[En-Nut-Discussion] Will the FPU from the STM32F4xx supported (context.c)?

[bon at elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de]

>>>>> "Henrik" == Henrik Maier <hmnews at proconx.com> writes:

    Henrik> Not all Cortex M4 will have a FPU (its an optional peripheral)
    Henrik> and its usage depends what options you pass to the compiler (eg
    Henrik> -mfloat-abi=hard, -mfpu=fpv4-sp-d16 and so forth). I am not
    Henrik> aware if these FPU settings are reflected in a compiler macro so
    Henrik> we can test during compile time.

    Henrik> So we have two conditions to check against. a) Is the Cortex-M4
    Henrik> equipped with an FPU or not and b) is the code compiled with
    Henrik> hard floating point or not. Only if both conditions are true it
    Henrik> makes sense to save the additional registers.

At the moment, int nut/conf/arch/arch.nut 
"FPUFLAGS=-mfloat-abi=hard -mfpu=fpv4-sp-d16"
is added for STM32F30x and STM32F4XX.

    Henrik> One suggestion would be to add a HAS_FPU flag to the
    Henrik> configurator which is set automatically when a specific CPU is
    Henrik> selected, for example in case of the STM32F4xx series. That
    Henrik> would satisfy the first condition a).  What to do best if the
    Henrik> code is not compiled with FPU instructions I am not certain. I
    Henrik> can see issues when Nut/OS is compiled without FPU support (and
    Henrik> hence no FPU context is saved) but then the user code with FPU
    Henrik> support. I think it would be safer to save the FPU context in
    Henrik> any case. I can't imagine having a FPU and not wanting to use
    Henrik> it...

The HAS_FPU seems more appropriate, however the name should be more
specific, like HAS_CORTEX_M4_FPU.


    Henrik> On 2/09/2013 7:12 PM, Ole Reinhardt wrote:
    >> If the FPU is available, how can you be sure _not_ to use the FPU?
    >> Won't it be used implicitly by the compiler if a flotingpoint
    >> calculation is executed? This may even be used by a library which you
    >> are not aware of.
    >> 
    >> So i would suggest to add the FPU registers to the context switch by
    >> default and add a configuration option to _not_ save them if really
    >> wanted!
    >> 

Anybody going ahead?

Bye
-- 
Uwe Bonnes                bon at elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
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