Porting a New Architecture & Toolchain into Zephyr for Microchip dsPIC33AK (200 MHz 32-bit Digital Signal Controller) – Dependencies Inquiry

[ks-bobban]

Hello Zephyr Community,

We are working on integrating the dsPIC33AK128MC106 MCU from Microchip into Zephyr RTOS.Since this architecture is not currently supported in Zephyr, we want to enable this new architecture to the Zephyr RTOS kernel. Additionally, Compiler is a proprietary toolchain from Microchip, and we want to add support for that as well in Zephyr.

We would like to know if there are any Zephyr dependencies, existing support files, or guidelines that we should be aware of while enabling Zephyr kernel support for this MCU. Any references to existing ports for similar architectures, toolchain integration steps, or build system modifications would be highly appreciated.

Below are the relevant links for the MCU and compiler:

MCU Datasheet (dsPIC33AK128MC106): Microchip Datasheet

MPLAB XC-DSC C Compiler: Microchip XC-DSC Compiler

We look forward to your guidance and any resources that can assist us in this porting effort.

Thanks & Regards,
Bobban KS

[str4t0m]

I guess you already had a look at the Architecture Porting Guide?

Renesas is currently also in the process of adding support for their RX architecture, it may help checking those discussions as well.

[nashif]

@ks-bobban take a look at two architectures currently in the process of being added, RX and OpenRISC.

No gcc support? What about emulation/simulation?

[ks-bobban]

Hi Nashif,

No GCC Support?
According to the Microchip XC-DSC Compiler User Guide, the compiler is a port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) from the Free Software Foundation.

Here’s the Microchip XC-DSC Compiler User Guide:
🔗 MPLAB XC-DSC C Compiler User Guide

What About Emulation/Simulation?
The board includes an in-circuit programmer/debugger circuit. It features the PICkit™ On-Board (PKOB4), which is used for both programming and debugging.

For more details on development boards using the PKOB4 In-Circuit Debugger, refer to:
🔗 Curiosity Platform Development Board User’s Guide

Thanks & Regards,
Bobban KS

[ks-bobban]

Dear Zephyr Team,

Thank you for your response.

We have added support for the dsPIC33AK128MC106 MCU/Board from Microchip to Zephyr RTOS and enabled this new architecture in the Zephyr RTOS kernel. Additionally, we have integrated the XC-DSC toolchain as per your guidance in (#81313).

However, we are encountering issues while building object files for the following:

[8/103] Building C object zephyr/CMakeFiles/zephyr_pre0.dir/misc/empty_file.c.obj                                                                          
FAILED: zephyr/CMakeFiles/zephyr_pre0.dir/misc/empty_file.c.obj
ccache C:\PROGRA~1\MICROC~1\xc-dsc\v3.10\bin\XC40A4~1.EXE  -IC:/users/emira/zephyrproject/modules/hal/microchip/include  -MD -MT zephyr/CMakeFiles/zephyr_pre0.dir/misc/empty_file.c.obj -MF zephyr\CMakeFiles\zephyr_pre0.dir\misc\empty_file.c.obj.d -o zephyr/CMakeFiles/zephyr_pre0.dir/misc/empty_file.c.obj -c C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/misc/empty_file.c
[9/103] Building C object zephyr/CMakeFiles/offsets.dir/arch/modified_harvard/core/offsets/offsets.c.obj
FAILED: zephyr/CMakeFiles/offsets.dir/arch/modified_harvard/core/offsets/offsets.c.obj

Please review the build failure details in the attached log:

PS C:\zephyrproject\zephyr> west build -p always -b dspic33ak128mc106 samples/hello_world                                                                  
-- west build: generating a build system
Loading Zephyr default modules (Zephyr base).
-- Application: C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/samples/hello_world
-- CMake version: 3.28.3
-- Found Python3: C:/Python311/python.exe (found suitable version "3.11.8", minimum required is "3.10") found components: Interpreter 
-- Cache files will be written to: C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/.cache
-- Zephyr version: 4.1.0-rc1 (C:/zephyrproject/zephyr)
-- Found west (found suitable version "1.2.0", minimum required is "0.14.0")
-- Board: dspic33ak128mc106, qualifiers: dspic33ak128mc106
-- Found host-tools: zephyr 0.17.0 (C:/zephyrproject/zephyr-sdk-0.17.0)
-- Using Harvard-DSC toolchain from C:/Program Files/Microchip/xc-dsc/v3.10
-- Found Dtc: C:/ProgramData/chocolatey/bin/dtc.exe (found suitable version "1.5.0", minimum required is "1.4.6") 
-- Found BOARD.dts: C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/boards/microchip/dspic33ak/dspic33ak128mc106.dts
-- Generated zephyr.dts: C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/zephyr.dts
-- Generated pickled edt: C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/edt.pickle
-- Generated devicetree_generated.h: C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/include/generated/zephyr/devicetree_generated.h
-- Including generated dts.cmake file: C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/dts.cmake
Parsing C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/Kconfig
Loaded configuration 'C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/boards/microchip/dspic33ak/dspic33ak128mc106_defconfig'
Merged configuration 'C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/samples/hello_world/prj.conf'
Configuration saved to 'C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/.config'
Kconfig header saved to 'C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/include/generated/zephyr/autoconf.h'
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 8.3.1
-- The CXX compiler identification is unknown
-- The ASM compiler identification is GNU
-- Found assembler: C:/Program Files/Microchip/xc-dsc/v3.10/bin/xc-dsc-gcc.exe
-- C++ support is disabled for dsPIC33AK
CMake Warning at C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/CMakeLists.txt:595 (message):
  ZEPHYR_BASE=C:/zephyrproject/zephyr doesn't appear to be a git repository,
  please specify '-DBUILD_VERSION=<version>'

-- Configuring done (14.7s)
-- Generating done (0.3s)
-- Build files have been written to: C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/build
←[92m-- west build: building application
[2/103] Generating include/generated/zephyr/version.h
-- git describe failed: fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
-- Zephyr version: 4.1.0-rc1 (C:/zephyrproject/zephyr)
[8/103] Building C object zephyr/CMakeFiles/zephyr_pre0.dir/misc/empty_file.c.obj                                                                          
FAILED: zephyr/CMakeFiles/zephyr_pre0.dir/misc/empty_file.c.obj
ccache C:\PROGRA~1\MICROC~1\xc-dsc\v3.10\bin\XC40A4~1.EXE  -IC:/users/emira/zephyrproject/modules/hal/microchip/include  -MD -MT zephyr/CMakeFiles/zephyr_pre0.dir/misc/empty_file.c.obj -MF zephyr\CMakeFiles\zephyr_pre0.dir\misc\empty_file.c.obj.d -o zephyr/CMakeFiles/zephyr_pre0.dir/misc/empty_file.c.obj -c C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/misc/empty_file.c
[9/103] Building C object zephyr/CMakeFiles/offsets.dir/arch/modified_harvard/core/offsets/offsets.c.obj
FAILED: zephyr/CMakeFiles/offsets.dir/arch/modified_harvard/core/offsets/offsets.c.obj
ccache C:\PROGRA~1\MICROC~1\xc-dsc\v3.10\bin\XC40A4~1.EXE -DCONFIG_KERNEL_ENTRY=start -DKERNEL -DK_HEAP_MEM_POOL_SIZE=0 -DZEPHYR_=1 -IC:/users/emira/zephyrproject/modules/hal/microchip/include -IC:/zephyrproject/zephyr/kernel/include -IC:/zephyrproject/zephyr/arch/modified_harvard/include -IC:/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/include/generated/zephyr -IC:/zephyrproject/zephyr/include -IC:/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/include/generated -IC:/zephyrproject/zephyr/soc/microchip/dspic33ak -IC:/zephyrproject/zephyr/soc/microchip/dspic33ak/. -isystem C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/lib/libc/minimal/include -isystem C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/lib/libc/common/include C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/include/generated/zephyr/autoconf.h C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/include/zephyr/toolchain/zephyr_stdint.h c99 -MD -MT zephyr/CMakeFiles/offsets.dir/arch/modified_harvard/core/offsets/offsets.c.obj -MF zephyr\CMakeFiles\offsets.dir\arch\modified_harvard\core\offsets\offsets.c.obj.d -o zephyr/CMakeFiles/offsets.dir/arch/modified_harvard/core/offsets/offsets.c.obj -c C:/zephyrproject/zephyr/arch/modified_harvard/core/offsets/offsets.c
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.
FATAL ERROR: command exited with status 1: 'C:\Program Files\CMake\bin\cmake.EXE' --build 'C:\zephyrproject\zephyr\build'

Any guidance on resolving these build failures would be greatly appreciated.