An experiment with implementation of very simple operating system for Malta board.

Let's assume you'll install all required software in your home directory under local directory.

1. Register at ovpworld.org

2. Download OVPsim simulator package for Linux, release 20160323

3. Unpack the downloaded package OVPsim.20160323.0.Linux32.exe. Install the unpacked directory as: ${HOME}/local/Imperas.20160323.

4. Add to .bashrc following lines:

   source ${HOME}/local/Imperas.20160323.0/bin/setup.sh
   setupImperas ${HOME}/local/Imperas.20160323.0 -m32 
   

5. Get your host ID, needed for a license:

   $ $IMPERAS_HOME/bin/Linux32/lmutil lmhostid
   lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2011 Flexera Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
   The FLEXnet host ID of this machine is "00123f7c25ed"
   

6. Fill a form and send request for OVPsim license. Use host ID from previous step. Ask for a free license for personal non-commercial usage.

7. When license received by email, put it to the file $IMPERAS_HOME/OVPsim.lic.

After you've built and installed OVPsim you need to fetch MIPS toolchain from Imagination Technologies. It's based on gcc, binutils and gdb - hopefully you're familiar with these tools. The installer is available here. In my case downloaded file was named CodescapeMIPSSDK-1.3.0.42-linux-x64-installer.run. During installation process you should choose to install into ${HOME}/local/imgtec directory. We need only a cross-compiler for Bare Metal Applications and MIPS Classic Legacy CPU IP Cores.

After toolchain installation you should comment out the last line of ${HOME}/.imgtec.sh file (with reference to QEMU path). Instead of that please add ${HOME}/local/bin to user's path.

Useful sites:

• OSDev wiki
• prpl Foundation

Toolchain documentation:

• Extensions to the C Language Family
• Debugging with GDB
• Linker scripts

MIPS documentation:

• MIPS® Architecture For Programmers Volume II-A: The MIPS32® Instruction Set
• MIPS® Architecture For Programmers Volume III: The MIPS32® and microMIPS32™ Privileged Resource Architecture
• MIPS32® 24KE™ Processor Core Family Software User’s Manual
• MIPS32® 24KEf™ Processor Core Datasheet
• Programming the MIPS32® 24KE™ Core Family
• MIPS® YAMON™ User’s Manual
• MIPS ABI Project

Hardware documentation:

• MIPS® Malta™-R Development Platform User’s Manual
• Galileo GT–64120 System Controller
• Intel® 82371AB PCI-TO-ISA/IDE XCELERATOR (PIIX4)
• Am79C973: Single-Chip 10/100 Mbps PCI Ethernet Controller with Integrated PHY
• FDC37M81x: PC98/99 Compliant Enhanced Super I/O Controller with Keyboard/Mouse Wake-Up