Managed Firmware Migration#

Introduction#

Customers often request simpler Pixie-16 firmware management. We’ve seen a number of migration questions popping up. This document will detail common firmware implementations and what changes are necessary to support them.

Note

Only firmware packages released after 2024-05-27 are compatible with our managed firmware infrastructure. You can obtain the latest release for your system from Pixie-16 Firmware.

We’re happy to help with your migration. Just email our Support Team.

Checking Installed Firmware#

You can check the specific firmware found by the system using the Pixie-16 Omnitool’s /crate/firmware/report command. We provide examples in each of the steps below. We are working on a method to report this information from the C API.

Management Methods#

Self-managed firmware#

Users have self-managed firmware since the start of the Pixie-16 project. This method gives you the greatest flexibility in where to store your firmware sets. The downside to this is that you have to write and maintain all the code to manage the firmware sets. Should we change the firmware (ex. remove the DSP firmware) your implementations may break. Self-managed firmware supports both serial and parallel boot modes.

Warning

We encourage you to migrate to shared or fully managed firmware, which use XIA released firmware. Self-managed firmware may present integration or integrity challenges if the firmware packaging changes.

Serial Boots#

This implementation shouldn’t require any updates to existing systems. You put the firmware sets where you desire. You do not need to update your firmware packages. Loading the firmware just requires a call to Pixie16BootModule(). The function takes care of registering the firmware set and then boots the module.

Note

We do not recommend continuing to use this boot methodology. It does not capitalize on the system’s parallelism. Boot times for a crate containing 14 Revision H modules can take between 2 and 3.5 minutes.

Parallel Boots#

This boot method represents the most efficient way to boot a Pixie-16 crate. You can use your existing firmware packages. You can store the packages where you choose. You can follow these steps to configure your system to use this method.

Gather the firmware’s information to pass into PixieRegisterFirmware(). Ensure that each module has a complete firmware set (dsp, var, fippi, and sys).
For each module’s firmware set, call PixieRegisterFirmware().
Call PixieBootCrate() with the settings file and PIXIE_BOOT_MODE.

Shared management#

Shared management provides a high ROI with minimal code changes. Store your firmware sets in a folder of your choosing, and tell the SDK where to find it. You’re free to organize the firmware set folders however you wish as long as you keep all firmware sets intact, in the same root folder and unique.

Note

The system will search the default path for available firmware sets. If your folder has any overlapping firmware sets, then an error will be returned.

You can follow these steps to configure your system to use this method.

Download your firmware set(s) as a zip archive from Pixie-16 Firmware
Extract all zip archives into the same folder. For example, /opt/pixie-16_fw/

Check that the firmware can be found using the Pixie-16 Omnitool:

pixie16_omnitool -H <path to firmware folder> -- /crate/firmware/report

In your code, call Pixie16LoadModuleFirmware() and provide the absolute path to the folder configured in the previous step.
Call PixieBootCrate() with the settings file and PIXIE_BOOT_MODE.

Here’s a specific example for configuring your firmware folder structure. Let’s assume you have a mix of Revision F 500-12 and Revision H 250-14 modules and are using the example root folder from Step 2 above. This would result in the following folder structure:

/opt/pixie16_fw/
- xia_pixie-16_15-500-12_general_1.2.0/
  
  dsp.ldr
  
  …
  
  fippi.bin
  
  sys.bin
  
  spec.json
- xia_pixie-16_17-250-14_general_0.11.1/
  
  dsp.ldr
  
  …
  
  fippi.bin
  
  sys.bin
  
  spec.json

Again, you’re free to modify this, as long as the firmware sets stay intact. The following folder structures would also work.

/opt/pixie16_fw/
- 15-500-12
  
  general
  
  1.2.0
  
  spec.json
  
  …
- xia_pixie-16_17-250-14_general_0.11.1/
  
  spec.json
  
  …

Fully managed#

Fully managed firmware allows you to remove any firmware management from your own code. It’s the simplest way to boot a mixed module system.

Download your firmware set(s) from Pixie-16 Firmware
Execute the installers or unzip the package into the default search paths: /usr/local/xia/pixie-16/firmware or C:\Program Files\xia\pixie-16\firmware
Check that the firmware can be found using the Pixie-16 Omnitool:
```
pixie16_omnitool -- /crate/firmware/report
```
In your code, call PixieBootCrate() with the settings file and PIXIE_BOOT_MODE.

Note

If you decide to use the zip packages and install the firmware manually, then you may run into a conflicts when installing the same firmware using the installer.