AM13E23019: NVMNW access via CCS debugger

Hi Oleksandr,

Can you provide more context on what actions/panels you are using "when trying to open and read the NVMNW registers"?

What is the error message?

Best Regards,

Zackary Fleenor

Hello Fleenor!

Sure, please check the attached screenshots:

Accessing the NVMNW registers during a debug session in CCS:

Afterwards, CCS is failing to access anything else, e.g., step through code or check other registers:

After stopping the debug session, it is impossible to start it again:

Only a complete restart of CCS and re-plugging of the board helps to resolve this issue.

BR,
Oleksandr

Hey Oleksandr,

Can you describe your need/requirement for accessing these registers?

These registers are not meant to be accessed by the user/application and instead should rely on the TI Flash API functions provided. See the flash_api example for reference.

Best Regards,

Zackary Fleenor

Hi Zackary!

Sure! :)

1. While we are using the Flash API to manipulate and read the registers, during development (especially of flash-related modules), we often face the situation when something does not work as we expect, and debugging is required. It is particularly useful to keep a track of the register values to catch when and where something goes wrong.

2. Accident. It also happened that these registers were just accidentally opened from the list during the debug of non-flash-related parts of the software, completely breaking the whole session and resulting in the loss of debug data and time.

It is ok for us not to have access to the NVMNW registers via the debugger if there is a good reason behind such a limitation, but it is definitely not ok to have a crash of the whole IDE just by checking a register value.

Also, is this issue reproducible on your side?

BR,
Oleksandr

Hi Oleksandr,

Thank you for providing the details! I completely agree with you regarding the IDE crash. Let me work with our SDTO/CCS team to determine a proper method for addressing this issue.

Unfortunately, I have not had the time to reproduce this issue on my side, but I will try to do that before next week.

Thank you for your patience while we work this out.

Best Regards,

Zackary Fleenor

Hello Oleksandr,

When you mentioned CCS crashed, did the IDE terminated by itself? I was able to reproduce the issue using CCS v20.5.0. To recover from earlier failure due to reading the NVMNW registers, start a debug session (can be project/project-less) without connecting to the device, collapse the NVMNW register group and press the board reset button on the LP. Now you should be able to restart the debug session again.

A second method is to close the Registers view, press the reset button on the LP, and start debug session.

I hope this works for you!

Regards,
Patrick

Hello Patrick!

Sorry for the confusion: the debug session crashed, and IDE had to be restarted. 

Thanks for providing alternatives to the IDE restart. However, it would still be nice if CCS could withstand such situations without losing the debug session.

BR,
Oleksandr

Hi Zackary!

Should we expect CCS update with this change?

Out of curiosity: what if someone tries to access this via memory view?

BR,
Oleksandr

Hi Oleksandr,

Yes, there will be an update to the Device Support for Files for AM13x to reflect the change. The values will not be read by the debugger, and the actual content will not be reflected when the user attempts to access the associated memory region via the memory view.

Best Regards,

Zackary Fleenor