Trouble with XS1-G04 and the toolchain?

[TjBordelon]

Update/Note: In fairness to XMOS, they're working hard to try to resolve my issues. I'm blown away by the support. They're incredibly responsive. I'm not quite sure why I'm having such a rough experience with the G4, but it seems surprising to them.

Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping to get my bearings on issues I've been having using the toolchain on G4 development. I fell in love with the XCORE in an instant. It's genius - simple but not overly so. Refined. Fast. I have been excited since I connected to our custom boards and uploaded my first program.

For the past 2 weeks trying to use the tools to do development on the G4, I have hit so many problems -- From trouble with basic functionality (disassembly and memory windows not showing the right context or just plain wrong information) to the inability to put breakpoints on more than one core without corruption my code, It really feels like things are broke when it comes to G4 support . I've been told XGDB is the solution, but it too has many (if not all) of the same issues.

I'm hoping someone could shed some light on why there appears to be a thriving community of happy folks here, and I seem to be having such a very different experience. Is the G4 new? Are the tools still basically in beta? Are most folks using the "L" series and I'm the poor sap using the G4? Maybe debug a single tile at a time?

I'm very confused. The hardware so far seems rock solid, but the software seems flaky as all heck. I see fancy features like scopes and timing tools. But all that is for not if I can't do the basics.

I'd be VERY VERY happy if this turns out to be *ME*. Maybe you guys using the G4 out there can tell me that everything is working just fine. Maybe we can compare notes-- about how I'm testing and see if there's something wrong that I'm doing.

I'm limping along.. I don't put breakpoints in main. I don't take the disassembly window at face value, and I avoid putting breakpoints in >1 core at a time (which causes memory corruption BTW). However, at this stage my question is "Why?".

My current theory is that the G4 is going obsolete but hopefully NOT. It's the fastest part in the bunch!

Thanks for any input....

[TSC]

The G-series is not obsolete yet, because they're still being sold. I'd consider them to be legacy devices now. The G-series was released earlier than the L-series.

I used to use an XC-2 board, but migrated to 2 linked SliceKit Core boards, mainly to have access to more I/O.

G-Series Disadvantages:
* They use a lot of power and run quite hot.
* "XS1-G multi-chip networks must be connected in a hypercube topology. Three node XS1-G networks are not supported by the XMOS toolchain."
* Can't easily be booted over xCONNECT links like the L-series can.
* Can't use xScope.
* Max. 400 MHz. Some L-series parts can run up to 500 MHz.

G-Series Advantages:
* 4 external xCONNECT links per tile compared to 2 external links of L-series. Faster inter-tile communication.
* Maximum of 4 tiles in one package. L-series has maximum of 2 tiles per package.
* 5 V tolerant I/O.
* 64 I/O per tile. L-series has 40 to 42 I/O per tile.

[TjBordelon]

Thanks. I was afraid of this after reading some old press releases. It makes no sense why this wasn't up front on the website. We've based a new design on a chip with no replacement forthcoming. A very risky situation. I take issue with XMOS on this-- I stepped on a landmine and this is going to cost us. Or maybe not? I hope this chip is going to be around.