Set default configuration

Base address 1 points at the TFLM arena and is by default routed
over AXI 0. For the spilling use case with both model and arena in
DRAM it would make more sense to route base addresses 0 and 1
over AXI 1.

For Ethos-U65 the default settings should correspond to the spilling
use case.

The AXI limits should have different max values depending on the NPU
architecture.

Change-Id: Icd317097e2cfdbfb39886e13c2cb2202651e5357
4 files changed
tree: 49530e22edaff9916e31a22c3409fe6135b9b3be
  1. .clang-format
  2. .gitignore
  3. CMakeLists.txt
  4. LICENSE.txt
  5. README.md
  6. SECURITY.md
  7. include/
  8. src/
  9. zephyr/
README.md

Arm(R) Ethos(TM)-U core driver

This repository contains a device driver for the Arm(R) Ethos(TM)-U NPU.

Building

The source code comes with a CMake based build system. The driver is expected to be cross compiled for any of the supported Arm Cortex(R)-M CPUs, which requires the user to configure the build to match their system configuration.

One such requirement is to define CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR for the target CPU, for example "cortex-m55+nodsp+nofp". Similarly the target NPU configuration is controlled by setting ETHOSU_TARGET_NPU_CONFIG, for example "ethos-u55-128".

The build configuration can be defined either in the toolchain file or by passing options on the command line.

$ cmake -B build  \
    -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=<toolchain> \
    -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR=cortex-m<nr><features> \
    -DETHOSU_TARGET_NPU_CONFIG=ethos-u<nr>-<macs>
$ cmake --build build

Driver APIs

The driver APIs are defined in include/ethosu_driver.h and the related types in include/ethosu_types.h. Inferences can be invoked in two manners: synchronously or asynchronously. The two types of invocation can be freely mixed in a single application.

Synchronous invocation

A typical usage of the driver can be the following:

// reserve a driver to be used (this call could block until a driver is available)
struct ethosu_driver *drv = ethosu_reserve_driver();
...
// run one or more inferences
int result = ethosu_invoke(drv,
                           custom_data_ptr,
                           custom_data_size,
                           base_addr,
                           base_addr_size,
                           num_base_addr);
...
// release the driver for others to use
ethosu_release_driver(drv);

Asynchronous invocation

A typical usage of the driver can be the following:

// reserve a driver to be used (this call could block until a driver is available)
struct ethosu_driver *drv = ethosu_reserve_driver();
...
// run one or more inferences
int result = ethosu_invoke_async(drv,
                                 custom_data_ptr,
                                 custom_data_size,
                                 base_addr,
                                 base_addr_size,
                                 num_base_addr,
                                 user_arg);
...
// do some other work
...
int ret;
do {
    // true = blocking, false = non-blocking
    // ret > 0 means inference not completed (only for non-blocking mode)
    ret = ethosu_wait(drv, <true|false>);
} while(ret > 0);
...
// release the driver for others to use
ethosu_release_driver(drv);

Note that if ethosu_wait is invoked from a different thread and concurrently with ethosu_invoke_async, the user is responsible to guarantee that ethosu_wait is called after a successful completion of ethosu_invoke_async. Otherwise ethosu_wait might fail and not actually wait for the inference completion.

Driver initialization

In order to use a driver it first needs to be initialized by calling the init function, which will also register the handle in the list of available drivers. A driver can be torn down by using the deinit function, which also removes the driver from the list.

The correct mapping is one driver per NPU device. Note that the NPUs must have the same configuration, indeed the NPU configuration can be only one, which is defined at compile time.

Implementation design

The driver is structured in two main parts: the driver, which is responsible to provide an unified API to the user; and the device part, which deals with the details at the hardware level.

In order to do its task the driver needs a device implementation. There could be multiple device implementation for different hardware model and/or configurations. Note that the driver can be compiled to target only one NPU configuration by specializing the device part at compile time.

Data caching

For running the driver on Arm CPUs which are configured with data cache, the cache maintenance functions in the driver are exported with weakly linked symbols that should be overridden. An example implementation using the CMSIS primitives found in cachel1_armv7.h could be as below:

extern "C" {
void ethosu_flush_dcache(uint32_t *p, size_t bytes) {
    if (p)
        SCB_CleanDCache_by_Addr(p, bytes);
    else
        SCB_CleanDCache();
}

void ethosu_invalidate_dcache(uint32_t *p, size_t bytes) {
    if (p)
        SCB_InvalidateDCache_by_Addr(p, bytes);
    else
        SCB_InvalidateDCache();
}
}

Mutex and semaphores

To ensure the correct functionality of the driver mutexes and semaphores are used internally. The default implementations of mutexes and semaphores are designed for a single-threaded baremetal environment. Hence for integration in environemnts where multi-threading is possible, e.g., RTOS, the user is responsible to provide implementation for mutexes and semaphores to be used by the driver.

The mutex and semaphore APIs are defined as weak linked functions that can be overridden by the user. The APIs are the usual ones and described below:

// create a mutex by returning back a handle
void *ethosu_mutex_create(void);
// lock the given mutex
void ethosu_mutex_lock(void *mutex);
// unlock the given mutex
void ethosu_mutex_unlock(void *mutex);

// create a (binary) semaphore by returning back a handle
void *ethosu_semaphore_create(void);
// take from the given semaphore
void ethosu_semaphore_take(void *sem);
// give from the given semaphore
void ethosu_semaphore_give(void *sem);

Begin/End inference callbacks

The driver provide weak linked functions as hooks to receive callbacks whenever an inference begins and ends. The user can override such functions when needed. To avoid memory leaks, any allocations done in the ethosu_inference_begin() must be balanced by a corresponding free of the memory in the ethosu_inference_end() callback.

void ethosu_inference_begin(struct ethosu_driver *drv, void *user_arg);
void ethosu_inference_end(struct ethosu_driver *drv, void *user_arg);

Note that the void *user_arg pointer passed to invoke() function is the same pointer passed to the begin() and end() callbacks. For example:

void my_function() {
    ...
    struct my_data data = {...};
    int result = int ethosu_invoke_v3(drv,
                                  custom_data_ptr,
                                  custom_data_size,
                                  base_addr,
                                  base_addr_size,
                                  num_base_addr,
                                  (void *)&data);
    ....
}

void ethosu_inference_begin(struct ethosu_driver *drv, void *user_arg) {
        struct my_data *data = (struct my_data*) user_arg;
        // use drv and data here
}

void ethosu_inference_end(struct ethosu_driver *drv, void *user_arg) {
        struct my_data *data = (struct my_data*) user_arg;
        // use drv and data here
}

License

The Arm Ethos-U core driver is provided under an Apache-2.0 license. Please see LICENSE.txt for more information.

Contributions

The Arm Ethos-U project welcomes contributions under the Apache-2.0 license.

Before we can accept your contribution, you need to certify its origin and give us your permission. For this process we use the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) V1.1 (https://developercertificate.org).

To indicate that you agree to the terms of the DCO, you "sign off" your contribution by adding a line with your name and e-mail address to every git commit message. You must use your real name, no pseudonyms or anonymous contributions are accepted. If there are more than one contributor, everyone adds their name and e-mail to the commit message.

Author: John Doe \<john.doe@example.org\>
Date:   Mon Feb 29 12:12:12 2016 +0000

Title of the commit

Short description of the change.

Signed-off-by: John Doe john.doe@example.org
Signed-off-by: Foo Bar foo.bar@example.org

The contributions will be code reviewed by Arm before they can be accepted into the repository.

Security

Please see Security.

Trademark notice

Arm, Cortex and Ethos are registered trademarks of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the US and/or elsewhere.