view doc/FCDEV3B-hardware-bug @ 474:8fbf3c0ea8b6
doc: Flash-boot-mode-hack article replaced with FCDEV3B-hardware-bug
author
Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
date
Sun, 25 Mar 2018 07:07:49 +0000 (2018-03-25)
parents
children
15c61c8f3166
line source
+ − Our current FCDEV3B boards exhibit a hardware bug: the reset input to the flash
+ − chip is connected to Calypso's FDP output per both TI's Leonardo reference
+ − schematics and Openmoko's working design, but this arrangement turns out to be
+ − unsuitable for the high-capacity Spansion S71PL129NC0HFW4B flash+pSRAM chip we
+ − are using, copied from Pirelli DP-L10. This hardware bug has manifested itself
+ − in two different ways so far:
+ −
+ − * Out of the 20 boards we've built so far, on just one board there was an issue
+ − where our standard Magnetite fw would have trouble booting from flash, but
+ − RAM-loaded fw booted fine. Interrupting the boot process serially and having
+ − the serially loaded code jump to the image in flash also worked fine.
+ − Eventually it was found that the flash boot problem on that one board occurs
+ − only when flash boot mode 1 is used, whereas flash boot mode 0 works fine. I
+ − (Mychaela) suspect that the problem has something to do with the watchdog
+ − reset that happens as part of flash boot mode 1, the FDP output behaviour
+ − during that watchdog reset, and the flash chip's reaction to the latter.
+ −
+ − * On all of the boards there is a problem with sleep modes: when the firmware
+ − is running from flash as opposed to RAM, certain sleep-wake sequences cause
+ − an erratic self-reboot or a hang. It is suspected (though not proven yet)
+ − that the FDP output goes low during all sleep modes, our Spansion flash chip
+ − gets unhappy with the reset timing it gets subjected to, and some flash reads
+ − (instruction fetches) don't work after wakeup. So far the only workable
+ − solution has been to disable all sleep modes in all FCDEV3B fw builds;
+ − nothing else has been successful.
+ −
+ − The fcdev3b-hacks directory contains two hacks that can be applied to FCDEV3B
+ − firmware images (fwimage.bin builds) as xxd binary patches:
+ −
+ − * The first hack dating from 2017-05 patches the fw to use flash boot mode 0
+ − instead of TI's original flash boot mode 1, but after boot the FFFF:FB10
+ − register is set to put the flash and not the internal ROM at address 0, so
+ − the interrupt and exception vectors go to the flash like in TI's original fw,
+ − not through the internal ROM. This hack was put together for the purpose of
+ − producing flashable fw images that boot without problems on that one board on
+ − which flash boot mode 1 didn't work, and worked successfully for that purpose.
+ −
+ − * The second hack dating from 2018-03 patches the fw to not only use flash boot
+ − mode 0, but also route the interrupt and exception vectors through Calypso's
+ − internal ROM. I was hoping that this hack would make the sleep mode problem
+ − go away by having the Calypso execute some cycles out of its internal ROM and
+ − RAM before hitting the flash after wakeup, but nope, bringing up the SIM
+ − interface with AT+CFUN=1 in the l1reconst config when running from flash with
+ − small sleep enabled still triggers erratic misbehaviour even with this patch.
+ −
+ − The proper fix will be to change the PCB to not connect the flash chip's reset
+ − input to FDP any more, and connect it to a pull-up resistor instead. But this
+ − fix will require an expensive PCB respin, hence some experiments to test this
+ − idea will need to be done first.