Is _thread supported on ESP32 with SPIRam?

All ESP32 boards running MicroPython.
Target audience: MicroPython users with an ESP32 board.
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EasyRider
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:17 am

Is _thread supported on ESP32 with SPIRam?

Post by EasyRider » Fri Oct 12, 2018 5:47 am

Is _Thread supported on ESP32?

Trying on SPIRam module with most recent SPIRam firmware and module crashes/reboots when initializes thread.

Code: Select all

import _thread
import time
 
def test( threadName, delay):
  
  while True:
   
    print("Hello from thread", threadName)
    time.sleep(delay)
 
_thread.start_new_thread(test, ("Thread-1", 2, ))
home/micropython/esp-idf/components/freertos/tasks.c:686 (xTaskCreateStaticPinnedToCore)- assert failed!
abort() was called at PC 0x4008e63b on core 0

EasyRider
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:17 am

Re: Is _thread supported on ESP32 with SPIRam?

Post by EasyRider » Fri Oct 12, 2018 5:51 am

this is the thread initializing code, there is a typo error in earlier post.

Code: Select all

_thread.start_new_thread(test, ("Thread-1", 2))

EasyRider
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:17 am

Re: Is _thread supported on ESP32 with SPIRam?

Post by EasyRider » Fri Oct 12, 2018 6:10 am

Threading and above code works on "standard" ESP32module with most recent "standard" firmware.

EasyRider
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:17 am

Re: Is _thread supported on ESP32 with SPIRam?

Post by EasyRider » Fri Oct 12, 2018 6:28 am

Module is ESP32-WROVER.

This is reboot log.
Rebooting...
ets Jun 8 2016 00:22:57

rst:0xc (SW_CPU_RESET),boot:0x33 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
configsip: 0, SPIWP:0xee
clk_drv:0x00,q_drv:0x00,d_drv:0x00,cs0_drv:0x00,hd_drv:0x00,wp_drv:0x00
mode:DIO, clock div:2
load:0x3fff0018,len:4
load:0x3fff001c,len:4732
load:0x40078000,len:8256
load:0x40080400,len:6132
entry 0x4008124c
[0;32mI (446) spiram: SPI RAM mode: flash 40m sram 40m[0m
[0;32mI (446) spiram: PSRAM initialized, cache is in normal (1-core) mode.[0m
[0;32mI (447) cpu_start: Pro cpu up.[0m
[0;32mI (451) cpu_start: Single core mode[0m
[0;32mI (1320) spiram: SPI SRAM memory test OK[0m
[0;32mI (1320) heap_init: Initializing. RAM available for dynamic allocation:[0m
[0;32mI (1320) heap_init: At 3FFAE6E0 len 00001920 (6 KiB): DRAM[0m
[0;32mI (1327) heap_init: At 3FFC51D0 len 0001AE30 (107 KiB): DRAM[0m
[0;32mI (1333) heap_init: At 3FFE0440 len 00003BC0 (14 KiB): D/IRAM[0m
[0;32mI (1339) heap_init: At 3FFE4350 len 0001BCB0 (111 KiB): D/IRAM[0m
[0;32mI (1346) heap_init: At 40095384 len 0000AC7C (43 KiB): IRAM[0m
[0;32mI (1352) cpu_start: Pro cpu start user code[0m
[0;32mI (1357) spiram: Adding pool of 4096K of external SPI memory to heap allocator[0m
[0;32mI (1365) spiram: Reserving pool of 32K of internal memory for DMA/internal allocations[0m
[0;32mI (44) cpu_start: Starting scheduler on PRO CPU.[0m
OSError: [Errno 2] ENOENT
MicroPython v1.9.4-632-g11bc38d55 on 2018-10-12; ESP32 module with ESP32
Type "help()" for more information.

>>>import gc
>>> gc.mem_free()
2811552
>>>

EasyRider
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:17 am

Re: Is _thread supported on ESP32 with SPIRam?

Post by EasyRider » Sat Oct 13, 2018 2:06 pm

Anyone using ESP32 with 4MB SPIRam and latest micropython relevant firmware ?
Would appreciate to know if _Thread works or if anyone knows what the status with _Thread is or should be.

Regards

Gudbrand
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2018 7:54 pm

Re: Is _thread supported on ESP32 with SPIRam?

Post by Gudbrand » Tue Oct 16, 2018 8:01 pm

/home/micropython/esp-idf/components/freertos/tasks.c:686 (xTaskCreateStaticPinnedToCore)- assert failed!
tasks.c:686

TaskHandle_t xTaskCreateStaticPinnedToCore( TaskFunction_t pxTaskCode,
const char * const pcName,
const uint32_t ulStackDepth,
void * const pvParameters,
UBaseType_t uxPriority,
StackType_t * const puxStackBuffer,
StaticTask_t * const pxTaskBuffer,
const BaseType_t xCoreID )
{
TCB_t *pxNewTCB;
TaskHandle_t xReturn;

------> configASSERT( portVALID_TCB_MEM(pxTaskBuffer) );
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have the same problem on WROVER (working on WROM)
Can it be related to allocating StackBuffer or TaskBuffer to spi-ram ?
The only difference between these two is WROVER allocating heap in spiRAM ?

uCTRL
Posts: 47
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2018 11:50 pm

Re: Is _thread supported on ESP32 with SPIRam?

Post by uCTRL » Sun Oct 21, 2018 2:59 am

BUMP!

Any feedback from developers of this port?

loboris
Posts: 344
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2015 6:19 pm

Re: Is _thread supported on ESP32 with SPIRam?

Post by loboris » Sun Oct 21, 2018 8:06 am

External RAM cannot be used as task stack memory (puxStackBuffer & pxTaskBuffer) unless SPIRAM_ALLOW_STACK_EXTERNAL_MEMORY esp-idf option is enabled (which should not be enabled for MicroPython).
Because some bits of the ESP32 code environment cannot be recompiled with the cache workaround, normally
tasks cannot be safely run with their stack residing in external memory; for this reason xTaskCreate and
friends always allocate stack in internal memory and xTaskCreateStatic will check if the memory passed
to it is in internal memory. If you have a task that needs a large amount of stack and does not call on
ROM code in any way (no direct calls, but also no Bluetooth/WiFi), you can try to disable this and use
xTaskCreateStatic to create the tasks stack in external memory.
I'm not shure about official MicroPython ESP32 port, but I'm using threads with SPI-RAM in my MicroPython port from the beginning without issues.

User avatar
mattyt
Posts: 410
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2017 6:39 am

Re: Is _thread supported on ESP32 with SPIRam?

Post by mattyt » Mon Oct 22, 2018 1:57 am

It does look like Loboris has highlighted a bug in the mainline ESP32 port wrt the incorrect configuration of SPIRAM_ALLOW_STACK_EXTERNAL_MEMORY.

I'll raise a ticket and try to get it resolved soon.

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