Documentation/ReleaseNotes/NuttX-6.29

NuttX-6.29
----------

The 96th release of NuttX, Version 6.29, was made on July 31, 2013,
and is available for download from the SourceForge website. Note
that release consists of two tarballs: nuttx-6.29.tar.gz and
apps-6.29.tar.gz. Both may be needed (see the top-level nuttx/README.txt
file for build information).

Additional new features and extended functionality:

* Drivers:

- Generalized the SSD1306 driver and added support UG-2832HSWEG04
which is very similar to the existing support for the
UG-2864HSWEG01.
- Added support for a generic bit-bang SPI driver. This includes
both a common "upper half" driver as well as a platformp-specific
"lower half" dirvers based on a common "template."

* ARMv7-A, Cortex-A5

- Added support for the ARMv7-A architecture and the Cortex-A5 in particular.

* ARMv7-M, Cortex-M3/4

- Modified how some registers are copied during a context switch (with
lazy FPU register saving). This should save some context switching
time when the context switch is due to interrupt level processing.

* STM32:

- Added support for a separate CCM heap. This may be useful for
segregating allocations for CCM (which cannot be used for DMA)
from other allocations (that may be used used for DMA).

* STM32 Drivers:

- DAC: Added support for DAC DMA (contributed by John Wharington).
- I2C: An I2C driver for the STM32 F3 family (from John Wharington).

* Atmel AT91 SAM/4:

- Add support for SAM3X and SAM3A chips

* Atmel AT91 SAM/4 Drivers:

- Re-architect the SAM3/4 SPI driver so that is it compatible with the
SPI drivers of other MCUs.
- Added register definition file for the SAM4L LCD peripheral.
- Added SAM4L PDCA register definition file

* Atmel AT91 SAM/4 Boards:

- SAM4L-Xplained: Added support for the SPI-based SD card on the I/O1
module.
- SAM4L-Xplained: Added a driver for the LED1 segment LCD module.
- SAM4L-Xplained: Added support for the UG-2832HSWEG04 OLED on the
SAM4L Xplained Pro's OLED1 module
- SAM4S-Xplained: Added support for on-board 1MB SRAM
- Arduino Due: Basic support for the Arduino Due (SAM3X) is now
included.
- SAM3U-EK: The touchscreen is now functional.

* Atmel AT91 SAMA5D3

- Added support for the Atmel AT91SAMA5D3 Cortex-A5 chip family.

* Atmel AT91 SAMA5D3 Boards

- Added support for the Atmel SAMA5D3x-EK boards which use the AT9
SAMA5D3x chips (x=1,3,4,5).

* Freescale KL25Z Drivers

- Freescale KL25Z TSI register definitions and example TSI driver for
the Freedom KL25Z board from Alan Carvalho de Assis.
- Added SPI driver and register definitions for the Freescale KL25Z.
- Added a framework for controlling SPI-related discrete inputs and
outputs. Taken from work by Alan Carvalho de Assis

* Build System:

- New sub-directories to hold SPI-related files: includes/nuttx/spi.h
moved to include/nuttx/spi/.; SPI-related Kconfig info moved from
drivers/Kconfig to drivers/spi/kconfig.
- Finally... I changed the naming of configuration variables like
CONFIG_DRAM_ to CONFIG_RAM_. This has bothered me for a long time
since most boards don't have DRAM. The more generic RAM naming
should not produce so much cognitive dissonance

* Libraries:

- Added CRC16 support.

* Applications:

- Added Zmodem file transfer support. This may be used as an embedded
library or may be built as 'sz' and 'rz' commands that can be
executed from NSH.
- C++ initializers should be set once and, preferably, in the context
of the task that uses any C++ statically initialized classes. This
only becomes an issue if cxxtest or helloxx are built as NSH builtin
applications. Then you want the initialization done in cxxtext or
helloxx and not in NSH (and certainly not twice). Added
configuration options to control who does the C++ initialization.
NSH now does not do C++ initialization be default and must be
configured to do otherwise. Conversely, cxxtest and helloxx
will always do C++ initialization unless configured do otherwise.
- examples/cxxtext: Add ostream test as provided by Michael.
- NSH: Added a 'cmp' command that can be used to compare two files
for equivalence. Returns an indication if the files differ.
Contributed by Andrew Tridgell (via Lorenz Meier).

Efforts In Progress. The following are features that are partially
implemented but present in this release. They are not likely to be
completed soon.

* Audio System:

- A complete audio subsystem include CODECs, higher level management,
interface definitions, and audio drivers was contributed by Ken
Pettit. This work has not been completely verified as of this
release and so is categorized as a work-in-progress. At present,
progress is blocked due to issues interfacing with the VS1053
audio DAC on the Mikroe STM32F4 board.

* kconfig-fronted Configuration:

- Conversion of old configurations to use the kconfig-frontends
tool is an ongoing effort that will continue for some time.
At this time, only 45% of the configurations have been converted
to use the kconfig-frontends tools.

Bugfixes (see the ChangeLog for details). Some of these are very important:

* File Systems:

- Fixed compilation error if no file systems are enabled: Change
error to ERROR.
- Read-Ahead/Write buffering: Correct typos that can cause failures
in some configurations (From Chia Cheng Tsao).

* Drivers

- Remove the wait for the touchscreen busy bit in the ADS7843E driver.
From my reading of the ADS7843 spec, it would not be appropriate to
wait for the BUSY bit to de-asserted anyway (since it is only de-
asserted when we read the data). Most boards do not even bother to
provide the BUSY bit.
- MMC/SD SPI based driver: Driver needs to make sure that the SPI
mode and data width are correct.
- ENC28J60: Change buffer ordering to work around Errata. From Dave
(ziggurat29).

* USB Device Controller Drivers:

- Fixed a typo in the composite device driver unitialization logic.
DEV1 should be DEV2 in one case.
- usbdev.h: Fix some typos that cause compiler errors when
CONFIG_USBDEV_DMA and CONFIG_USBDEV_DMAMEMORY are selected (From
Chia Cheng Tsao).

* ARM9:

- Fix a bug (uninitialized register error) that crept in the ARM9
boot-up code several years ago. Obviously no one has used the
ARM9 NuttX port for years!

* STM32 Drivers:

- Fix STM32 OTF FS endpoint allocation logic. Apparently the same
endpoint can be allocated as both an IN or an OUT endpoint. The
existing implementation only supported one allocation, either IN or
OUT. This resulted in failures to allocate endpoints when used with
the CDC/ACM + MSC composite driver (From Chia Cheng Tsao).
- SDIO: Add support for the data block end (DBCKEND) interrupt to
terminate transfers (From Chia Cheng Tsao).
- DAC: Fixed numerous DAC driver errors and added support for DAC
DMA (contributed by John Wharington).

* SAM3/4:

- SAM4S: Correct configuration of PIO pins for SAM4S B and C peripherals.
- Need to disable write protection before configuring PIO pins.
- GPIO configuration logic must protect against re-entrancy.
- Clocking must be applied to the SMC module for the 3X and 3A family in
order for the NFC SRAM to be functional.
- Fixed some errors for interrupts on ports D-F.

* SAM3/4 Drivers:

- Common SPI driver: Fix SPI mode setting. In the SAM3/4 family, the
clock phase control (CPHA) is inverted (NPHA). Also fixed an
incorrect pointer test. Was checking if the wrong pointer was NULL.

* SAM3/4 Boards:

- SAM3U-EK: Fix polarity of the /PENIRQ signal (it is active low).
The SAM3U-EK board now runs at 96MHz.

* Applications:

- apps/examples/nxhello: Minor fix for compilation error when the
display resolution is low (< 8bpp) due to a typo that has been there
for a long time. Also Correct default colors when in Y1 code mode.
- apps/system/ramtest: The RAM test was not correctly built
into the configuration and build system.
- apps/examples/composite: Change to prevent some false alarm debug
assertions (From Chia Cheng Tao).