EZSDK Reducing Size Of Media Controller Firmware

Introduction

The Media Controller firmware is loaded boot time. This firmware consists of two files - dm816x_hdvicp.xem3 and dm816x_hdvpss.xem3.

Note!: The firmware names are specific to DM816x and can vary slightly on different devices. Throughout this topic, we refer to DM816x. The same instructions would apply to other devices by only changing names appropriately.

This topic shows how you could reduce the size of the firmware by stripping symbols from it. By default the firmware shipped in the EZSDK contains all debugging symbols. These symbols increase the size of the firmware significantly. By stripping the symbols from the firmware, you could reduce the size of the firmware.

Throughout this topic there will be commands spelled out to execute. Some are to be executed on the Linux development host, some on the Linux target and some on the u-boot (bootloader) prompt. They are distinguished by different command prompts as follows:

host $ <this command is to be executed on the host>
target # <this command is to be executed on the target>
u-boot :> <this command is to be executed on the u-boot prompt>

Stripping Symbols from firmware

In order to strip symbols, you need to first ensure that TI's Code Composer Studio is installed. CCS ships with the necessary tools required to strip symbols from the firmware. If you don't have CCS installed, you can download it from Code Composer Studio. The rest of the instructions point to CCS installed in $CCS directory.

Step 1, copy the firmware to a working directory

host $ mkdir ~/tmp
host $ cp $EZSDK/board-support/prebuilt-images/dm816x-firmware_xx_xx_xx_xx/*.xem3 ~/tmp

Step 2, Run strip470 on the xem3 files

host $ $CCS/tools/compile/tms470/bin/strip470 -p ~/tmp/dm816x_hdvpss.xem3
host $ $CCS/tools/compile/tms470/bin/strip470 -p ~/tmp/dm816x_hdvicp.xem3

Step 3, Copy the firmware to the target.

Note! This step will overwrite the existing firmware on your target filesystem. You can always retrieve the same from the EZSDK by copying them back.

host $ sudo cp ~/tmp/*.xem3 $TARGETFS/usr/share/ti/ti-media-controller-utils/

You can now reboot your board and the smaller size xem3 files will be used.

Download the Latest EZSDK

The latest EZSDK is available for download from http://software-dl.ti.com/dsps/dsps_public_sw/ezsdk/latest/index_FDS.html.

The current version is 5.05.02.00. The supported platforms are DM816x and DM814x.

EZSDK Support

DM816x E2E Support Forum http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/davinci_digital_media_processors/f/717.aspx DM814x E2E Support Forum http://e2e.ti.com/support/dsp/davinci_digital_media_processors/f/716.aspx Linux E2E Support Forum http://e2e.ti.com/support/embedded/linux/default.aspx BIOS E2E Support Forum http://e2e.ti.com/support/embedded/bios/default.aspx