Fast Boot of Embedded Linux on Allwinner T113-i Platform

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Engineers who have worked on embedded Linux system optimization know that when the system powers on, it first starts u-boot (sometimes with a u-boot wait delay). After u-boot boots the kernel, the kernel will load the driver, and finally mount the file system to start the application.

The delay from u-boot plus the loading of kernel drivers means that the device needs to go through these two time-consuming processes before reaching the application startup interface, which brings a less-than-ideal experience to our embedded products. Therefore, engineers are striving to optimize the system kernel startup time, aiming for a fast system boot.

This article mainly introduces the fast boot system based on the Chuanglong Technology TLT113-EVM evaluation board (based on the Allwinner T113-i) that displays the Qt interface and the LVGL interface. The applicable development environments are as follows.

Windows Development Environment: Windows 7 64bit, Windows 10 64bit

Virtual Machine: VMware 15.5.5

Linux Development Environment: Ubuntu 18.04.4 64bit

U-Boot: U-Boot-2018.07

Kernel: Linux-5.4.61, Linux-RT-5.4.61

Linux SDK: T113_Tina5.0-V1.0 (Linux)

Hardware Environment: TLT113-EVM evaluation board (NAND FLASH configuration)

(Click the video to immediately view the running effect of the T113-i system fast boot)

T113-i Fast Boot Solution Description

To meet customer needs, Chuanglong Technology has implemented a Linux system fast boot solution to enter the application interface based on the T113-i. Tests show that the core board takes 0.7 seconds to power on to display the boot animation and 5.2 seconds to boot the system and display the LVGL interface. The time for each stage of the system startup is shown in the figure below.

Figure 1

Tests show that the core board takes 0.7 seconds to power on to display the boot animation and 7 seconds to boot the system and display the Qt interface. The time for each stage of the system startup is shown in the figure below.

Figure 2

T113-i Fast Boot Typical Application Scenarios

Many application scenarios have strict requirements for system startup time, needing to immediately display the boot animation (such as electric bicycle dashboards, charging piles) or boot image capture display (such as medical defibrillators) to enhance user experience and device interaction intuitiveness. When the system startup time is too long, it not only affects the product’s usability and real-time performance but also impacts customer experience. Optimizing startup time can improve system efficiency and reliability.

Figure 3

T113-i Domestic Platform Comprehensive Advantages

Chuanglong Technology SOM-TLT113 is a fully domestic industrial core board designed based on the domestic Allwinner T113-i dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 + HiFi4 DSP + Xuantie C906 RISC-V heterogeneous multi-core processor, with the ARM Cortex-A7 processing unit clock frequency reaching 1.2GHz, and the HiFi4 DSP processing unit clock frequency reaching 600MHz, and it has a built-in high-performance, high-real-time RISC-V slave core with the main core frequency reaching 1008MHz.

In addition, the Allwinner T113-i processor can run the Linux operating system, display cool graphics interfaces with Qt, and supports 1080P HD video encoding and decoding, 4G large data transmission, three types of display (LCD/LVDS/MIPI), and native Gigabit Ethernet/dual CAN, making it an optimal platform for upgrading microcontrollers.

Figure 4

It is worth mentioning that the Chuanglong Technology SOM-TLT113 core board supports various industrial-grade capacities of 128/256/512MByte DDR3, with a maximum support of 2GByte, offering flexibility in performance improvement and cost control, easily meeting users’ diverse needs.

Currently, during the promotional period, the Chuanglong Technology SOM-TLT113 core board is priced at only 79 yuan including tax! The temperature range can reach -40℃~ + 85℃, making it truly industrial-grade. The core board has a domestic production rate of 100% and can provide a “Saibao Laboratory” domestic production rate proof report! The cost-performance ratio is historically significant! Undoubtedly, the T113-i platform will be your best choice!

T113-i Typical Application Fields

Figure 5 T113-i Typical Application Fields

(Click the video to unlock the shining moments of the T113-i fully domestic industrial core board!)

Case Demonstration

To simplify the description, this article only extracts part of the solution function description and test results. For detailed product information, please scan the QR code at the end of the article to download.

This case supports HDMI, LVDS LCD, MIPI LCD, and TFT LCD displays, and this demonstration uses the LVDS LCD display as an example. Please connect the LVDS LCD display to the evaluation board interface correspondingly and use the evaluation board RS232 UART2 serial port as the debugging serial port for RISC-V. The connection diagrams are shown below.

Figure 6 LVDS LCD Display Connection Diagram

System Fast Boot Displaying LVGL Interface

The evaluation board can display the boot animation on the LVDS display screen in about 0.7 seconds after startup.

Figure 7

Then, the display begins to show the LVGL interface.

Figure 8

By using the testing tool grabserial, it can be observed that the display time of the LVGL interface is 5.2s.

Figure 9

System Fast Boot Displaying Qt Interface

The evaluation board can display the boot animation on the LVDS display screen in about 0.7 seconds after startup.

Figure 10

Then, the LVDS display screen starts to show the Qt interface.

Figure 11

Using the testing tool grabserial, it can be observed that the display time of the Qt interface is 7s.

Figure 12

Here, the Linux fast boot demonstration case presented in this issue has been completed. If you want to see more T113-i related demonstration cases, engineers can scan the QR code below to download and try it out!