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NDK 2.25.00.09 GA Release Notes

February 05, 2016

This GA release of the NDK contains documentation updates, support for graphical configuration pages, and major bug fixes.  This release is intended to support SYS/BIOS 6.45.00.20 or greater.

Introduction, Documentation, What's New, Upgrade Info, Compatibility Information, Device Support, Validation Info, Known Issues, Benchmarks, Examples, Rebuilding The NDK Core Libraries, Version Information, Technical Support.

Introduction

The Network Developer's Kit (NDK) is a platform for development and demonstration of network enabled applications on TI embedded processors, currently limited to the TMS320C6000 family and ARM processors. The code included in this NDK release is generic C code which runs on any C66, C674, ARM9, Cortex-A8, Cortex-A9, Cortex-A15, Cortex-M3, or Cortex-M4 device (support for COFF targets is no longer shipped). Users can obtain an appropriate NDK Support Package (NSP) for the various supported platforms separately. The NDK Support Packages include demonstration software showcasing capabilities across a range of network enabled applications. In addition, the stack serves as a rapid prototype platform for the development of network and packet processing applications, or to add network connectivity to existing applications for communications, configuration, and control. Using the components provided in the NDK, developers can quickly move from development concepts to working implementations attached to the network. Please check the release website for previous release notes and NDK Support Packages.

Documentation

The following documents provide an overview of the NDK, the networking programming API, and how to port the software to other platforms:

In addition, users are encouraged to monitor (and contribute to!) the TI Embedded Processors Wiki.

Release notes from previous releases are also available in the release notes archive directory and the release website.

What's New

New Features

Bug Fixes in NDK 2.25.00.09

Upgrade Information

All the libraries in this release support either IPv4 or IPv6 (or both) and NIMU. The low-level (LL) packet driver architecture has been deprecated since NDK v2.0.0 release.

The NDK stack in this release supports SYS/BIOS 6.45.00.20 (or greater) and is meant to be used with CCSv6.1 and up.

Network Support Packages (NSPs), which contains Ethernet drivers, are released independently of this product and are usually shipped as part of a sofware development kit (SDK). The NSPs for evmOMAPL138 and evm6748 platforms can be obtained from the NDK website. Ethernet drivers for MCU devices can be found in the TI-RTOS product (see the TI-RTOS download website). For other devices, please contact your FAE for where to obtain the appropriate SDK.

Type change for "family" members of the socket address structures

Starting in NDK 2.25, the socket address structures have been redefined to use a 16-bit type for the family members:

Applications and/or libraries which contain references to these fields must be rebuilt due to this change!

This was done in order to make the NDK conform to industry standards, in which the 16-bit type 'sa_family_t' is used for these family fields.

The NDK's socket address structures are now defined as follows: 


/* ******** "legacy" NDK layer: ******** */

struct sockaddr {
    UINT16 sa_family; /* address family */
    char sa_data[14]; /* socket data */
};

struct sockaddr_in {
    UINT16  sin_family;         /* address family */
    UINT16  sin_port;           /* port */
    struct  in_addr sin_addr;
    INT8    sin_zero[8];        /* fixed length address value */
};

struct sockaddr_in6 {
    UINT16  sin6_family;            /* address family */
    UINT16  sin6_port;              /* port */
    UINT32  sin6_flowinfo;          /* IPv6 flow information */
    struct  in6_addr sin6_addr;     /* IPv6 address */
    UINT32  sin6_scope_id;          /* scope id */
};

/* ******** BSD compatibility layer: ******** */

struct sockaddr {
    sa_family_t sa_family; /* address family */
    char sa_data[14]; /* socket data */
};

struct sockaddr_in {
    sa_family_t    sin_family;       /* address family */
    unsigned short sin_port;         /* port */
    struct         in_addr sin_addr;
    char           sin_zero[8];      /* fixed length address value */
};

struct sockaddr_in6 {
    sa_family_t     sin6_family;    /* address family */
    unsigned short  sin6_port;      /* port */
    unsigned int    sin6_flowinfo;  /* IPv6 flow information */
    struct in6_addr sin6_addr;      /* IPv6 address */
    unsigned int    sin6_scope_id;  /* scope id */
};

The SNTP Client Is Now Contained In Its Own Library

As of NDK 2.25, the SNTP client is still available in the NDK, however it is no longer part of the nettools library. It has now been factored out of nettools and into its own library. It can still be found in the nettools directory of the NDK:

(Note: the library extenstion ".lib" is used here, the actual file names will have an extension that matches the target type.) Due to this change, it is necessary for users to manually update their project to link in the sntp library, as it will no longer be linked automatically.

The MYTIME module has been removed

Starting in NDK 2.25, the MYTIME module is no longer supported. User's must update their application code to use the SYS/BIOS Seconds module, as this is the replacement for MYTIME.

Please refer to the SNTP documentation for further details on using the Seconds module with the SNTP client, and the SYS/BIOS API guide for details on the Seconds module.

unistd.h has been removed from the NDK BSD layer

Starting in NDK 2.25, unistd.h is no longer provided in the NDK. This file is now shipped in the SYS/BIOS product. If your application includes unistd.h, you must update your compiler options to add the proper path location for this file. It should typically be something like "<SYS/BIOS install dir>/packages/ti/sysbios/posix". It may also be necessary to update your *.cfg file to use the posix package's Settings.xdc module [i.e. xdc.useModule('ti.sysbios.posix.Settings');] in order to link in the posix libraries into your application.

Compatibility Information

This release must be used with following component versions (or higher):

Device Support

This release supports the following devices:

Validation

The following component versions were used to build and run test applications to validiate this release:

This release was validated using the following hardware platforms:

Known Issues

GNU Applications Must Define _POSIX_SOURCE:

Both the NDK and GNU define the fd_set structure. Since SYS/BIOS ships GNU header files, this conflict may arise when building NDK applications using GCC. In order to avoid such conflicts, GCC apps need to throw -D_POSIX_SOURCE in the application's compiler options in order to take the NDK's definition of fd_set.

Terminated Tasks Must Be Automatically Deleted:

The NDK has been updated to take advantage of the new SYS/BIOS feature which automatically deletes dynamically created Task objects which have reached the terminated state.  If your application configuration is loading the package 'ti.ndk.config' and/or using the 'ti.ndk.config.Global.xdc' module, then Task clean up will be set up correctly for you.

However, if your application configuration is not loading the 'ti.ndk.config' package or the 'ti.ndk.config.Global.xdc' module, then you must add the following lines of code to your application configuration (*.cfg) file:

var Task = xdc.useModule('ti.sysbios.knl.Task');
Task.deleteTerminatedTasks = true;

If not, you may experience out of memory issues due to improper Task clean up.  Please refer to section 5.2.2 TaskCreate(), TaskExit(), and TaskDestroy() of the NDK User's Guide for more information.

Known Bugs:

Benchmarks

NDK sizing benchmarks were obtained from applications that, although basic, demonstrate "real world" usage of the TCP/IP stack.  The following summarizes the size benchmark applications:

Please find the bench mark results here:

  • NDK Size Benchmarks

    • Examples

    NDK examples are no longer included as part of the NDK core release. All examples are now located in a seperate Network Support Package (NSP).

    This NDK release was validated using the latest NSP 1.10.03.15 product for the evmOMAPL138 and evm6748 and so works best with the examples found in that product. Users who have the evmOMAPL138 or evm6748 hardware platforms should make sure to use the latest NSP product with this NDK release.

    The latest NSP product may be downloaded from the NDK website

    For all other hardware platforms, the corresponding NSP products and examples may be found in the previous NDK 2.00 and NDK 2.01.00 products, which are also found at the NDK website.

    Rebuilding The NDK Core Libraries

    The NDK product includes source files and build scripts that allow the user to modify its sources and rebuild its libraries. You can do this in order to modify, update, or add functionality. If you
    edit the NDK source code and/or corresponding build scripts, you must also rebuild the NDK in order to create new libraries containing these modifications.

    The NDK ships with a make file which may be used to rebuild the NDK libraries after sources have been modified.

    Please refer to the following web page for instructions on how to rebuild the NDK: Rebuilding The NDK Core With Gmake

    Version Information

    This product's version follows a version format, M.mm.pp.bb, where M is a single digit Major number, mm is 2 digit minor number, pp is a 2 digit patch number, and b is an unrestricted set of digits used as an incrementing build counter.

    To support multiple side-by-side installations of the product, the product version is encoded in the top level directory, ex. ndk_2_25_00_09.

    Subsequent releases of patch upgrades will be identified by the patch number, ex. NDK 2.20.01 with directory ndk_2_20_01. Typically, these patches only include critical bug fixes.

    Technical Support

    Check the NDK website for updates.

    Last updated: February 05, 2016 Build Ver: ndk_2_25_00_09 Rev: f09