8-bit Parallel Boot Loading Of A TMS320VC5410A using an EEPROM

The 8 data lines are the easiest connections. D0 through D7 should connect from the C5410A to the parallel EEPROM.

It becomes slightly more complicated with the address lines, because 16-bit memory does not use A0. An 8-bit EEPROM will use A0, though.

The most complex aspect of the connections will be the various control signals. You'll need to study the EMIF peripheral timings as well as the timings of your particular EEPROM. Another thing to note is that you probably won't be able to use arbitrary EMIF settings because the bootloader is pre-programmed to use a particular set of EMIF settings for 8-bit Parallel mode. In other words, you might wire your EEPROM in a way that would work so long as you have custom EMIF settings, but this may not work with the bootloader's settings. Be sure that you understand those settings before you design your board.

There are a lot of details in SPRA602F that you will need to know. One that I noticed is that the default timing is 6 wait states, IIRC, although there seems to be some provision to reduce this in order to take advantage of faster memory.  Read that document, along with the EMIF document, and your hardware engineer should have enough information to design the circuit. For one thing, that document explains how the DSP detects the difference between 8-bit memory and 16-bit memory, so you'll have to pay careful attention to that. There may be some wiring aspects that are unique to the particular EEPROM that you have chosen.

Note: You have to use an 8-bit parallel EEPROM for this particular bootloader mode. Serial EEPROMs and 16-bit or other non-8-bit EEPROMs will not work, although 16-bit EEPROM is an option via a different bootloader mode.

Brian, Thanks for your reply. What document has the EMIF timings? Also why would A0 of TMS320VC5410A not map to A0 of the AT28V256 EEPROM?

Mark, the document that I have is for the C5503/5507/5509, so it would not be appropriate for the C5410A. You really need to start with the main C5410A documentation and follow all links and references to other documents.

The TMS320 EMIF comes in various flavors, including 16-bit memory space and 32-bit memory space. When using 16-bit memory, A0 is not needed.

I could not find the AT28V256 listed anywhere. Similar parts were marked 16-bit as well as 32Kx8, both of which cannot be true at the same time. If there are only 8 data pins then it must be 8-bit, and would therefore use A0.  But you still need to make sure to configure the EMIF for 8-bit memory if you want it to work.