TDA4VEN-Q1: Optimize the system startup time

Hello Cesar,

We can altogether remove the A72 SPL phase as it does not do much. I believe you are using SD card to boot. If you need faster boot you can try ospi boot.

Also do you need U-Boot? Or we can bypass that? 

Best Regards,

Keerthy

Hi Keerthy,

 1. need spl,because it contains wake up core;

 2. using eMMC to boot;

3. need U-boot load Other multi-core heterogeneity(MCU1_0、MCU2_0、C7x)

Regards,

Cesar

Hello Cesar,

The eMMC expert is out for a couple of days. I will loop him. We will get back in a couple of days.

- Keerthy

Hi,

cesar.xu said:

 1. need spl,because it contains wake up core;

A53 SPL is where you are observing the delay. The R5 SPL is stage 1. Then A53 SPL is stage 2.

- Keerthy

Hi Keerthy,

using SD card to boot,there is also a delay issue.

Regards,

Cesar

Hello Cesar,

[2025-09-16 11:37:35.247] U-Boot SPL 2025.01-00566-g935b381a8687-dirty (Aug 22 2025 - 17:26:21 +0530)
[2025-09-16 11:37:35.247] SYSFW ABI: 4.0 (firmware rev 0x000b '11.0.9--v11.00.09+ (Fancy Rat)')
[2025-09-16 11:37:35.343] ECC is enabled, priming DDR which will take several seconds.
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.575] ECC: priming DDR completed in 3225 msec
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.590] SPL initial stack usage: 17064 bytes
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.591] Trying to boot from MMC1
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.655] Authentication passed
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.655] Authentication passed
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.655] Authentication passed
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.703] Authentication passed
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.703] Authentication passed
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.703] Starting ATF on ARM64 core...
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.703] 
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.703] NOTICE:  BL31: v2.12.0(release):11.00.15-8-ged89d963b
[2025-09-16 11:37:38.718] NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 11:21:32, Aug  6 2025
[2025-09-16 11:37:39.007] 
[2025-09-16 11:37:39.007] U-Boot SPL 2025.01-00566-g935b381a8687-dirty (Aug 22 2025 - 17:26:41 +0530)
[2025-09-16 11:37:39.022] SYSFW ABI: 4.0 (firmware rev 0x000b '11.0.9--v11.00.09+ (Fancy Rat)')
[2025-09-16 11:37:39.022] DM ABI: 3.0 (firmware ver 0x000b 'MSDK.11.00.00.05+--v11.00.09' patch_ver: 9)
[2025-09-16 11:37:39.071] Trying to boot from MMC1
[2025-09-16 11:37:39.183] Authentication passed
[2025-09-16 11:37:39.198] Authentication passed
[2025-09-16 11:37:40.606] 
[2025-09-16 11:37:40.607] 
[2025-09-16 11:37:40.607] U-Boot 2025.01-00566-g935b381a8687-dirty (Aug 22 2025 - 17:26:41 +0530)
[2025-09-16 11:37:40.607] 
[2025-09-16 11:37:40.607] SoC:   J722S SR1.0 HS-FS
[2025-09-16 11:37:40.607] Model: Texas Instruments J722S EVM
[2025-09-16 11:37:40.607] DRAM:  2 GiB (total 7 GiB)
[2025-09-16 11:37:41.278] Core:  106 devices, 29 uclasses, devicetree: separate
[2025-09-16 11:37:41.278] MMC:   mmc@fa10000: 0, mmc@fa00000: 1
[2025-09-16 11:37:41.294] Loading Environment from nowhere... OK
[2025-09-16 11:37:41.310] In:    serial@2800000
[2025-09-16 11:37:41.310] Out:   serial@2800000
[2025-09-16 11:37:41.310] Err:   serial@2800000
[2025-09-16 11:37:41.310] Net:   eth0: ethernet@8000000port@1
[2025-09-16 11:37:41.342] Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 

A72 SPL start time: 39.007
A72 U-Boot start time: 40.607

It is taking 1.6 Seconds on the EVM. This is with eMMC boot.

- Keerthy

Hi Keerthy,

[2025-09-16 11:37:39.198] Authentication passed
[2025-09-16 11:37:40.606] 
[2025-09-16 11:37:40.607] 
[2025-09-16 11:37:40.607] U-Boot 2025.01-00566-g935b381a8687-dirty (Aug 22 2025 - 17:26:41 +0530)

Whether it is eMMC boot or sdcard boot, It takes about the same amount of time.

Please shorten this time period.

Regards,

Cesar

Hi Gokul,

spl->uboot, load u-boot.img(1.2MB),Why does it take 1.6 seconds to load this 1.2M in size；

The firmware loading speed of U-Boot is very fast

Regards,

Cesar

Hi Cesar,

This is because even after U-BOOT is loaded to RAM from the boot device, there are a set of device initializations based on the device tree(through the init_sequence_f function)  like the serial console initialization for console logs after which the U-BOOT banner is printed. Hence that time is also included in case of the time you are seeing alongside the UBOOT banner print in addition to the loading time.

Regards

Gokul

Hi Gokul,

What I want to express is why it takes 1.6 seconds to load u-boot.img, while the subsequent u-boot takes less time to load the Image file, which is larger.

Regards,

Cesar

Hi  cesar,

I will look into this and get back toy you.

Regards

Gokul