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Compatibility of New SPI Flash Chip (Winbond W25Q64FVSSIG) vs. Old (Winbond W25Q64CVSSIG) for AM335x ICE

Jonathan Marrs
Intellectual 555 points

Hi,

I have a board that is based on the ICE for the AM335x. We copied the design and BOM of the ICE as closely as possible, including the SPI Flash Chip (Winbond W25Q64CVSSIG). Our design has been working well, except recently we have been unable to program the flash chip for some of our boards. Upon further investigation, it appears that our manufacturer has started fabricating our boards with a newer version of the SPI Flash Chip (Winbond W25Q64FVSSIG).

We think that the issues we are having with programming the flash chips may have something to do with this newer version of the flash chip. According to the Winbond website, the older version of the flash chip is not recommended for new designs. The main difference between the two versions of the flash chip is that the newer version appears to be rated for a faster SPI clock rate for faster flashing speeds (102 MHZ vs 80 MHz). The new chip also has new instructions for a new mode "Quad Peripheral Interface". I can find no End Of Life (EOL) information for either the old or new flash chip on the Winbond website.

http://www.winbond.com/hq/enu/ProductAndSales/ProductLines/FlashMemory/SerialFlash/

I am wondering if TI is aware of the new version of the flash chip (Winbond W25Q64FVSSIG), and if so, has TI experienced any issues with this chip. I would like to know if TI has qualified the new flash chip as completely backwards compatible with the old flash chip. If there is an issue, the SPI Flash driver may need to be rewritten, which could impact the AM335x Starterware or the AM335x SYS/BIOS Industrial SDK. In theory, there should be no issue because the newer chip should be able to handle the original/slower SPI clock speed, but any information or insight would be appreciated. I would like to know if the current SPI driver (from the AM335x SYS/BIOS Industrial SDK) will work with the new SPI Flash chip. I am currently using SDK v1.0.0.7.

Thank you.

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 44306 points

    Jonathan,

    I checked with engineering teams and we have to defer the answer. We will also use the newer device on a board soon but the hardware has not arrived yet.

    Obviously we have to re-test IA-SDK examples and driver code. For sure we are not going to 'qualify' another vendors device for anything. We will test it as far as it is used in our apps but anything beyond that (also clarifying differences between versions) should be the task of the vendors support team. You should not assume by default that a new device is 100% backward compatible in any application - just because of Murphy..

    Regards,

  • 0 in reply to Frank Walzer
    Intellectual 555 points

    Hi Frank,

    Thank you for your response. I understand that TI would only be able to qualify the new flash chip for TI's own application. I would not expect TI to be able to qualify the chip for all possible use cases.

    It will be helpful to see if TI discovers any issues while testing the new flash chip with the IA-SDK.

    I assume that if you do find issues with the new flash chip and decide to use the chip on newer board versions, that you will make the necessary changes to the IA-SDK and SPI Flash driver, and release these changes in a future version of the IA-SDK?

    Regards,

    Jon

  • 0 in reply to Jonathan Marrs
    TI__Mastermind 44306 points

    Hi Jon,

    yes, that is what we definitely have to do. We are using the SPI FLASH for standard boot loader and default demo APP. So it needs to work for a board we ship...

    As mentioned we will definitely use the new device. Unfortunately I have no exact time scales here but I assume this a matter of weeks not months. If this gets critical for any customer project I suggest to escalate the normal way (usually with the help of your local support team).

    Regards.