Application Note
AN_353
FT32 GNU Toolchain Quick Start
Guide
Version 1.0
Issue Date: 2015-10-13
This document provide an overview of FT32 GNU toolchain and its quick
usage, it also provide solutions for FT90x security feature and chip
configuration function. At the end of this document, resource for further study
is provided.
Use of FTDI devices in life support and/or safety applications is entirely at the user’s risk, and the
user agrees to defend, indemnify and hold FTDI harmless from any and all damages, claims, suits
or expense resulting from such use.
Future Technology Devices International Limited (FTDI)
Unit 1, 2 Seaward Place, Glasgow G41 1HH, United Kingdom
Tel.: +44 (0) 141 429 2777 Fax: + 44 (0) 141 429 2758
Web Site: http://ftdichip.com
Copyright © 2015 Future Technology Devices International Limited
Application Note
AN_353 FT32 GNU Toolchain Quick Start Guide
Version 1.0
Document Reference No.: FT_001136
Clearance No.: FTDI# 473
Table of Contents
1 Introduction .............................................................. 2
1.1 GCC .....................................................................................2
1.2 GNU Binutils ........................................................................2
2 Basic Tool Chain Usage .............................................. 4
3 FT90x Security Feature Implementation.................... 5
4 FT90x Chip Configuration Function Implementation .. 6
5 Further Study ............................................................ 7
6 Contact Information .................................................. 8
Appendix A – References ............................................... 9
Document References .................................................................9
Acronyms and Abbreviations.......................................................9
Appendix B – Revision History ..................................... 10
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AN_353 FT32 GNU Toolchain Quick Start Guide
Version 1.0
Document Reference No.: FT_001136
Clearance No.: FTDI# 473
1 Introduction
The GNU based software development tool set is the first available tool chain for FT32 processor
core powered SoC, such as FT90x.
The GNU tool chain for FT32 includes the following tools:
1.1 GCC
GCC stands for GNU Compiler Collection. GCC is highly flexible compiler system. It has different
compiler front-ends for different languages. It has many back-ends that generate assembly code
for many different processors and host operating systems. They all share a common "middle-end",
containing the generic parts of the compiler, including a lot of optimizations.
GCC is different from most other compilers. GCC focuses on translating a high-level language to
the target assembly only. FT32 GCC has two available compilers for the FT32: C language and
C++. The compiler itself does not assemble or link the final code.
GCC is also known as a "driver" program, in that it knows about, and drives other programs
seamlessly to create the final output. The assembler and the linker are part of another open
source project called GNU Binutils. GCC knows how to drive the GNU assembler (gas) to assemble
the output of the compiler. GCC knows how to drive the GNU linker (ld) to link all of the object
modules into a final executable.
When GCC is built for the FT32 target, the actual program names are prefixed with "ft32-elf-". So
the actual executable name for FT32 GCC is: ft32-elf-gcc
1.2 GNU Binutils
The name GNU Binutils stands for "Binary Utilities". It contains the GNU assembler (GAS), and the
GNU linker (ld), but also contains many other utilities that work with binary files that are created
as part of the software development toolchain.
Again, when these tools are built for the FT32 target, the actual program names are prefixed with
"ft32-elf-". For example, the assembler program name, for a native assembler is "as" (even
though in documentation the GNU assembler is commonly referred to as "gas"). But when built for
an FT32 target, it becomes "ft32-elf-as". Below is a list of the programs that are included in
Binutils:
ft32-elf-as
The Assembler.
ft32-elf-ld
The Linker.
ft32-elf-ar
Create, modify, and extract from libraries (archives).
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ft32-elf-ranlib
Generate index to library (archive) contents.
ft32-elf-objcopy
Copy and translate object files to different formats.
ft32-elf-objdump
Display information from object files including disassembly.
ft32-elf-size
List section sizes and total size.
ft32-elf-nm
List symbols from object files.
ft32-elf-strings
List printable strings from files.
ft32-elf-strip
Discard symbols from files.
ft32-elf-readelf
Display the contents of ELF format files.
ft32-elf-addr2line
Convert addresses to file and line.
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AN_353 FT32 GNU Toolchain Quick Start Guide
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Document Reference No.: FT_001136
Clearance No.: FTDI# 473
2 Basic Tool Chain Usage
As the FT32 tool chain is GNU based, all the commands employ GNU tool chain’s interface and
functions. To have a quick guide of all the command usage, you can issue the command with “-help” parameter under command prompt and the tool will print out its general usage.
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3 FT90x Security Feature Implementation
FT90x has a special security feature which enables the invisibility of all or part of the firmware in
flash memory. This will prevent anyone from finding any information by reverse engineering of the
firmware binary.
The segments in FT90x built-in flash memory which need to be protected are programmed by
FT90x eFuse module. However, it is the firmware developer’s responsibility to put the code that
needs to be protected to the correct location.
In this section, one of the possible methods to put the certain function(s) to a designated memory
zone using GNU tool chain is provided.
For those functions that need to be relocated to certain memory zone must have a function
prototype declaration like following:
RETURN_TYPE
function_name
("SECTION_NAME")));
(PARAMETER_LIST)
__attribute__
((section
Where RETURN_TYPE is function’s return type, function_name is the name of the function,
PARAMETER_LIST is the function’s parameters and SECTION_NAME is the section name that you
will use later.
If you want to put several functions into one memory bar, be sure to put them under the same
section name.
To enable this feature, you have to use the customized linker script instead of the default one, of
course, you could start from modifying the default linker script.
From the default linker script, add a session after the .text output session, this assumes that the
hidden session will be put after the normal code segment. In this new output session’s description,
add the input object file name and the session name that we defined above as input section.
In the Makefile, under linker command, i.e. ft32-elf-ld, add the “—section-start” option with the
SECTION_NAME as above and assign the appropriate offset to it.
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AN_353 FT32 GNU Toolchain Quick Start Guide
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Document Reference No.: FT_001136
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4 FT90x Chip Configuration Function Implementation
Sometimes, there is some configuration information needed for firmware, such as MAC address for
Ethernet, USB peripheral PID, VID etc. This kind of information may be different for each device;
however, it is not practical if we have to build different firmware for each device.
To solve this problem, we need to find a solution which could keep the firmware intact while
changing the configuration information. One the possible method by the GNU tool chain is
discussed as follows:
In C code, define the data structure which defines configuration information, then define a variable
of this data structure such as following:
struct ft900_config
{
uint8_t eth_mac_addr[6];
uint8_t CAN_identifier[4];
};
struct
ft900_config
("chip_config"))) =
__flash__
stConfig
__attribute__
((section
{
{0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04, 0x05, 0x06},
{0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x14}
};
This is to create the variable which contains the default value of the chip configuration information
and belongs to the special section.
Then in the Makefile, when linker is executed, apply the “—section-start” with section name above
and appropriate offset value. After that, we can either directly change the content of firmware
binary file at the offset specified or we can modify the firmware downloading tools to include the
updated configuration information and the data that firmware read will be changed without the
need or rebuild firmware.
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Clearance No.: FTDI# 473
5 Further Study
For further study of FT32 GNU based tool chain, we can refer to following webpages.
For GCC: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/
For binutils: https://sourceware.org/binutils/docs-2.24/
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AN_353 FT32 GNU Toolchain Quick Start Guide
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6 Contact Information
Head Office – Glasgow, UK
Branch Office – Tigard, Oregon, USA
Future Technology Devices International Limited
Unit 1, 2 Seaward Place, Centurion Business Park
Glasgow G41 1HH
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 141 429 2777
Fax: +44 (0) 141 429 2758
Future Technology Devices International Limited
(USA)
7130 SW Fir Loop
Tigard, OR 97223-8160
USA
Tel: +1 (503) 547 0988
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Branch Office – Taipei, Taiwan
Branch Office – Shanghai, China
Future Technology Devices International Limited
(Taiwan)
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Taiwan , R.O.C.
Tel: +886 (0) 2 8791 3570
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Web Site
http://ftdichip.com
Distributor and Sales Representatives
Please visit the Sales Network page of the FTDI Web site for the contact details of our distributor(s) and sales
representative(s) in your country.
System and equipment manufacturers and designers are responsible to ensure that their systems, and any Future Technology
Devices International Ltd (FTDI) devices incorporated in their systems, meet all applicable safety, regulatory and system-level
performance requirements. All application-related information in this document (including application descriptions, suggested
FTDI devices and other materials) is provided for reference only. While FTDI has taken care to assure it is accurate, this
information is subject to customer confirmation, and FTDI disclaims all liability for system designs and for any applications
assistance provided by FTDI. Use of FTDI devices in life support and/or safety applications is entirely at the user’s risk, and the
user agrees to defend, indemnify and hold harmless FTDI from any and all damages, claims, suits or expense resulting from
such use. This document is subject to change without notice. No freedom to use patents or other intellectual property rights is
implied by the publication of this document. Neither the whole nor any part of the information contained in, or the product
described in this document, may be adapted or reproduced in any material or electronic form without the prior written consent
of the copyright holder. Future Technology Devices International Ltd, Unit 1, 2 Seaward Place, Centurion Business Park,
Glasgow G41 1HH, United Kingdom. Scotland Registered Company Number: SC136640
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Application Note
AN_353 FT32 GNU Toolchain Quick Start Guide
Version 1.0
Document Reference No.: FT_001136
Clearance No.: FTDI# 473
Appendix A – References
Document References
http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/ICs/FT90x.html
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Terms
Description
FT32
FTDI Proprietary 32-bit Core
GAS
GNU Assembler
GCC
GNU Compiler Collection
GNU
GNU (Gnu's Not Unix) Operating System
MAC
Media Access Control (Ethernet)
PID
Product ID
SoC
System on Chip
USB
Universal Serial Bus
VID
Vendor ID
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Copyright © 2015 Future Technology Devices International Limited
Application Note
AN_353 FT32 GNU Toolchain Quick Start Guide
Version 1.0
Document Reference No.: FT_001136
Clearance No.: FTDI# 473
Appendix B – Revision History
Document Title:
AN_353 FT32 GNU Toolchain Quick Start Guide
Document Reference No.:
FT_001136
Clearance No.:
FTDI# 473
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http://www.ftdichip.com/FTProducts.htm
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Initial Release
Date
2015-10-13
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Copyright © 2015 Future Technology Devices International Limited