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AM2434: Comparison with Hercules

Durga Choudhury
Intellectual 380 points
Part Number: AM2434
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: HALCOGEN, SYSCONFIG

Is there a comparison of the Hercules series of Cortex R5 and the AM243x series of Cortex R5 available somewhere? In particular, these are some of my questions:

1. The AM243x series does not support lock-step execution like the Hercules series does. My understanding was this is a required feature of ARM R series. Without this, what is the difference between a Cortex R and a (higher frequency) Cortex M or a Cortex A?

2. The AM243x series has significantly higher processing power (in terms of higher frequency and core count) AND a much lower price. True, it does not have some of the peripherals of the Hercules such as the N2HET, but I suppose those can be implemented either in the M4 or the PRU cores in software. So why would someone buy the Hercules?

3. Is there a tool like Halcogen available (will be available) for the AM243x?

4. What are the RTOS choices? I understand that FreeRTOS is supported. Is TI-RTOS or any other RTOS supported?

5. Are there any reference hardware where the Serdes (in the AM243x, not in the parent chip of AM62, I believe) has been brought out as a USB 3.1 or a PCie end point?

6. I believe the AM243x does not have an MPU (unlike the Hercules). Is this correct?

  • 0
    TI__Guru**** 197306 points
    Durga Choudhury said:
    1. The AM243x series does not support lock-step execution like the Hercules series does. My understanding was this is a required feature of ARM R series. Without this, what is the difference between a Cortex R and a (higher frequency) Cortex M or a Cortex A?

    The Cortex-R processors target high-performance real-time applications. The Cortex-R processor has an 8-stage pipeline with dual-issue, pre-fetch and branch prediction and a low latency interrupt system to quickly serve the incoming interrupt. The Cortex-R can be implemented in a dual-core "lock-step" configuration with the second Cortex-R core being in a redundant lock-step configuration with logic for fault detection making it ideal for safety critical systems. It can also be implemented as dual-core system with the processors running independently, each executing its own programs with its own bus interfaces, and interrupts. This dual-core implementation makes it possible to build very powerful, flexible systems with real-time responses.

    Durga Choudhury said:
    3. Is there a tool like Halcogen available (will be available) for the AM243x?

    SysConfig tool supports AM263x and AM243x devices. SysConfig is a configuration tool designed to simplify hardware and software configuration challenges to accelerate software development. SysConfig provides an intuitive graphical user interface for configuring pins, peripherals, radios, software stacks, RTOS, clock tree and other components.

    Durga Choudhury said:
    4. What are the RTOS choices? I understand that FreeRTOS is supported. Is TI-RTOS or any other RTOS supported?

    The AM243x SDK and AM263x SDK include examples of freeRTOS. TI-RTOS is not supported. 

    Durga Choudhury said:
    6. I believe the AM243x does not have an MPU (unlike the Hercules). Is this correct?

    AM243x doesn't have MPU for R5 core, but it has MPU for M4. AM263x has MPU (up to 16 regions) for R5 core. 

    Durga Choudhury said:
    5. Are there any reference hardware where the Serdes (in the AM243x, not in the parent chip of AM62, I believe) has been brought out as a USB 3.1 or a PCie end point?

    I will check on this. 

  • 0 in reply to QJ Wang
    Intellectual 380 points

    Thank you for your response. I am still not clear on my question #1: without the lockstep execution (and cache coherency for muti-threaded apps) what value does the Cortex R brings over Cortex M or A? Those also have the features you describe. But I will close this thread.