NuttX-7.16 Release Notes

The 116th release of NuttX, Version 7.16, was made on June 1, 2016, and is available for download from the Bitbucket.org website. Note that release consists of two tarballs: nuttx-7.16.tar.gz and apps-7.16.tar.gz. These are available from:

https://bitbucket.org/nuttx/nuttx/downloads
https://bitbucket.org/nuttx/apps/downloads

Both may be needed (see the top-level nuttx/README.txt file for build information).

Additional new features and extended functionality:

* Core OS:

  - Power Management: Add activity domain to all PM interfaces and
    driver callbacks.  If CONFIG_PM_NDOMAINS == 1, then the legacy
    behavior is preserved.  If CONFIG_PM_NDOMAINS > 1, then multiple
    PM domains are supported.  This will allow separate control for
    certain power management groups.  For example, a network can be
    shut down without affect an ongoing UI (and vice versa).
  - board_app_initialize():  board_app_initialize() now accepts an
    argument that may be used to support initialization in different
    configurations.

* File System and Block and MTD Drivers:

  - N25Qxxx: Add MTD support for Micron N25Qxxx family of QSPI flash.
    From Dave (ziggurat29).
  - SST26F:  Add an MTD driver for SST26F spi/qspi flash devices (SPI
    mode only).  From Sebastien Lorquet.
  - File Descriptor Detach: Add logic to detach a file structure from a
    file descriptor. This is for use only within the OS.  It permits an
    open file or driver to be used across multiple threads.
  • Networking and Network Drivers:

    • listen()/accept(): Separate out psock_listen() and psock_accepti() for internal, thread independent OS usage (i.e., without a socket descriptor).
    • VNC Server: Add support for a VNC server. This logic is code complete and functional, but not well tested.
* Graphics and Graphic Drivers:

  - Framebuffer driver:  Add a display number to each interface in order
    to support multiple display devices.
  - VNC Server:  Add support for a VNC server.  This logic is code
    complete and functional, but not well tested.
  - LCD Backpack: Add support for PCF8574 LCD Backpack driver. This
    driver supports an interface board that is based on the PCF8574 I/O
    expander and supports the HD44780-based (or compatible) LCD modules.
    There are a myriad of different vendors of such, but they are
    principally the same, save wiring and minor features like jumpers
    for I2C addresses. This driver supports known and unknown variants.
    From Dave (ziggurat29).

* Common Device Drivers:

  - RTC:  Simplify the RTC interface.  The old interface was way too
    complex and was not fully implemented anywhere.
  - BH1750FVI:  Add a character driver for Rohm Ambient Light Sensor
    BH1750FVI.  From Alan Carvalho de Assis.
  - CAN:  Improve CAN error reporting. From Frank Benkert.
  - aes.h:  Modifications to the crypto API needed for LPC43xx.  From
    Alexander Vasiljev.
  - ADC:  Interface no longer uses global adc_receive() call.  Added a
    new bind() method to the ADC interface.  Now the ADC upper half
    driver will register its receipt-of-data callback.  This change
    allows the ADC lower half driver to be used with a differ ADC upper
    half.

 * Simulation Platform:

  - Linux Host Networking:  Enhance networking support for the
    simulation under Linux. Includes updated support for Linux TUN/TAP,
    and the addition of support for Linux bridge devices.  From Steve.

* ARMv7-A, ARMv7-R, and ARMv7-M:

  - ARMv7-M:  Convert more assembly language files for use with the IAR
    toolchain.  From Kha Vo.
  - ARMv7-A:  Complete re-design of SMP-related logic to initialize each
    CPUn, n > 0, when CONFIG_SMP=y.

* Atmel SAMV7:

  - Add a JTAG config and ERASE config to Kconfig to set the
    CCFG_SYSIO SYSIO Pins.  From David Sidrane.
  - System Reset: Add the up_systemreset interface to the samv7 arch.  The
    approach is slightly different in that: 1) It enables ARCH_HAVE_RESET
    and allows the user to set if, and for how long, to drive External
    nRST signal. It also does not contain a default board_reset, as that
    really should be done in the config's src if CONFIG_BOARDCTL_RESET
    is defined.  From David Sidrane.

* Atmel SAMV7 Boards:

  - SAMV71-XULT: Add configuration(s) that were be used to verify VNC
    graphics output as well as mouse and keyboard input.

* NXP Freescale i.MX6 Boards:

  - Sabre-6Quad:  The basic i.MX6 port is complete.  This is a minimal
    port at present and probably still has some as-of-yet-undiscovered
    issues.
  - Sabre-6Quad: Basic SMP NSH configuration is now working.  But this
    is probably only because the SMP test case does not stress the
    logic.  There are know outstanding SMP issues as noted in the
    Sabre-6Quad README.txt file.

* NXP Freescale LPC43xx:

  - LPC4337jet100: Add definitions for the LPC4337jet100 chip.  From
    Alexander Vasiljev.

* NXP Freescale LPC43xx Drivers:

  - AES:  Add AES support.  From Alexander Vasiljev.

* STMicro STM32:

  - STM32 L4: Add configuration options to allow SRAM2 to be used for
    heap, or not at all, and to zero-initialize it on OS start, or not
    at all. From Dave dev@ziggurat29.com.
  - STM32 L4: Add support for HSE and MSI clocks, and auto trim of MSI
    to LSE (needed for USB).  From Dave (ziggurat29)
  - STM32 L4: Add support for unique id function to arch; modified board
    to support unique id boardctl.  From Dave (ziggurat29)

* STMicro STM32 Drivers:

  - STM32 F4 RTC: Add a custom RTC driver with support for alarms.  From
    Neil Hancock.
  - STM32 L4 QSPI: Add a QSPI driver with DMA support and (optional
    memory mapped mode support. From Dave ziggurat29).
  - STM32, STM32 L4, and STM32 F7 Serial:  Add support for compliant 
    SD-style breaks. From David Sidrane.
  - STM32 L4 CAN: Add CAN support for STM32L4.  From Sebastien Lorquet.
  - STM32 1-Wire:  Add support for a custom 1-wire driver.  The serial
    driver already supports a 1-wire interface, but this driver uses the
    same serial logic to implement a lower half driver much like the
    I2C lower half driver.  From Aleksandr Vyhovanec.
  - STM32 L4 SPI: Add support for SPI 4 and 5 on stm32f411 chips. From
    Konstantin Berezenko.
  - STM32 ADC: Allow omitting use of channels in a lower part of PWM.
    From Pierre-noel Bouteville.
  - STM32 L4 I2C: Get I2C working for STM32L4.  From Dave (ziggurat29).

* STMicro STM32 Boards:

  - STM3220G-EVAL:  Add support for both the IAR and uVision GCC IDEs.
    From Kha Vo.
  - STM32F429I Discovery:  Add support for the uVision GCC IDE.   From
    Kha Vo.
  - STM32F4 Discovery: Integrate BH1750FVI driver in the STM32F4 Discovery
    board.  From Alan Carvalho de Assis.
  - STM32L476VG Discovery:  Add support for QSPI based N25Qxxx flash.
    From Dave (ziggurat29)
  - STM32L476VG Discovery: Add board ioctls for allowing user application
    to cause QSPI memory mapped mode to be engaged and disengaged.  Also
    partitioned QSPI flash for file system and other (eventually xip).
    From Dave (ziggurat29)
  - Nucleo-144: Basic port for the Nucleo-144 board with the STM32F746ZG
    MCU.  From Kconstantin Berezenko.
  - STM32F103 Minimum: Add support for this minimual STM32F103CBT6 "blue"
    board.  From Alan Carvalho de Assis.
  - STM32F411E Discovery:  Add basic configuration for stm32f411e-disco
    board with STM32F411VE chip.  From Konstantin Berezenko.

* Build/Configuration System:

  - Moved NuttX repository to https://bitbucket.org/nuttx/nuttx.
    Eliminated use of sub-modules.
  - Add support for the IAR toolchain for the limited case of the ARMv7-M
    architecture and the STM32 chip.  From Aleksandr Vyhovanec.
  - make export: Pass top-level make to the script to allow -j greater
    than 1.  From David Sidrane.
  - fs/Kconfig:  Allow CONFIG_FS_WRITABLE to be manually selectable. This
    is needed when there are no writable file systems, but write support
    is still needed in BCH or FTL.
  - arch/*/Makefile: Add definitions that can be overrided to use GCC
    instead of LD in the final link.  From Paul Alexander Patience .

* Applications: apps/netutils:

  - apps/netutils/esp8266:  ESP8266 driver application.  From Pierre-noel
    Bouteville.

* Applications: apps/examples:

  - apps/examples/alarm:  Add a simple test of the ALARM iotcl calls of
    the RTC driver.
  - apps/examples/nximage:  Add a configuration option to select
    greyscale.

* Platforms: apps/platform:

  - apps/platform/nucleo-144: Add platform files for NUCLEO-144
    (NUCLEO-F746ZG).  From Mark Olsson.
  - apps/examples/media:  You can now override the default device driver
    path by providing an alternal path on the command line.  From
    Sébastien Lorquet.

Works-In-Progress:

* IEEE802.14.5/6LowPAN.  Hooks and framework for this effort were
  introduced in NuttX-7.15.  Work has continued on this effort on
  forks from the main repositories, albeit with many interruptions.
  The completion of this wireless feature will postponed until at
  least NuttX-7.17.

* i.MX6 SMP.  Partially functional, but there is more that still
  needs to be done.

Bugfixes. Only the most critical bugfixes are listed here (see the ChangeLog for the complete list of bugfixes and for additional, more detailed bugfix information):

* Core OS:

  - Various places:  Search for places where a stray semicolon following
    an if condition cause the if body to be executed unconditionally.
    Fixes in all SAM DMA logic, unionfs, OS signalling logic, and others.
  - enter/leave_critical_section() may attempt to access task lists
    before they have been initialized in the SMP configuration.

* File System/Block Drivers:

  - SMART MTD:  Return code of smart_scan not checked, can cause success
    result in failure case, leading to 'dev' pointer being invalid. From
    Dave (ziggurat29)
  - mount: Fix a backward debug assertion.  Noted by David Sidrane.

* Common Drivers:

  - NRF24L01: Fix backward calculation of relative frequency.  Noted by
    Henry Zhang.
  - PCA9555 I/O expander: Fix an error in the PCA9555 driver: Under
    certain error conditions, interrupts were not being re-enabled.
    Sebastien Lorquet.
  - ADS1255: Must not do SPI access from interrupt handler.  Use the
    worker thread instead.  Must also lock the SPI bus before using it.
  - Several SPI-based drivers modified.  All drivers that use SPI must
    call SPI_LOCK and SPI_UNLOCK.  This is not optional.
  - MS583730:  Fix a bug in crc computation for ms583730. Implement
    POSIX read.

* Atmel SAMV7:

  - Fix typo in MATRIX register definitions.  From Stefan Kolb.
  - SAMV7 Tickless Mode: This is a fix to a problem in the handling of
    the oneshot timer. Due to a wrong assumption concerning the behavior
    directly after the start of the timer/counter the function
    sam_oneshot_cancel(…) calculates the wrong remaining time. The code
    assumes that the counter register is zero directly after the start
    of the timer, but this is not true. To start the time/counter a
    software trigger is invoked, this trigger starts the timer/count and
    sets the counter register to zero, but the reset of the counter
    register is not performed instantly. According to the datasheet:
    "The counter can be reset by a trigger. In this case, the counter
    value passes to zero on the next valid edge of the selected clock."
    Thus the counter is set to zero between 0 and USEC_PER_TICK
    microseconds after the clock was started.
    In my fix I use the freerun count value to determine if at least one
    tick passed since the start of the timer and thus if the value of
    the oneshot counter is correct. I also tried to use the function
    up_timer_gettime(…) to achieve this but, at least if compiled with
    no optimization the problem vanishes without using the value of the
    function, the function call takes too long.
    Another problem treated in the fix is that if the oneshot timer/counter
    is canceled, we only know the remaining time with a precision of
    USEC_PER_TICK microseconds. This means the calculated remaining time
    is between 0 and USEC_PER_TICK microseconds  too long. To fix this I
    subtract one tick if the calculated remaining time is greater than
    one tick and otherwise set the remaining time to zero. By doing so
    the measured times are much more precise as without it.  From Stefan
    Kolb.

* Atmel SAMA5:

  - SAMA5:  Stefan Kolb's change to the SAMV7 Oneshot Timer should also
    be applied to the SAMA5 oneshot time since the drivers are identical.

* Atmel SAM3/4:

  - SAM3/4:  Stefan Kolb's change to the SAMV7 Oneshot Timer should also
    be applied to the SAM3/4 oneshot time since the drivers are identical.

* Atmel SAMV7 Drivers:

  - SAMV7 TWIHS (as well as SAM3/4 and SAMA5:  Ensure that the TWIHS
    (i2c) hw get's its clock set when the sequence of
    sam_i2cbus_initialize(), sam_i2cbus_uninitialize(), then
    sam_i2cbus_initialize() or twi_reset() is called.  I found this a
    while back in the stm32 family, so there may be more arch-es with
    this sort of bug. I suppose any driver that has the notion of "do
    not set the freq if it is already set" could be suspect.  From David
    Sidrane.
  - USBHS Device: Remove disabling of whole USB on suspend of USBHS.
    This fix removes the disabling of the whole USB peripheral on
    suspend interrupt. Its enough to freeze the clock instead. When
    disabling the whole peripheral, the next wakeup-interrupt comes up
    with an disabled clocking. The unfreeze clock has no effect, because
    the master clock is disabled. This makes all registers, including
    the IDR unwriteable and the IRQ falls in an endless loop blocking
    the whole system. Furthermore the disabling of the peripheral clock
    prevents hotplugging or reconnecting the USB.  From  Frank Benkert.
  - MCAN: Fix missing unlock of device in MCAN mcan_txempty().  From
    Frank Benkert.

* STMicro STM32:

  - STM32 L4 Clocking: Problem with resetting backup domain clears
    clocking options set up before in *rcc.c use INITS flag to avoid
    magic reg value to detect power up reset state of RTC correct a
    problem clearing interrupt flags (they weren't) which prevented an
    alarm from ever being used more than once per reset cycle.  From
    Dave (ziggurat29)

* STMicro STM32 Drivers:

  - STM32L4 SPI: That STM32Lr SPI driver is quite different. They now
    handle frames of arbitrary size between 4 and 16 bits. It was broken
    before a new bit has to be set (RX fifo threshold) to handle <= 8-bit
    transactions. If not set, the default is 16-bit packed >=8-bit
    frames and the RXNE bit is never set (it is set when 16-bits are
    received). weird things as always. This also add 8-bit access
    routines to the data register, because a 16-bit access to the data
    register when the frame size is below 9 bits is interpreted as a
    packed dual frame exchange. Sebastien Lorquet.
  - STM32:  Correct some bad commits that broke the LTDC display example.
    From Marco Krahl.
  - STM32 F4 RTC: Fix logic in F4 RTCC driver that prevent ALARM
    interrupt.  From Neil Hancock.
  - STM32 F1 ADC: Fix STM32 ValueLine ADC IRQ number selection. From
    David Sidrane.

* STMicro STM32 Boards:

  - STM32F429I Discovery:  Correct some bad commits that broke the LTDC
    display example.  From Marco Krahl.

* TI Tiva:

  - GPIO Interrupts: Fix a bug of GPIO falling-edge interrupt for tiva.
    From Young.

* C Library:

  - math: Add a NAN test on 'x' in asin function of lib_asin.c. Suggested
    by Pierre-noel Bouteville.

* Build/Configuration System:

  - Several Makefiles: Add .PHONY definitions to prevent 'clean up to date'
    message weirdness when 'make clean' is done with no .config or
    Make.defs file.