Catapult SDK

Imagination Technologies' RISC-V Software Development Kit (Catapult SDK) is a curated package of tools and software for developers working with RISC-V CPUs. We aim to supply all the basic components you need to develop and debug your system, no matter whether you are working with an Imagination Technologies CPU, or one from another vendor. This repo doesn't currently contain source code: we use it for distributing the SDK and managing issues. The SDK is free to download, subject to our End User Licence Agreement.

Overview of the SDK

The main components of the SDK are:

• gcc and LLVM (Clang) compilers for RISC-V. We regularly update these from the upstream open-source repositories, and thoroughly test the released binaries with extensive test suites. The LLVM compiler also contains modifications from our own compiler team which may not yet have been upstreamed (e.g. optimizations for Imagination Technologies CPUs).
• C/C++ libraries. We offer picolibc for bare-metal development, and both glibc and musl for Linux development. Again, these may contain performance enhancements from our developer team which have not yet been upstreamed.
• gdb and OpenOCD for RISC-V debugging; and files to configure these with knowledge of all supported platforms.
• binutils and pyelftools for analysis and manipulation of .elf files etc.
• Source code such as examples, platform-specific header files, and the FreeRTOS operating system.
• Zephyr operating system examples
• System start-up code for all supported platforms.
• ldgen, a tool for auto-generating linker scripts, providing an easy way of creating customized code and data memory layouts.
• Functional models of Imagination Technologies Alpine and Catapult CPUs, and the VeeR Instruction Set Simulator (Whisper).
• QEMU RISC-V system emulators (32- and 64-bit) and linux user-mode emulator.

The Catapult Studio Visual Studio Code Extensions

We offer two extensions for Visual Studio Code (VSCode): the Catapult Studio extension and the Catapult debug adaptor. We recommend installing these extensions as part of the Catapult Studio Extension Pack, available on the VSCode Marketplace. Alternatively they can be downloaded from our releases area and installed into VSCode using the "Install from VSIX.." option on the Extensions tab. These extensions integrate closely with a Catapult SDK installation, and support the needs of embedded software developers working with remote RISC-V targets using C/C++. Some of the main features are:

• Automated systems for connecting to remote RISC-V platforms and launching debugging sessions on such targets (typically via JTAG / OpenOCD).
• Full-featured, editable memory window.
• Peripheral registers window.
• Comprehensive, integrated documentation.
• Data visualization (vector plot) window.
• Platform selection feeds knowledge of the platform (such as memory and register maps) into gdb, OpenOCD and the other Catapult Studio windows; and optionally into your build.
• Graphical interface for specifying platform characteristics and connection methods; with facility to create your own platforms or install new platforms through a platform support pack.
• Strong support for the CMake build system, and integration with the cmake-tools extension; although will work with other build systems of your choice.

Catapult Studio

Installing and Using the SDK

Download the installer for the host platform of your choice from our releases area. Supported host systems are: Ubuntu x86_64 (18.04/20.04/22.04); RedHat Enterprise 8 x86_64; Windows 10/11 64-bit; and MacOS (Monterey onwards, x86 and Arm M1). Then follow the instructions below to install.

Following the installation you will find full details on how to use the SDK in the user documentation which can be accessed in 2 ways:

• With the Catapult Studio extension installed into VSCode, you can select "Catapult: Open SDK Documentation" from the command palette (CTRL-P, or CMD-P on Mac).
• Outside of VSCode, on MacOS or Linux, click the docs link under catapult-sdk_examples/{version} in your home area. On Windows, you will find a .pdf file in the docs directory of the toolkit installation.

To use the SDK tools (as listed above) on the command line, you should add the bin directory within the SDK installation (/opt/imgtec/catapult-sdk/Helpers/bin on mac) to the beginning of your PATH environment variable.

The SDK also includes the cmake and ninja build tools. If you would like to use the SDK versions of these, add the build/bin directory (/opt/imgtec/catapult-sdk/Helpers/build/bin on mac) to PATH also.

Linux .deb Installation

Use apt. When located in the same directory as the .deb file:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install ./catapult-sdk_{version}.deb

Linux .rpm Installation

The RPM installer has been split into 2 files as it is otherwise too large to be hosted on github. You should download the .00 and .01 files then concatenate them using:

cat catapult-sdk-{version}-1.x86_64.rpm.* > catapult-sdk-{version}-1.x86_64.rpm

Then, on RedHat, use yum:

sudo yum localinstall catapult-sdk-{version}-1.x86_64.rpm

On Fedora 22 and above, use dnf:

sudo dnf install catapult-sdk-{version}-1.x86_64.rpm

To unpack the contents of the RPM to a local directory without needing root privileges, use:

rpm2cpio catapult-sdk-{version}-1.x86_64.rpm | cpio -id

This will extract the SDK into a directory opt/imgtec/catapult-sdk_{version} under the current working directory. Note that this works on Ubuntu as well as RedHat.

Windows Installation

To install on Windows, first download the 3 files associated with the installer (.exe file + 2 .bin files). Then double-click the catapult-sdk_setup_win32x64{version}.exe application and the installer wizard will guide you through the setup process.

You will be given the option to install for all users (that requires administrator privileges) or for just yourself (which does not).

MacOS Installation

To allow the install, first go to the Security and Privacy section of System Preferences, General tab, and enable "Allow apps downloaded from Apple and selected developers" (if you haven't already done that previously). Then simply double-click the installer package and you will be guided through the install process. The application installs to the /opt/imgtec folder by default.

Apple's XCode command-line developer tools are a requirement for using the toolkit. If you don't already have these installed on your system, the installer will prompt to offer to install them.

Catapult Studio Extension Pack Installation (All Platforms)

First download Visual Studio Code for your platform, if you don't already have it.

From the Extensions tab, search for Catapult in the "Search Extensions in Marketplace" box. We recommend installing the Catapult Studio Extension Pack, which will install the Catapult Studio extension, the Catapult Debug Adaptor, and some related third-party extensions, as follows:

• cpptools from Microsoft. This includes a language server providing "Intellisense" for C/C++.
• CMake-tools from Microsoft. This integrates closely with Catapult Studio to support building and launching for CMake projects (including the examples provided with Catapult SDK).
• CMake language support including syntax highlighting, code completion etc.
• Yaml language support from Redhat.
• Linkerscript language support.
• RISC-V Assembler language support.
• Serial Monitor from Microsoft.

Alternatively, for a minimal install, you can just install the Catapult Studio extension, the Catapult Debug Adaptor, and the CMake Tools extension.

Note that you must have the SDK installed for Catapult Studio to work correctly.