Using the HW accelerator in DM3730 for Flash10.2 acceleration

The HW accelerator in DM3730 can be used for accelerating H.264 Main Profile decode operation, that is commonly used in Youtube streaming, for example. In this article, the correct method to use the HW accelerator for accelerating Flash10.2 is described. This procedure is described in more detail in the User Guide of the Flash10.2 plugin installer plackage.

Step 1:

The relevant pieces of software for controlling the HW accelerator present in DM3730 is provided in a package called the DVSDK (Digital Video Software Development Kit). Download the DVSDK for DM3730 (4.1.0.9 or later) from the below link.

http://software-dl.ti.com/dsps/dsps_public_sw/sdo_sb/targetcontent/dvsdk/DVSDK_4_00/latest/index_FDS.html

Step 2:

In order to make more memory available to the Flash10.2 plugin, a minor change to the default memory map of the HW accelerator is needed. This change is to be done by replacing the memmap.tci in the codecs server package folder, with the modified file in the installer package. Once this is done, the DVSDK is to be built, following the instructions in the DVSDK Getting Started Guide (usually just 2 steps are enough – changing the paths in Rules.make, then do a make)

This step generates 4 files that are relevant to this article:

- cs.x64P – A binary file containing instructions that execute on the HW accelerator
- cmemk.ko – Kernel module for cmem (Contiguous Memory Allocator)
- lpm_omap3530.ko – Kernel module for power management
- dsplinkk.ko – Kernel module for passing instructions to the DSP

Step 3:

Once the required setup files are installed to the target filesystem, follow the instructions in the Flash10.2 Getting Started Guide to install these to the target correctly. Specific parameters need to be passed during the installation of the cmemk module.

Step 4:

Invoke Firefox using the script provided, or going to the installation folder and invoking Firefox. If the HW accelerator is successfully initialized and loaded, the Flash10.2 plugin will use the accelerator for video playback acceleration.

Even while playing Full Screen videos at the full rate, it is possible to have very less loading in the system with optimizations done in the system, using the new architecture implemented on DM3730 based on Flash10.2.

References

1. http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/adobeflash-a8.html

2. TI Flash10 Framework Wiki
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/TI_Flash10_Graphics_Framework

3. TI Graphics SDK Wiki

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/AM35x-OMAP35x_Graphics_SDK_Getting_Started_Guide