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AM5K2E02ABD25

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AM5K2E04, 66AK2E05, AM5K2E02

Hello TI,

I have a customer looking to design with the AM5K2E02ABD25 but it's not available yet.  We can get them X66AD2E05XABD25 samples but there a few concerns.

 Here are a couple of questions that they have:

  1. What is the level of difficulty needed to turn off the cores (DSP) for the X66AK2E05XABD25?  Can anyone provide the details in how much work this is going to take?
  2. How does using the superset part affect the power numbers.  They recall some communication with TI a while back that advised the static power on the superset part would be higher than if they went with their target device (AM5K2E04).

Thanks,

Dan

  • Hi Dan

    I am going to route this query to our marketing/BDM team, to make sure that parts you are looking for are truly not available and you will need to use the ARM+DSP variants instead of the ARM variants for early evaluation and development. 

    On #1, what software are you using for evaluation/development?

    Regards

    Mukul 

  • To better locate the righr BDM, which country your customer is located and in case it is in US, which state?

  • Hello TI,

    I'm posting this entry because the appropriate TI BDM told me to.  The customer is in MD.

    Here's the latest message from the TI BDM:

    - The best-information release-to-market (RTM) date is mid-February.  I will apprise you if anything changes, but that’s the best information that I have today.

    Please answer the technical questions.  I'm aligned with TI on the part availability.

    Dan

  • Dan,

    Thanks for the information and I saw by internal emails that he is already working on this.

  • Hello TI,

    Here's what my customer is using for SW:

    We have the MCSDK 3.1.03 right now.  And I just saw yesterday that TI has come out with MCSDK 3.1.1.4  released 10/03/2014.

    We are currently focusing on the Linux 3.10.10 running on the ARM  (not sure which version of Linux is in MCSDK 3.1.1.4).

    Thanks,

    Dan

  • Hi Dan

    Thanks for the additional details. 

    I believe that you are looking for AM5K2E02 for the final target device (not E04) and might need to use with 66AK2E05 (superset device) for early development. 

    For 1, by default you would have the DSP held in reset and likely other ARM cores (apart from ARM primary boot core) in low power state either via the primary rom boot loader or uboot , so likely you will not need to do much to turn them off further. 

    For 2, we are still in the midst of power characterization so don't have full data on this, but assuming the "extra" DSP , and 2 extra ARMs are already in a low power state, the power impact will be minimal, if they were clock enabled etc but not doing any activity (instead of being disabled) you are looking at a delta of ~ 1-1.5W 

    Hope this helps.

    Regards

    Mukul 

  • Hi,

    The target processor will be the AMK2E04. We are currently focusing on the Linux 3.10.10 running on the ARM. How does this impact the power delta? Also, we were planning on disabling as many unused cores/portions of the processor as possible. Does the Linux operating system include this capability, or would we need to implement this ourselves?

    Thanks,

    Kerry

     

  • Hi, Kerry,

    The Linux will not power up DSP at all. As for other sub systems, if the driver is not running, they are not powered up. Once the driver is enabled, it enables the power and clock domains.

    Rex

  • Hi Rex,

    Are all cores enabled/powered up in the device? We do not have a high computational load, mainly wanted 10GigE, PCIe, and general houskeeping done. We were hoping to disable one or more cores if possible.

    Thanks,

    Kerry

  • Hi, Kerry,

     If trying to do dymanically, we don't support power management and if kernel is running 4 core SMP, all 4 cores will be up. However, statically, this can be done through kernel configuration to disable SMP or configured for 2 or 3 cores only.

    Rex

  • Ok,

    To summarize the situation:

    Our target device is the AM5K2E04, which will not be available until mid Feb 2015. We can substitute the X66AD2E05XABD25 with minimal impact to power consumption.

    I just want tp be clear on this:

    We can use the same PCB design with either the AM5K2E04ABD25 or the X66AD2E05XABD25, (i.e. The pinouts are 100% compatible)?

    Other than a MINIMAL impact on power consumption, Are there any other caveats that we need to take into considereation?

    Thanks,

    Kerry 

  • Kerry,

    These 2 parts are from the same family and have identical pin maps.  A board designed for one can also support the other.

    I do not see your concern about power in the development board.  The difference will be small and I do not see how it could impact your board design.  I do want to stress that customers should not make current measurements on a random board and draw conclusions about the power supply requirements and thermal solution requirements.  Customers must base these design assessments on results from the Power Estimation Spreadsheet.  This sheet provides maximum current requirements that are guaranteed for all devices shipped.

    Tom