memory_map_manager

The Memory Map Manager (MMM) generates code and documentation for embedded device parameters intended for external interfaces.

Motivation

Embedded systems typically run on constrained systems, providing some sort of access to more powerful machines. A number of parameters can be read (such as a temperature from a sensor) or written (such as the intended state of a light). These amount of parameters and complexity can grow and change over the development cycle of the device. Every parameter needs to not only be available in the embedded device but also all the external interfaces as well. If this information is not coordinated it can lead to human error and extra development time. There are solutions available that helps with that, however, they typically don't operate under the asymmetric nature of embedded vs host computer capabilities or end of being very complex requiring large stacks in order to use.

Solution

The MMM generates simple C code that allows both named parameter access via typedef structs and byte offset access. Decoding of these parameters are done on the host, taking advantage of asymmetric computational resources of host vs. device. The embedded device only needs to expose a way to read or write an offset and size.

Installation

As this is a "console application" one can use a venv or pipx instead of pip.

Stable versions can be installed with:

pip install memory-map-manager

Generating with the MMM

Installing the package comes with a console command mmm-gen.

usage: mmm-gen [-h] [--cfg-path CFG_PATH] [--clean]
               [--loglevel {debug,info,warning,error,fatal,critical}]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --cfg-path CFG_PATH, -p CFG_PATH
                        the path to the memory map manager configuration importer.
  --clean, -C           clean the generated directories before generation. be careful!
  --loglevel {debug,info,warning,error,fatal,critical}
                        python logger log level, defaults to "info"

There are a number of examples available coming with the generation configurations and the map configurations.

To run the minimal example run:

mmm-gen -p examples/minimal/main.yaml

This generates C files, csv files, and the configuration outputs.

Writing a Custom Map

Along with the examples of maps there are schemas available that document the capabilities.

There are two files that are needed:

• a generation configuration that specifies generation information such as input configuration files and output directories. The default file is assumed to be main.yaml
• a map configuration that specifies the parameters in the map.