vm-kernel

Good news. LCD is working in qemu-omap3

Beagle board has an DVI transmitter TFP 410 and it outputs ditigal signal to LCD panel which has DVI connector. However, we do not care TFP 410 because it is just a pipe for LCD output data. What we care about is the LCD output data itself.

According to the datasheet of OMAP3530, it has three interfaces for LCD output:Parellel Interface, SDI interface and DSI interface. In the case of parellel interface, it can work in two modes: RFBI mode and RFBI bypass mode.

In RFBI mode, the datapath for LCD output data is display controller and RFBI chip. In RFBI bypass mode, the data is output to LCD panel or other interfaces directly. Beagle board uses TFP 410 to receive 24 bit LCD data and then transmits the data to LCD through DVI interface.

Qemu already has omap dss emulation. But it is not complete and only for RFBI mode(Nokia N800 uses RFBI). I just follow the Blizzard template and write my own omap3_lcd_panel_template. And then add the sdl update function omap3_lcd_panel_update_display to omap_dss.c. Also some other utility functions are needed. It works now, the beagle and penguin are displayed in my LCD panel. The following is the screenshot.

I have tested the LCD emulation speed and the result is not bad. It can reach about 20-30 frames per second. I think it is good enough for an emulator.

The next steps for qemu-omaps are: running linux kernel and distribution(Ångström for example). However the most exciting part is the 3D virtualization for OMAP3. That is you can run 3D application in qemu by using the host 3D accelerator hardware.

Please be patient. I am working on it.