Tools, software and methodology required for bringing up virgin system board based on Sitara Processor.

Hi Dmalaviya,

a) What tool and software are required to bring up the virgin board with Sitara Processor on it?

     By above question I mean to say, how can I load the xloader and uboot on the system. Because, after manufacturing the board we will not have any software on it.

 [Vaibhav] There are different ways of doing it, you can use JTAG based debugger, serial boot mechanism to load the image to SRAM and then to SDRAM. If you have NAND flash, then you can use flash utils. OR use MMC boot mode mechanism (if you have one).

b) Is ROM code is same as xloader? If not then does ROM code comes hard coded on the processor's ROM?

[Vaibhav] - ROM stands for "Read only Memory", and it is programmed into processor.

c) Please let me know what BSP I should use for in house system board. Linux distribution etc.

Refer to the software download page for AM3703 - http://www.ti.com/product/am3703#toolssoftware

Thanks,

Vaibhav

Hi Vaibhav,

Thank you for your reply.

a) What tool and software are required to bring up the virgin board with Sitara Processor on it?

     By above question I mean to say, how can I load the xloader and uboot on the system. Because, after manufacturing the board we will not have any software on it.

 [Vaibhav] There are different ways of doing it, you can use JTAG based debugger, serial boot mechanism to load the image to SRAM and then to SDRAM. If you have NAND flash, then you can use flash utils. OR use MMC boot mode mechanism (if you have one).

[dmmalaviya] I understand.

            i) So serial boot mechanism, is it like booting through UART3 (I read the OMAP 3703 Reference manaul and they say you can use ONLY UART3 for booting). So for serail boot mechanism can I use flash utils tool provided by TI or it needs other software. (and I guess loading the image to SRAM and then to SDRAM is taken care by OMAP itself) Also for loading uBoot or xloader binary, will this option works of loading on to SRAM, because SRAM is volatile right.

           ii) I do have NAND flash. and I would like to load uboot and xloader to NAND flash, so every time I power on my OMAP, I should see the uboot prompt on the terminal (if I donot have OS on it). So eventually i can load the OS using uBoot.

          iii) So Flash util used in above ii) is same as serial boot mechanism ?

          If I have virgin processor with absolutely nothing on it, no uboot, no xloader nothing. or in other words I have just solder OMAP IC on my system board, in that case, after powering up my system, what should I expect to see on the terminal????

b) Is ROM code is same as xloader? If not then does ROM code comes hard coded on the processor's ROM?

[Vaibhav] - ROM stands for "Read only Memory", and it is programmed into processor.

[dmmalaviya] - So do mean that OMAP ICs are shipped with ROM code flashed on the processor's ROM????? Can I see any activity on the terminal if I connect my system under such conditions.

c) Please let me know what BSP I should use for in house system board. Linux distribution etc.

Refer to the software download page for AM3703 - http://www.ti.com/product/am3703#toolssoftware