I have a question about how to make Ethos-U NPU work on a ARM Cortex-A + Cortex-M processor. First, I found ethos-u-linux-driver-stack and ethos-u-core-software on https://git.mlplatform.org/.
1. I know ethos-u-linux-driver-stack is Ethos-U kernel driver. Should it be integrated into the Linux OS running on Cortex-A or be integrated into the Linux OS running on Cortex-M? I am nor clear about which core it need to perform on.
2. For ethos-u-core-software, how to run it? I did't find the detail steps to run it. Does it run on NPU or any core?
3. Except the above two repos, is there any other repo necessory to make Ethos-U NPU work on an ARM Cortex-A + Cortex-M processor?
Thanks for your suggestion in advance.
Hi, Kristofer, thanks a lot for your guild.
1. I checked the build log for generating libtensorflow-microlite.a and libethosu_core_driver.a. The part log is as below.
CMSIS_PATH=xxx/ethos-u_20.08_build/core_software/cmsis ETHOSU_DRIVER_PATH=xxx/ethos-u_20.08_build/core_software/core_driver ETHOSU_DRIVER_LIBS=xxx/ethos-u_20.08_build/core_software/build/core_driver/libethosu_core_driver.a ETHOSU_FAST_MEMORY_SIZE=0 TAGS="cmsis-nn ethos-u" BUILD_TYPE=release
According to the log, Arm Ethos-U is enabled by "TAGS="ethos-u cmsis-nn" argument. The driver source is built as libethosu_core_driver.a. Anyway, I have linked both libtensorflow-microlite.a and libethosu_core_driver.a in the binary. I guess the process is TLFu framework -> ethosu.cc -> ethosu_driver.c.
2. I have another question. I saw the entry point ethosu_invoke which is called in ethosu.cc. In ethosu_driver.c, there are other necessary driver functions, such as ethosu_init, ethosu_irq_handler.. But I didn't find where these driver functions are called. Shouldn't they be executed?
3. I think the ethos-u register base address and irq number need to be used in the driver. For example, register base address is needed for ethous_init and ethosu_invoke. What is the preferred way to transfer these values to these functions?
Actually, I don't know how much work I should do for this core_driver. Please give me some guild.
Up until recently there were no Arm Ethos-U compatible platforms available in the public domain. Because of this we have only published platform generic software components like applications, frameworks and drivers.
Now that the Corstone-300 + Ethos-U has been published we will be able to upstream target specific code as well. This code will demonstrate how to setup the interrupt vector, initialize drivers and how to link the software into a binary. We have created ethos-u-core-platform that in the next month or two will be populated with examples.
https://developer.arm.com/tools-and-software/open-source-software/arm-platforms-software/arm-ecosystem-fvps
2.Code for setting up the platform is not present in core software. Examples of this will later on be published in ethos-u-core-platform. This code will for example show how to setup the interrupt vector and how to call ethosu_init_...().
3. There are many options how the base address could be set. The address could be hard coded in the code; a build system could set a define; a build system could generate a header header file with a variable or a define; etc. I can't say which would be the preferred way, only that there are several options that would solve the problem.