AM6442: PCIe Boot Mode

Daisuke Maeda

Guru 20425 points

Part Number: AM6442

I understand that AM64 supports PCIe boot, but only supports endpoint mode, is that correct?

AM64x/AM243x Technical Reference Manual (Rev. I)
www.ti.com/.../spruim2i.pdf
4.1.2 Bootloader Modes (page 80)

AM64 supports PCIe boot (endpoint mode) with the latest PSDK Linux.

https://software-dl.ti.com/processor-sdk-linux/esd/AM64X/11_02_08_02/exports/docs/linux/Foundational_Components/U-Boot/UG-PCIeBoot.html

What use cases is PCIe boot (endpoint mode) intended for?

AM64 supports industrial networks. Therefore, one of the use cases can be envisioned as a PCIe-connected network board for expanding the industrial networks with AM64 as a controller.

What other use cases are there?

Best regards,

Daisuke

5 months ago

0 Daisuke Maeda 5 months ago

Guru 20425 points

Hi,

Thank you for your support. Our customer is waiting for your reply.

Please give me an answer as soon as possible. Your prompt reply would be appreciated.

Best regards,

Daisuke

0 Daisuke Maeda 4 months ago

Guru 20425 points

Hi,

Thank you for your support. Our customer is waiting for your reply.

Please give me an answer as soon as possible. Your prompt reply would be appreciated.

Best regards,

Daisuke

0 Daisuke Maeda 4 months ago

Guru 20425 points

Hi,

Thank you for your support. Our customer is waiting for your reply.

Please give me an answer as soon as possible. Your prompt reply would be appreciated.

Best regards,

Daisuke

0 Mukul Bhatnagar 4 months ago in reply to Daisuke Maeda

TI__Guru* 85915 points

Daisuke-san

Let me discuss and reassign this post. You might see some delay if there is no response tomorrow as Monday is US holiday.

Meanwhile as we discuss this, I would encourage you to review this thread below to ensure if there are use-case similarities you are aware of potential constraints

(46) AM6442: AM6442 as PCIe EP (slot-powered) – How to bring EP up before BIOS scan (SPL/U‑Boot) - Processors forum - Processors - TI E2E support forums

(+) AM6422: [AM6442] PCIe Boot Issue: EP fails to boot/no logs after writing tiboot3.bin to BAR1 - Processors forum - Processors - TI E2E support forums

0 Daisuke Maeda 4 months ago in reply to Mukul Bhatnagar

Guru 20425 points

Hi Mukul-san,

Thank you for your reply.

Our customer want to know in what applications and use cases AM64 is used with PCIe boot (endpoint mode). For example:

Daisuke Maeda said:
AM64 supports industrial networks. Therefore, one of the use cases can be envisioned as a PCIe-connected network board for expanding the industrial networks with AM64 as a controller.

The customer expected to boot from an M.2 SSD or similar device using PCIe boot (root complex mode), but realized that AM64 does not support it, so they want to consider other ways to use it.

Best regards,

Daisuke

0 Bin Liu 4 months ago in reply to Daisuke Maeda

TI__Guru**** 179806 points

Hi Daisuke-san,

The PCIe boot in EP mode is very similar to USB DFU boot or Ethernet boot, by which all the U-Boot/Linux binary files are downloaded from the PCIe RC.

As you already know, booting from M.2 SSD requires PCIe RC boot mode which is not supported by AM64x ROM. A solution would to boot from OSPI/QSPI or eMMC, but use M.2 SSD for Linux root filesystem. Currently AM64x U-Boot doesn't support PCIe RC, so this solution requires some software envelopment work to add RC support in U-Boot.