• State Resolved
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 4 replies
  • Subscribers 31 subscribers
  • Views 120 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Support feedback
Options
Options
Related

This thread has been locked.

If you have a related question, please click the "Ask a related question" button in the top right corner. The newly created question will be automatically linked to this question.

AM2432: Dual-channel DDR in AM243x

Andrea Politano
Intellectual 320 points

Part Number: AM2432
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: SYSCONFIG

Hi, 

I am using AM2432 with the Industrial SDK 11.00.00.08.

Our various projects involve the use of the industrial protocols Profinet, Ethernet/IP, and IEC 61850, as well as CPSW.
Due to supply issues with LPDDR4, we are exploring alternatives. I read here (under 3.3 LPDDR4 Interface Schematics) that the AM243x only supports DDR in single-channel mode. Is it still possible to use DDR dual-channel by forcing the single-channel option (for example, by not connecting the second channel that is not supported)?

Are there any specific consequences we should expect that would be worth investigating? Especially in relation to the specific details of the industrial protocols we are adopting.

Alternatively, do you see any problems in principle with using only MSRAM and Flash with XIP mode for the various protocols we use? I’ve seen that, in theory, the Profinet and Ethernet/IP demos are also compatible with the Launchpad, which doesn’t have DDR, so I don’t expect any particular issues.

Thank you,

Best Regards,

Andrea

  • +1
    TI__Guru* 94701 points

    Andrea, you can use a dual-channel memory, but realize you will only be able to connect one channel to AM24x, which means that you would only be able to access half of the total memory density.  The other half would not be accessible.  So you would have to have a memory that is twice the density of the memory you need for your application.

    I think you would have to test to ensure using MSRAM with XIP Flash will satisfy the performance needs of those protocols in your system.  I'm not too familiar with the demos you are referring to, but just be aware they may not have gone thru rigorous stress testing.

    Regards,

    James  

  • 0 in reply to JJD
    Intellectual 320 points

    Hi James,

    thank you for your reply.

    If we use different DDR memory capacities for the same firmware application and OSPI SBL (for example with some older modules with 1GB and others with 512MB or 256MB depending on market availability) could there be compatibility issues? I’m referring to the initialization performed by the SBL, even though we never actually specify the DDR memory capacity in sysconfig or elsewhere. I'm thinking that I'll just need to specify the memory addresses in the linker so that they fit also within the smaller DDR memory size. Could that be right? Could there be other issues?

    Thank you,

    Best Regards,

    Andrea

  • +1 in reply to Andrea Politano
    TI__Guru* 94701 points

    Hi Andrea,

    so I assume the firmware will always fit in 256MB?  If that is the case, the DDR initialization and training should still work, even though the memory capacity is larger.  

    If you are talking about different sized firmware images, then that might be a little more complicated.

    Regards,

    James

  • 0 in reply to JJD
    Intellectual 320 points

    Hi James,

    thank you for your reply.

    JJD said:
    so I assume the firmware will always fit in 256MB?  If that is the case, the DDR initialization and training should still work, even though the memory capacity is larger.  

    Yes, the firmware never uses more than 256MB of DDR, which correspond to the smallest DDR size we plan to use. So I won't have to adjust any initialization settings or change anything, and it will adapt to whatever DDR size we use.

    Thank you,

    Best Regards,

    Andrea