Looking for ARM SoC porting guidelines

On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 9:10 AM, Luca Ceresoli [off-list ref]
wrote:

Very interesting. I just started a project using the Nuvoton N32926,
and mainline support in a recent kernel would be very, very
interesting. I'd be glad to join your effort by testing your code, and
possibly contributing.

What bootloader are you using? AFAIK Nuvoton does not provide any sort
of U-Boot, barebox or any other open source bootloader.

Correct.  For right now, I'm using the proprietary Nuvoton bootloaders
which are kind of a mess in terms of having to use the 15 year old ARM
Development Suite software to build.  I have a simple script which converts
a Linux Image file and device tree binary into a conprog.bin file that the
Nuvoton can boot with from the existing bootloaders.

Nuvoton is switching to a newer Keil based development environment for
their proprietary bootloader, but that's not a whole lot better.  My hope
is to get some sort of U-boot running by adapting pieces of the proprietary
bootloader, but that's a secondary priority relative to just getting basic
kernel functionality running.

Do you have any working configuration for the N32926? Boot+UART, I don't

expect much at this early stage, but I'd like to test it as soon as you
have one.

I'm still waiting for my N32926 hardware to arrive to begin a port for it.
Given the work I've done with the N32905 and the similarity between the two
chips at the basic level, I don't anticipate it taking more than a few days
to get it going.  I'll post back here when I have something to try.  At a
minimum it would include the clock framework, clock source, interrupt
driver, UART driver and other basic stuff.

Oh, and... any plans for supporting the H.264 decoder on the N32926?

Well, for now I'm working on the basics and the first tier of drivers to
the system so it can boot from NOR/NAND flash, SD cards and have basic USB
connectivity. I already have these items on the N32905.  I don't have any
specific plans beyond that for the N32926, but we'll see. My specific
interest is in the lower-end N32905 because of the opportunity for the chip
in the toy markets and a $3 Linux capable single chip system is really cool
:-).

Mike
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