TMS570LS3137-EP: Flash ECC checking comparison between F28377 and TMS570

Hi Sundaram,

ECC checking is done inside the CPU, so all accesses to Flash and CPU SRAM are checked by the ECC logic. Since this check is done inside the CPU the pipeline buffer on the Flash access path is also covered by ECC.

Sundaram,

Yes, the CPU and ECC checking mechanism is completely different between these two device families.

In case of the F28377 devices, the ECC checking logic is inside the flash interface module, so that every access to Flash goes through this ECC checking logic before the data or instruction is forwarded to the CPU.

On TMS570 devices, the ECC checking is done within the Cortex R4/5 CPU itself. So the entire access path between the Flash memory and the CPU is checked by this logic. Also, the ECC checking logic within the CPU executes "in parallel" to the main instruction or data fetch pipeline. So there is a "penalty" due to ECC correction only when there is an ECC error detected.

Hope this helps.