c6678 - ROM Bootloader process time

Huseyin Bursalı

Hello,

I am working on a project with TMX320C6678L Rev1.0

RBL (ROM BootLoader was addressed at 0x20B00000) is starting to load application from the host device to RAM with your selected boot mode.

What is the amount of time required for the RBL start to copy from host device after power on reset is released? (spi boot and EMIF16 boot especially)

We measured this RBL process by using an oscilloscope. We watched the clock and data on the SPI bus.

It shows that booting from SPI-NOR FLASH causes bus activity after 1.84 seconds (with POR or fullreset).

We did same measurement for EMIF16-NOR FLASH boot mode. We watched the data and status on the EMIF bus.

Again booting from EMIF16-NOR FLASH causes bus activity after 1.84 seconds (with POR or fullreset).

As a result, after power on reset was released RBL is starting to copy from host device after 1.84 seconds.

Measurement details:

Bus Freq = 80 MHz

Boot parameters for SPI

section {

boot_mode = 50

param_index = 0

options = 1

core_freq_mhz = 1200

exe_file = "C:\boot\app.i2c.ccs"

next_dev_addr_ext = 0x0

sw_pll_prediv = 0

sw_pll_mult = 29

sw_pll_postdiv = 1

sw_pll_flags = 1

addr_width = 24

n_pins = 4

csel = 0

mode = 0

c2t_delay = 0

bus_freq_mhz = 25

bus_freq_khz = 0

}

(Also We tried 156.25 MHz bus frequency with valid section data)

We want to use C6678 for our project. 1.84 seconds may be too short for some applications.

But this process should be less than 700 miliseconds for our application.

Boot loader code is burned in the DSP ROM and unfortunately Non-modifiable.

How can we decrease this duration under 700 miliseconds? Or is it impossible?

Thanks.

over 11 years ago

0 Rahul Prabhu over 11 years ago

TI__Guru** 116770 points

Are you directly booting from SPI and EMIF NOR or are you using the IBL on I2C EEPROM to initialize the PLLs. Are these experiments performed on a custom board or on your custom hardware. SPI and I2C are very slow boot modes as the device is configured in PLL bypass mode.but if you are booting directly from EMIF NOR that should be pretty quick. Since you are reporting the same times with SPI and EMIF, there might be something else that is influencing the boot times.

You can use EMIF NOR, PCIe or hyperlink tto boot as they are the fastest boot modes but we have not performed any boot time measurements to confirm if the 700 ms boot is achievable. How big is your boot image ?

Regards,

Rahul

0 Huseyin Bursalı over 11 years ago in reply to Rahul Prabhu

Prodigy 40 points

Yes, directly booting from SPI and EMIF NOR.
Also We used the IBL on I2C EEPROM to boot from NOR. Boot time was 7 seconds for very small image(it is slower....) Actually same times with SPI and EMIF is meaningfull for us. Because We measured "the RBL is starting to copy from host device", not full boot time. All experiments was performed on TMX320C6678L Rev1.0 EVM board. We have no custom board,yet.(but will do with EMIF NOR) Actually There is no EMIF-NOR on TMX320C6678L Rev1.0 EVM board. But We set the jumpers to EMIF NOR boot and We listen to bus activity. RBL is starting to copy(or try to copy) from host device after 1.84 seconds. We want to produce our custom board with using C6678. How much time does it take to start to copy from EMIF NOR FLASH? Can you measure this process time(or confirm actual value) with EMIF NOR. This time should be under 700 miliseconds for us.also boot image is 59 KByte for these experiments.(Actual image will be larger than 5 MByte)

Thanks.

0 Rahul Prabhu over 11 years ago in reply to Huseyin Bursalı

TI__Guru** 116770 points

Huseyln,

The EVM doesn`t have an EMIF16 NOR chip to boot from but essentially boot time from this boot media is zero if you boot from EMIF16 NOR Execute in place as there is no relocation of code. You can still test EMIF16 with 6678 EVM but via a expansion connectors:

The KeyStone EVMs contains expansion connectors. This includes the EMIF16. A separate board would be needed that mate with the expansion connector. Some customers make custom bread boards for this purpose. Details about the EVM can be found here:

http://www.advantech.com/Support/TI-EVM/6678le_sd.aspx

For non-EMIF16 boot modes when you build your custom board you can shrink or eliminate the IBL on the board to further reduce boot time.

Regards,

Rahul

0 Huseyin Bursalı over 11 years ago in reply to Rahul Prabhu

Prodigy 40 points

Hi,

Yes, the EVM doesn't have an EMIF NOR chip to boot. We tested EMIF16 with 6678 EVM via an expansion connectors.

The procedure like this: We reset the EVM board, and RBL is starting to copy from EMIF16 NOR after 1.84 seconds. We can watch the bus activity by using oscilloscope.

Can you try the same procedure defined on your setup and measure this elapsed period between power on reset and starting to copy from EMIF16 NOR using oscilloscope or some other measurement device? This period is important for us and should be less than 700 miliseconds.

Thanks.

0 Rahul Prabhu over 11 years ago in reply to Huseyin Bursalı

TI__Guru** 116770 points

This issue has been resolved offline. We have measured the time from releasing reset to the start of activtiy on the the EMIF BUS and found that the time duration to between the 2 events is 4.8 milliseconds which is much lower than the 1.84 seconds reported in this thread.

Regards,

Rahul

0 Huseyin Bursalı over 11 years ago in reply to Rahul Prabhu

Prodigy 40 points

Yes, 4.8 miliseconds is true.

with Silicon version rev 2.0, We learned this duration between 2 events four days ago.

But We made all experiments with Silicon version rev 1.0 on EVM

After power on reset, operation like this

1- FPGA forces to boot via I2C

2- IBL initialize PLL

3- reenter boot ROM and C6678 boot desired boot mode.

If we update the FPGA image to bypass the IBL. We can measure 4.8 miliseconds with silicon version rev 1.0

We will use silicon version rev 2.0

Thanks.

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c6678 - ROM Bootloader process time