In some cases only the embedded code on the board would get into a hung state. In other cases the entire system could hang, sometimes indefinitely or only for a matter of minutes. The type of problems encountered would vary depending on the nature of the problem encountered.

The resolution to these problems involved changes to the Host interface FPGA configuration, the dpinit program and the embedded code running on the on-board MIPS processor. Specific changes to these components are described below.

The header files for the CACIPC and HEXPARSER library functions are now installed directly in $CAC/include rather than in separate sub-directories under $CAC/include. In most cases, customer application programs do not utilize these libraries. Those that do may require modifications to #include directives as follows:

Old Include Directive:		New Include Directive:
#include <cacipc/cacipc.h>		#include <cacipc.h>
#include <hexparser/hexparser.h>		#include <hexparser.h>

The diagnostic programs for DPT4 are now installed in a separate directory named $CAC/dpt/diag instead of in $CAC/bin. Anyone who regularly uses the diagnostic programs should include $CAC/dpt/diag on the program search path along with $CAC/bin.

The following DPT4 utility programs are still installed in $CAC/bin:

dpclock dpcons dpdumpcfg dpeeunlock dpfind dpflashdump dpflashup dpinfo dpinit dpled dprun dps2pci dpserial dptp12config

The following DPT4 diagnostic programs are now installed in $CAC/dpt/diag:

dp54xdiag dpburn dpburntime dpchantest dpdebug dpdmaxfer dpdpram dph100diag dpmemtest dpmoddma dppiomem dptiming

Not all of the programs listed are supported under Windows. Various demonstration programs, if enabled, are now installed in $CAC/dpt/demos.

To ensure that outdated programs are removed from the $CAC/bin directory, Solaris and Linux users should run the command, make uninstall, before running make install. Do this with the new software distribution, as previous versions may not have properly implemented that "uninstall" procedure. The installer for Windows users will automatically remove the old programs.

Redundant calls to the board and device driver reset procedure were removed from the smPCI module initialization procedure.

The default behavior of the program has been changed to wait for the embedded code to start before the program completes. This ensures that the MIPS application is running and avoids errors that could occur if applications are started before the MIPS application is ready. In addition, for Unix, user interrupts (Control-C and Control-Z) are blocked during the initialization procedure for each board.

The help ensure that upgraded boards are running with the proper clock frequency the dpflashup program now checks the setting of the system clock generator and adjusts its frequency if necessary.

The new function is pci_open_chan_rcv_host_start and has the same arguments and the normal pci_open_chan function. The function will open the channel on the DPT4 module and, provided that the receive channelization hardware is currently not running on the specified framer, it will not start the receive channelization hardware. The receive channelization hardware is stopped by the embedded application when the last channel on the framer is closed.

The pci_start_receive function, introduced with version 1.4.2 of the DPT4 software, is still required to enable channelization on selected framers or connectors. This function is used to start the channelization synchronously after the application has opened its receive channels with pci_open_chan_rcv_host_start.

See the DPT4 Programmer Reference Manual (version 1.4.3 or higher) for details.

The configuration of the DPT4 Linux device driver code now attempts to determine the number of arguments for the function and sets a macro used in the source code the control how the function is used.

The dpserial and dpinfo programs are modified to include information about new Rev3 boards and a possible new flash memory component. The Rev3 boards (also known as DPT4-RJ) is a new revision of the printed circuit board that includes special shielded RJ-45 connectors; not to be confused with previous revisions of the board that could be populated with BNC, Trompeter or non-shielded RJ-45 connectors.

The dpchantest program has a new -z option for controlling the size of the frame buffer in dual-port memory. Note that the framer buffer size is left at the size requested and is not changed unless explicitly specified.

New functionality is added to support the pci_open_chan_rcv_host_start. Code supporting the old pci_disable_receive_start function is removed.

Another cause of system hang or long delays was caused by a failure to properly handle burst read accesses from the host. Logic is added in the DPT4's host interface to handle burst read accesses.

New logic is added to enable fastest-clock detection in hardware for T1 signals without requiring the DPT4 Expansion configuration. Modifications for the embedded MIPS application to take advantage of this new clocking mode are not completed and will be available in a future release.

The cause of incidents of some host systems not recognizing DPT4 boards during initial boot was determined to be a glitch on the PCI interrupt signal generated by the DPT4. The problem is caused by a timing anomaly in the chip's core logic the appears to be dependent on specific configuration properties not under the designer's direct control. This problem is only known to exist in versions 1.2.3 and 1.4.4 of the DPT4's host FPGA configuration. In order to ensure this problem does not occur, new configuration designs will be tested and re-generated until a configuration is produced that does not exhibit the problem.

Due to timing specification requirement and the new T1 fastest-clock detection logic, this and future versions of the Host FPGA configuration require the local bus System clock to run at a frequency of the 30.88 MHz rather than previous default of 33 MHz. The new version of the dpflashup checks and adjusts the clock generator settings.

The components and their versions for DPT4 Software Release 1.4.3 are:

Component:	Version:
API Library and Programs	1.4.3
Solaris Device Driver	1.4.3
Linux Device Driver	1.4.3
Windows Device Driver	1.4.3
Embedded MIPS Loader	1.4.0
Embedded MIPS Application	1.4.7
PLD Configuration	1.4.0
Host FPGA Configuration	1.4.5
Expansion FPGA Configuration	1.4.0