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AM2434: clarification on supported boot modes

Brad Caldwell
Genius 12595 points
Part Number: AM2434
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: SYSCONFIG

Hi,

I'm working on a new processor design-in and I'm trying to determine what boot modes are supported on the AM24x. I've been reading E2E, looking through the datasheet, TRM, errata, and MCU+ SDK documentation. It's hard to tell what's supported in software versus what the SoC can support.

From what I can tell, this is what's supported in software based on the MCU+ SDK 8.05 release notes (kind of confirmed this looking at the SDK folders under \tools\boot\sbl_prebuilt and \examples\drivers\boot)

I have a list of questions that hopefully somebody can answer to help our understanding.

1) Based on the SBL line shown above from the release notes, can I assume OSPI boot mode includes all the variants OSPI, xSPI, QSPI, and SPI Boot as described in the TRM?

2) Based on the SBL line shown above from the release notes, what is meant by OSPI XIP? My understanding is we don't support XIP during boot? Am I misunderstanding?

Here's the snippet from the TRM that suggests XIP boot isn't supported. 


4.4.1.1.1.2 OSPI Loading Process
OSPI boot mode is not eXecute-In-Place (XIP). ROM code first copies boot image into on-chip RAM and then
executes it.

3) Does SD really mean MMCSD boot mode as listed in the TRM under boot-modes? The real question is, do we support eMMC boot?

4) What about I2C boot? Is this supported? 

5) Based on device errata i2328, USB mass storage class device boot is not supported in current releases of silicon. 

6) Based on device errata i2331 and potentially i2329, booting over PCIe is not supported in current releases of silicon.

Thank You

  • +1
    TI__Mastermind 26145 points

    Hi ,

    Brad Caldwell said:
    1) Based on the SBL line shown above from the release notes, can I assume OSPI boot mode includes all the variants OSPI, xSPI, QSPI, and SPI Boot as described in the TRM?

    Yes this is the correct understanding. The example is names as "OSPI" but can be used for other modes as well.

    Brad Caldwell said:
    Based on the SBL line shown above from the release notes, what is meant by OSPI XIP? My understanding is we don't support XIP during boot? Am I misunderstanding?

    This is not for SBL XIP. This means application can be loaded in two ways - Flash Executable or RAM executable. As mentioned in TRM, SBL cannot be XIP. It will always be copied by ROM into the MSRAM memory.

    Brad Caldwell said:
    Does SD really mean MMCSD boot mode as listed in the TRM under boot-modes? The real question is, do we support eMMC boot?

    In case of ALX devices, the SD boot also called MMCSD would not work as the interface is not present. Yes, eMMC boot is also supported via ROM.

    Although the same is not supported in MCU+ SDK because we don't have eMMC programmers to test the same. Although, if user has the support, they can port the sbl_sd to sbl_emmc just by porting the example sysconfig.

    Brad Caldwell said:
    4) What about I2C boot? Is this supported? 

    I2C EEPROM boot is also supported by ROM. But MCU+ SDK does not have support for the similar SBL.

    You can choose to Boot the SBL from EEPROM and then SBL can boot Applications from the options available in the MCU+ SDK.

    Brad Caldwell said:
    5) Based on device errata i2328, USB mass storage class device boot is not supported in current releases of silicon. 

    Yes this is correct. Although the issue is replicable with only a handful number of vendors, hence it is deemed as unreliable.

    Brad Caldwell said:
    6) Based on device errata i2331 and potentially i2329, booting over PCIe is not supported in current releases of silicon.

    Based on the i2329 errata, the Ethernet Boot is descoped for Boot.

    Based on the i2311 errata, the UART Boot is also descoped for Boot.

    Hope this resolves your issues.

    Best Regards,
    Aakash