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As Gaurav pointed out, this NAND is likely supported. Just a couple of more points -

a) DM365 EVM has NAND socket where you should be able to quickly try loading UBL, uboot and see if you can get to uboot prompt. Instructions to do this can be found at - 

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/GSG:_DM365_DVEVM_Additional_Procedures#Restoring_the_NAND_Flash

b) In addition, please look at the HW ECC requirements for NAND. DM365 EMIF HW can only support upto 4-bit HW ECC. If the NAND ECC requirement is more than 4-bit ECC, you would need to add support of ECC in software. 

Regards,

Prateek

Hi Gaurav,

Thank you for the response! I unfortunately do not quite understand.

First Query:

According to your table:

• Bits 5 and 4 determine the block size

– Bits 5,4 = 00: 64KB

– Bits 5,4 = 01: 128KB

– Bits 5,4 = 10: 256KB

– Bits 5,4 = 11: 512 KB

• Bits 1 and 0 determine the page size

– Bits 1,0 = 00: 1KB

– Bits 1,0 = 01: 2KB

– Bits 1,0 = 10: 4KB

– Bits 1,0 = 11: 8KB

the value 0x26 (or 0b0010 0110) should represent:

– Bits 5,4 = xx10: 256KB

– Bits 1,0 = xx10: 4KB          (I am truncating the upper half of the lower nibble?)

My second attempt: You mentioned Base 1. If 26 is base 1 and converted into base 8 =>  0b00011010 then:

– Bits 5,4 = xx01: 128KB

– Bits 1,0 = xx10: 4KB          (I am truncating the upper half of the lower nibble?)

Neither of these give me the outcomes you got (128Kb, 2Kb). What am I doing wrong?

Second Query:

"If this matches with the actual NAND geometry, then the NAND is supported. If the actual page size is a multiple of the page size determined, there is a possibility that the NAND will be supported by RBL (it will read the UBL successfully)." Do you mind elaborating? I am a lost here.Where can I find these 'actual' values (which I assume refer to what is DM365 supported) for NAND geometry & page size?

Sincerely,

NickA

Hi Prateek,

Thanks for the response.

a) Yes I have seen this socket thank you! I have actually gone ahead and ordered some samples of the MT29F8G08ABABA to give them a shot as suggested. I am not a fan of guesswork though (it tends to bite me in the ass) and would like to understand what is going on here.  Thanks for the link!

b) This Micron part uses 4bit ECC so we should be good! Thanks again.

Sincerely,
NickA

NickA,

You are right. The correct values are:

 "

the value 0x26 (or 0b0010 0110, 0 based here) should represent:

– Bits 5,4 = xx10: 256KB

– Bits 1,0 = xx10: 4KB          (I am truncating the upper half of the lower nibble?)

"

The correct/actual value can be found in the NAND datasheet. If the datasheet says that the Block size is 256KB and Page size is 4KB then it matches what RBL interprets and the NAND is supported.
Second Query: Suppose the NAND datasheet says that the Block size is 512KB. In this case the NAND might be supported (as the RBL reads multiple blocks). RBL will find UBL descriptor in the 2nd block as per RBL which is actually block 1 in NAND. The same applies for Page size also. In these cases, UBL might have to be modified to identify the correct NAND geometry.

But to make sure that the NAND is indeed supported in these cases, please make sure that a complete boot (UBL, u-boot, Kernel) is successful. 

Thanks,

Gaurav

NickA,

224 bytes is for ECC. The data page size is 4096 bytes.

Using 256 K block size, RBL will find UBL at location what it thinks is block 2 (after 512 K bytes, assuming block 0 is the first block). But this in NAND would be block 1.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Gaurav

Hi Gaurav,

Ok, those both make sense! Thanks a mill for your input. I have no doubt I will be harassing this forum again very soon. Apologies in advance :)

Sincerely,
NickA

NickA,

I am glad we could help. Please feel free to contact us through forums if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Gaurav

Update: We have received today the NAND samples (MT29F8G08ABABA) which we have used to replace the existing NAND in the DM365 EVM. So far everything has gone ok in that we have been able to successfully erase and flash the NAND with UBL & uBoot using the UART bootmode ie for the benefit of people reading this in future:


http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/RBL_UBL_and_host_program

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Serial_Boot_and_Flash_Loading_Utility

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/UG:_DaVinci_PSP_Installation_on_DM365_EVM#Flashing_DM365_EVM_.28PG_1.2_Silicon_or_newer.29_using_Serial_flash_utilities


We were ecstatic to see the board come to life (once DIP switches were returned to NAND boot mode) and pass control from RBL to UBL to uBoot. We now however have have an issue in which uBoot seems to fail to identify the NAND device and returns "No NAND device found" with our MT29F8G08ABABA instead of the previous "Manufacturer ID: 0x2c Chip ID: 0xd3 (Micron NAND 1GiB 3.3V 8-bit)" which was output when using the the original DVEVM packaged (but obsolete) MT29F16G08FAA.

We are using uBoot 2009.03 as available from http://software-dl.ti.com/dsps/dsps_public_sw/sdo_sb/targetcontent/dvsdk/DVSDK_3_10/latest/index_FDS.html . Any ideas? There is a newer 2009.08 uBoot available from the u-boot-ti GIT. Is this our best bet? Is it just that this NAND is not supported yet in this uBoot release?


I also received some advice re editting a " nand_ids.c" which I am rather vague about & will look into but I wanted to put my feelers out in the meantime regardless.


Many thanks!

NickA

NickA,

Glad to know that your NAND worled with RBL and UBL. For uboot related issues, please post your queries in the related forum.

Thanks,
Gaurav

NickAllen

Update: We have received today the NAND samples (MT29F8G08ABABA) which we have used to replace the existing NAND in the DM365 EVM. So far everything has gone ok in that we have been able to successfully erase and flash the NAND with UBL & uBoot using the UART bootmode ie for the benefit of people reading this in future:

I'm trying to use the SD utilites because our revision 1.1 chip has a boot in the UART boot.  The SD utilities fail to talk to the NAND.  I'm working on modifying the NAND code, but if someone is doing this without modifying code I'm afraid I may be on the wrong track.

Thanks John

Hi John or Nick,

I am looking for some help to replace my NAND chip on my evmdm365 board.  I has been problematic and after the forst time came right again but now the second time I have decided to go through the exercise to replace it.  Could you help with a couple of high level points what I need to do to get the board going again with the virgin chip in.  All the different TI documentation and guides is just confusing me where the thing really boots from and what I need to get to the point that I sit in the u-boot envrionment again and can write my kernel image and filesystem to NAND and be going again.

Thanks, Hijn.

Jihn,

Then first thing you should do is determine if your board can be updated through the serial port.  If you set the configuration switches to UART boot, you should see the message BOOTME over and over.  If you see this then you can is the serial flash utilities to write UBL and u-boot to the flash.  If you don;t see it check the version of your chip and compare against the errata to see if you chip has the serial bug.  If it does then you are in for some work.

JohnA

Thanks John,

I get the BOOTME's by the dozen when switching to UART boot mode - after fisrt having to figure out that TI documentation logic is reversed for SW4 in the Tech Manual for Spectrum Digital board evmdm365.  I have in the mean time tackled the SD-card boot guide and am figuring out what exactly is going on there after I only got the first part going on my previous endevour.  All my functionality issues are sorted out and I need to make my application usable now so all those things I skipped over when the going got tough are being sorted out now.  My linux skill has also improved a bit so I am much more comfortable doing stuff.  Thanks for your pointer, I feel there's hope again and will post again if I get stuck. Jinh T.