Linux, I think that is the first step. If you can do that, then your build environment is set up correctly. Once you build the default SCC Linux, you can make a modification, and it then of course builds much faster.

You don't have to have a github account to clone and build. The github organization for SCC Linux is hpi-scc. If you want to suggest that your modifications get incorporated into the default build, then you should make a github account and fork SCC Linux and then make a pull request. But you probably should discuss the proposed modification on the Forum or in Bugzilla first.

There is a new version of RCK MPI that I have not yet seen it, but will shortly. The download package will include Isaias' Master Thesis. You can listen to his talk at HPI’s site for videos of the talks http://tele-task.de/archive/series/overview/877/ I had difficulty with this file under Windows but not Linux. I don't know if this is due to Windows or to the fact that my Windows system is inside the Intel firewall and my Linux system is not. In any case, there have been significant improvements in RCK MPI that we should all look at.

Choosing the BusyBox Version Used by SCC Linux

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:48:46 GMT

We've had some questions about the BusyBox version that SCC Linux uses. Here is how you can change the Busybox version used by SCC Linux. When you are building SCC Linux, issue a "make menuconfig". Then, choose Package Selection for the target --> BusyBox Version (BusyBox 1.18.x) . You see a menu. With 1.4.1.3, the latest version is 1.18.x. You can also choose a daily snapshot. With 1.4.2, you can choose a 1.19.x as well as a daily snapshot.

And then of course you must rebuild SCC Linux. Please not that if you choose something other that 1.18.x, you are entering untested territory.

BusyBox Version

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:23:02 GMT

We've has some questions about the BusyBox version that SCC Linux uses. If when you are bulding SCC Linux, you issue a "make menuconfig".

Then, choose Package Selection for the target --> BusyBox Version (BusyBox 1.18.x) . You see a menu. With 1.4.1.3, the latest version is 1.18.x. You can also choose a daily snapshot. With 1.4.2, you can choose a 1.19.x as well as a daily snapshot. And then of course you must rebuild SCC Linux.

Please not that if you choose something other that 1.18.x, you are entering untested territory.

The new SCC Linux is on Github

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:10:08 GMT

The latest SCC Linux is on github, not the public SVN that we've been using. Note that this SCC Linux works with sccKit 1.4.2 (now in beta), not sccKit 1.4.1.3. SCC Linux will build on a 1.4.1.3 system, and it will even boot; but the cores remain inaccessible. It's working fine on 1.4.2. You do not have to have a github account to build this Linux. If you want to fork sccLinux and issue a pull request, you must have a github account.

To build the 1.4.2 SCC Linux, issue the following commands:

# git clone git://github.com/hpi-scc/sccLinux
# cd sccLinux
# ./configure.sh
# cd buildroot-2011.11
# make sccDemo_defconfig
# make

Re: GORY RCCE Examples

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:35:23 GMT

Now that you understand what's going on. what can I do to convince you to provide such an example?

Re: debugging tool for SCC - P54C registers dump for Xen port

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:40:19 GMT

To remote debug with gdb, you will need sccKit 1.4.2. And yes I think you may have to build a custom SCC Linux. 1.4.2 is in beta.

Do you have your own hw? We're setting up a 1.4.2 system here for people to login to to try out the beta or you can install it yourself on your own hw if you have it. The SCC Linux with 1.4.2 has what they've called virtual serial ports. I've tried them out with mnicom to see the console messages appear on the MCPC when booting SCC Linux. I haven't tried remote debugging yet ... if you can help with that, that woudl be great.

But if you are going to go with using serial ports, I'd recommend getting involved with the beta and the discussion about building a custom SCC Linux. The procedure has changed a lot since 1.4.1.3. sccLinux code will be on github. To get on the SCC Data Center 1.4.2 beta file a bug on our bugzilla under the product ADD ME to the SCCKIT BETA 1.4.2.

http://marcbug.scc-dc.com/bugzilla3/

Message was edited by: Ted Kubaska: words left out

sccKit 1.4.2 Beta is available

webadmin@intel.com — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:53:02 GMT

We’re starting a sccKit 1.4.2 beta. If you want to participate in this beta please create a Bugzilla bug in the ADD ME to the SCCKIT BETA 1.4.2 product.

http://marcbug.scc-dc.com/bugzilla3/

This is an informal beta. There are no beta reports to file.

The compressed tarfile that contains the sccKit 1.4.2 beta software is available for download from our public SVN,

http://marcbug.scc-dc.com/svn/repository/tarballs/ . The file is called sccKit_1.4.2.tar.bz2.

We’ll officially start the beta on Jan 9, 2012 and run it for one month until Feb 6, 2012. We will release the software if there are no P1 open bugs. Recall that our Bugzilla bugs have both severity and priority. Severity is determined by the user and is one of (blocker, critical, major, normal, minor, and trivial). The Bugzilla home page defines these terms. Priority is determined by Intel; it is one of the following (P1, P2, P3, and P5). P5 indicates that priority is not yet set. P1 means we must fix to release; P2 means we will fix, but an open P2 will not hold up the release; P3 means we will not fix.

The first goal is, of course, to check that your applications continue to work with this new release. Once you have verified that, you might consider taking advantage of the new features.

We will shortly follow this announcement with installation instructions and a description of new 1.4.2 features. In summary the installation is much like installing 1.4.1.3 with eMAC enabled. You must be root to install sccKit 1.4.2.

Copy sccKit_1.4.2.tar.bz2 to /opt/sccKit and untar it.
Remove the current link and remake it to point to 1.4.2.
Ensure that /opt/sccKit/1.4.2/bin is in your path (not another sccKit directory).
Edit /opt/sccKit/current/firmware/RockyLake/update/update.txt. You want a larger number. I often choose the date followed by an index … as in 20120106001 so that the least significant numbers increase earlier.
Run install.csh in /opt/sccKit/current/firmware.
Power cycle. Issue (providing the complete path) /opt/sccKit/current/bin/sccPowercycle –r
Initialize tith sccBmc –i.
Boot with sccBoot –l.
Check your FPGA bitstream with the following (this assumes you have either eMAC a or eMAC b enabled).

$ sccBmc -c set |grep FPGA

Default FPGA bitstream: /mnt/flash4/rl_20110624_ab.bit

Log onto a core and verify that you have the correct Linux kernel.

rck00:/root # uname -a

Linux rck00 3.1.4scc #4 SMP Wed Dec 21 14:41:27 CET 2011 i586 GNU/Linux

Message was edited by: Ted Kubaska: typo

Re: Flags and performance issues

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:56:45 GMT

We don't want our latest release doing cacheline flags. I made a RCCE 2.0 from the trunk.

Our release tags are snapshots. We don't update them.

I also changed the lower limit of RC_V_MHz_cap[] to 0.8 from 0.7. The 0.7 was causing some instability on some (not all) chips.

So right now the trunk and RCCE_V2.0 are identical.

Re: debugging tool for SCC - P54C registers dump for Xen port

webadmin@intel.com — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:39:13 GMT

Looking at the new 1.4.2 beta I came across this statement .... and noticed the reference to gdb. I'll try it out. I'm thinking that with this xen port you might be interested in 1.4.2.

The Linux console contains serial ports “/dev/ttyS0” to “/dev/ttyS3” that are connected to “/dev/crbif0rb0cNNttyS0” to “/dev/crbif0rb0cNNttyS3” of the MCPC where NN is the core number. So the MCPC has 4x48 serial ports to the SCC cores.
The crbif driver has been modified (new release, that comes with new sccKit) in order to provide the serial connections. They can be used e.g. to connect the core via minicom or telnet. They can also be used to attach a gdb remotely…