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EMIF16 on KeyStone vs GPMC on OMAP3530

Ellen Kou
Intellectual 1110 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: OMAP3530

The GPMC on the OMAP3530 is meant for interfacing to external memory such as NAND and NOR flash; this is the same purpose as the EMIF16 interface on the KeyStone I/II devices. Are the main differences between these interfaces documented anywhere? If not, what are the major differences that someone familiar with GPMC on OMAP3530 should be aware of when moving to a KeyStone part (in particular the K2E family)?

  • 0
    TI__Guru* 81335 points

    Hi Ellen,

    The OMAP35x/AM35x devices have GPMC or ECC support in ROM bootloader firmware.

    The EMIF hardware supports detection and correction for most of the devices (the ROM bootloader uses EMIF HW to support ECC).

    Refer: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/GPMC_ECC

    Thanks.

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 42545 points

    Hi Ellen,

    There are a large number of differences between the two interfaces. The main differences are as follows.

    EMIF16 does not support a connection to SDRAM as provided by the GPMC. DDR3 memory connections are supported by a separate EMIF interface. 

    EMIF16 does not support access to synchronous memory as provided by the GPMC. There isn't a clock output that is synchronous with the memory accesses. This can make connections to synchronous devices, such as fifos and FPGAs, more difficult.

    EMIF16 does not have a multiplexed address and data bus. The full address range of the EMIF16 is supported using 24 dedicated address lines allowing access up to 32MB. The GPMC includes and ALE to latch a 16bit portion of the  address from the data bus. This is the only way that the GPMC achieves a 27bit address field. For NAND access, the EMIF16 repurposes one of the address lines to operate as an address latch.

    EMIF16 was not optimized for streaming data input. The use-case that was envisioned was an alternate boot path from a NOR flash or slower access to bulk storage, such as a NAND flash. Although the EMIF16 can be configured for very short duration strobes, there can be considerable time between accesses. This delay cannot be controlled by the user.

    Regards, Bill