[En-Nut-Discussion] Ethernut on TIVA

[Philipp Burch]

Hi Uwe!

On 16.09.2014 10:59, Uwe Bonnes wrote:
>>>>>> "Philipp" == Philipp Burch <phip at hb9etc.ch> writes:
> 
>     Philipp> Hi everyone, since TI dropped the Stellaris family, I'm
>     Philipp> currently redesigning a board to use one of their TIVA parts
>     Philipp> (the TM4C1294, to be exactly). I also considered moving to a
>     Philipp> different vendor like ST, but the integrated MAC+PHY and the
>     Philipp> EPI proved really useful, so we decided to stick with the TI
>     Philipp> stuff. We even managed to get 10 of those ICs already ;)
> 
>     Philipp> Anyway, what I wanted to ask is if anyone here already started
>     Philipp> to port Ethernut to this family. Or at least to another
>     Philipp> Cortex-M4.
> 
> No work on that done here.

Ok, so I'll get my hands dirty with that again. We ordered the PCBs
today, so I guess I'll get into the code during next week or so.

btw: Can I create a branch as an ordinary SVN user (i.e. do I have write
access to the branches directory)? If not, could please someone with the
required power create a devnut_tiva branch for me? Simply with a
snapshot from the current trunk, that should be fine.

> 
>     Philipp> @Uwe: I remember the discussion concerning the incredible
>     Philipp> restrictive licenses of TivaWare. There seems to be no
>     Philipp> definitive answer yet, so I guess I'll just do it the same way
>     Philipp> as for the LM3S and simply place a README in the code telling
>     Philipp> the user to download the required files himself. At least as a
>     Philipp> temporary "workaround".
> 
> Perhaps revive the discussion. Also I think there will be no positive
> outcome. But think about long term device support with the recent bad TI
> history of dropping microcontroller parts on short notice. There were also
> rumors that TI will dropp microcontrollers at all...

Never try discussing with a legal department ;) Maybe I will post
another comment there, but I also don't expect much positive. And yes,
my feeling about the future part support is not exactly euphoric, but I
hope for the best.

> 
> Otherwise did you have a look at the libopencm3 headers? If they fit, they
> could be less pain...

Wow, that's cool. I never knew that such a thing exists, thanks for
that. Maybe it is an alternative. Though it's rather stupid that someone
has to recreate machine-generated header files just because of licensing
issues. After all, the manufacturer wants to sell parts, not files...

Regards,
Philipp