AM2434: EEPROM memory in AM2434

Hello Surabhi

Thank you.

Can you confirm if the EEPROM you are referring is the ONE that stores the EVM information?

Can you elaborate the use case for the EEPROM on the custom board.

Please share additional information on the EEPROM connections. A schematic will help.

surabhi jain said:

To help us further narrow down the potential root cause, could you please provide some clarification on the following:

1. What was the reason for implementing the pre-flashing process for these EEPROM ICs at TI?
2. Could you share the detailed procedure followed for pre-flashing?
3. During volume manufacturing, what is the standard process flow used for programming/flashing these EEPROMs?
4. Are there any verification, validation, or read-back checks performed after flashing during production?

Is there a specific reason you are asking these queries.

I need to check if we have the information that can be shared.

Regards,

Sreenivasa

Hi Sreenivasa,

We are using LP-AM2434 and using the same configuration as ind_sdk for EEPROM. We are saving TCP/IP configuration in the EEPROM which is same as Eval kit LP-AM2434 and ind_sdk. Because of this failure we are not able to read IP address of the board and ethernet/ip is not working, which is our main requirement. That is why we need this EEPROM related information. Could you help us how can we share schematic and other information, because do not want to share it in e2e public forum.

Thanks,

Surabhi

Hello Surabhi

Thank you.

surabhi jain said:

We are using LP-AM2434

I assume you meant A2434 in ALX package..

Please share the schematics over private chat.

For the EEPROM, do you have the WP enabled?

Regards,

Sreenivasa

Hello Surabhi,

Thank you.

Let me review the inputs and comeback.

Can you please describe the EEPROM write process you are following.

surabhi jain said:

An issue observed during manufacturing testing. We are using AM2434 and EEPROM used is AT24C. At the manufacturing site some samples are failing and the failures appear to be related to the EEPROM.

Can you please elaborate the issue and the ratio of fail to pass.

Regards,

Sreenivasa 

Hello Surabhi,

surabhi jain said:

An issue observed during manufacturing testing. We are using AM2434 and EEPROM used is AT24C. At the manufacturing site some samples are failing and the failures appear to be related to the EEPROM. During the previous discussion it was told that EEPROMs are pre flashed before mounting in the board. Wanted to know why these EEPROM ICs are pre programmed. 

Please add a link to the thread you are referencing here.

Regards,

Sreenivasa

Hi Sreenivasa,

In this link it is mentioned about preflashed EEPROM - 
RE: AM2434: Mac address mismatch in ind_comms_sdk_am243x_2026_00_00_06

Ratio of fail to pass is 15%.(approx 13 out of 85 fail).

Thanks,

Surabhi

Hello Surabhi,

Can you elaborate the EERPOM programming procedure you are following.

surabhi jain said:

During the previous discussion it was told that EEPROMs are pre flashed before mounting in the board. Wanted to know why these EEPROM ICs are pre programmed. 

The above is the process followed to program TI MAC address.

I am assuming you have your own MAC address that you are programming.

Regards,

Sreenivasa

Hi Sreenivasa,

We didn't change anything in the EEPROM programming procedure from the original sdk ind_comms_sdk_am243x_09_02_00_24\examples\industrial_comms\ethernetip_adapter_demo\profiles\generic_device\standard\rgmii\am243x-lp\r5fss0-0_freertos. 

We are using the same thing as example project. Our understanding is, If we change the IP address of the device it is going into the EEPROM. but because of this failure we are not able to read IP address of the board. 

During trouble shooting of failed boards - 

• we have tried to readback EEPROM memory.

• Page Programming of the EEPROM AT24C is limited to 256 bytes per page. In example code -

  Page 2 is 00200h to 002FFh

  Page 3 is 00300h to 003FFh
• only first 256 bytes of data present starting from 0x200, next 99 bytes are 0xff i.e it’s not written from 0x300 in failed boards.
• In board.h file it is mentioned - #define APP_NVM_CONFIG_OFFSET   (0x200u) //starting address of nonvolatile EEPROM memory

Our understanding is correct or not, or is there anything else related to EEPROM memory. Could you please help us on that. 

Thanks,

Surabhi

Hello Surabhi,

Thank you.

The EEPROM on the EVM are pre-flashed.

I assume you are populating an EEPROM and writing to the EEPRM as part of the board build or bring-up.

Can you please confirm if i understand correct.

I will reassign to the software expert to support.

Regards,

Sreenivasa

Hi Sreenivasa,

we are not writing separately in EEPROM, its part of firmware flashing only.. We are just flashing the firmware and checking the IP address in our custom board.

Thanks,

Surabhi

Hi Surabhi,

The EEPROMs come pre-populated when taken from the TI inventory (from the boards). The standard AT24C doesn't come with the MAC addresses pre-flashed. Please confirm if the EEPROMs are picked from existing evaluation boards, or if they are new parts. If the MAC addresses are needed, then there are other part numbers which come with the MAC addresses preflashed

If the EEPROM is empty, which they should be for the production usecase, you should re-write the EEPROM region/MAC address population logic to ensure you are updating the MAC addresses which are allocated to your manufacturer ID.

surabhi jain said:

• What was the reason for implementing the pre-flashing process for these EEPROM ICs at TI?
• Could you share the detailed procedure followed for pre-flashing?
• During volume manufacturing, what is the standard process flow used for programming/flashing these EEPROMs?
• Are there any verification, validation, or read-back checks performed after flashing during production?

AM243x boards come with multiple instances of ethernet peripherals, and these should have their own MAC addresses for unique identification. Since these are also part of evaluation modules, the MAC addresses should be allocated from the TI allocated MAC addresses, and will be flashed into the EEPROM from TI to enable the customers to run the demos and examples seamlessly.

During volume manufacturing, the manufacturer/vendor should populate their own MAC addresses into the EEPROMs that are used on the boards. The EEPROMs can be flashed by the manufacturer during the production process, either directly onto the IC, or through a start-up process where the boards are initialised with the default data.

The verificstion/validation steps are to be done by the manufacturer's discretion to ensure the data is readable as a sanity check. The extent of testing may vary.

Please let us know if you need more information regarding the EEPROM.

Thanks and regards,
Teja.