I would like to use iMX6 in asymmetric mode (Windows EC7 + Linux). Is that anyhow possible? Marco
Hello Marco, it is the first time I hear about AMP in that context: dual OS vs. dual ISA.
I personally would see more asymmetric on the Freescale product with Vybrid Controller Solutions by Freescale where cores are using different instruction set.
Anyway, the i.MX6 can definitely run WEC7 and Linux!
Adeneo Embedded, among others, provides BSP for Windows Embedded Compact 7. Here are a couple of articles: Adeneo Embedded expands Windows Embedded Compact (WEC7 & WEC2013) support for Freescale® i.MX 6 Series MPUs, or Adeneo improves the network performance on the iMX6 Windows Embedded Compact (WEC7) solutions.
Linux has been widely supported on ARM Processors for quite a while now. Debian and Ubuntu are two distributions coming to my mind...
Are you thinking dual-boot?
Drew, would you like to chime in?
As Alban said, it is certainly possible to run the i.MX6 in AMP mode, what i'm not so sure about is the ability to run two full OS's like Linux and WEC7. I don't know enough about the requirements of the OS's on the SoC.
Some things to keep in mind: You would have to ensure OS A doesn't step on memory from OS B and vice versa, also you would have to enforce some sort of mutex scheme to ensure that peripherals are only accessed one at a time, etc... Ideally you would have a hypervisor to manage this, but since the i.MX6 is based on the Cortex-A9 (which does not have the ARMv7 Virtualization Extensions) you would have to resort to using para-virtualization.
Sorry I don't have a definite answer here
Hello Marco, We have AMP support for the Cortex-A9. As Drew noted, care needs to be taken in memory and device usage.
PolyCore Software has tools and runtime software for multicore applications, called Poly-Platform. The tools are integrated with DS5, providing a seamless development environment which will manage the resources and communications. Embedded applications span a broad range of topologies which include SMP and AMP(ISA and OS). So, the challenge is putting the pieces together.
For the topology that you have identified, Poly-Platform supports:
At your request, I would be happy to explore how Poly-Platform could work in your environment. Feel free to email at Ted.Gribb@PolyCoreSoftware.com
See www.PolyCoreSoftware.com