annotate doc/Flash-write-protection @ 1014:961efadd530a default tip

fc-shell TCH DL handler: add support for CSD modes TCH DL capture mechanism in FC Tourmaline firmware has been extended to support CSD modes in addition to speech - add the necessary support on the host tools side. It needs to be noted that this mechanism in its present state does NOT provide the debug utility value that was sought: as we learned only after the code was implemented, TI's DSP has a misfeature in that the buffer we are reading (a_dd_0[]) is zeroed out when the IDS block is enabled, i.e., we are reading all zeros and not the real DL bits we were after. But since the code has already been written, we are keeping it - perhaps we can do some tests with IDS disabled.
author Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
date Tue, 26 Nov 2024 06:27:43 +0000
parents 11391cb6bdc0
children
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1 Some Calypso-based GSM MS designs (phones, modems, development boards) use
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2 AMD-style (Spansion or Samsung) flash chips, while others use Intel flash.
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3 In the case of Calypso devices that use Spansion or Samsung flash chips, all of
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4 those chips support a rarely used feature: an ability to write-protect selected
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5 flash sectors, disallowing erase and program operations in those areas. With
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6 earlier AMD-style flash chips (actual AMD-branded ones prior to introduction of
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7 Spansion brand, as well as Samsung K5A32xx used in Openmoko devices) this
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8 sector-level write protection can only be applied or lifted by way of external
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9 programming equipment, executing special commands with a high voltage applied
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10 to one of the pins - hence when the chip resides on a product board, no new
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11 sector locks can be applied. (We are not aware of any Calypso GSM device manuf
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12 who locked some flash sectors and then populated the chip onto the board in
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13 that state.)
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14
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15 With newer Spansion and Samsung flash families, however, sector locks became
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16 more easily accessible: they have Persistent Protection Bits (PPBs) which can
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17 be programmed (locking a sector or a group of sectors) and erased (removing all
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18 such locks) in-system under normal operating conditions, using only special
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19 software commands. These flash chips also have "hard" locking modes: a Password
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20 Sector Protection mode in which PPBs can only be modified after feeding a
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21 matching 64-bit key to the chip, and an OTP "master lock" mode in which the
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22 ability to erase PPBs is irreversibly disabled, locking all write-protected
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23 sectors forever - but so far we (FreeCalypso community) have not yet encountered
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24 any devices in which any of these "hard" locks have been activated. There is,
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25 however, at least one Calypso-based phone out there (Sony Ericsson K2xx family)
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26 in which the shipping state of the device includes some flash sector locks -
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27 but these locks are of the "soft" kind, removable by performing a PPB erase
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28 operation which is not further blocked.
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29
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30 fc-loadtool support for sector write-protection
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31 ===============================================
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32
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33 As of fc-host-tools-r21, fc-loadtool provides the following facilities in
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34 relation to sector write-protection features on AMD-style flash chips:
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35
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36 * flash lock-state command is available when operating on those flash chips for
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37 which we've implemented the necessary table, listing how sectors are grouped
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38 for the purpose of write protection, how they are grouped for the purpose of
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39 lock status retrieval via Autoselect read mode, and what additional lock
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40 status words should be checked. We have implemented the necessary knowledge
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41 tables for all chips on which we support PPB manipulation (see below), but
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42 also for some chips on which sector lock state can be modified only by high-
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43 voltage methods - on the latter chips we can examine the lock state, but not
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44 modify it.
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45
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46 * flash ppb-* commands actively alter sector write protection state by
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47 programming and erasing PPBs on those Spansion and Samsung flash chips that
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48 allow these PPB alterations by software commands alone (without high-voltage
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49 circuits) and for which we have implemented the necessary knowledge tables.
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50 The set of flash chips for which we have implemented these active commands is
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51 a proper subset of those for which we have implemented flash lock-state
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52 retrieval.
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53
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54 These commands are primarily aimed at unlocking flash regions that have been
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55 write-protected by previous parties. It is very helpful, however, to understand
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56 some theory before using these commands, which the present document aims to
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57 explain.
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58
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59 How PPBs work
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60 =============
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61
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62 Spansion and Samsung flash chips that feature PPBs have one PPB per sector or
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63 per sector group - some sectors are aggregated into groups (of 4 sectors max)
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64 for the purpose of write protection control. All of these PPBs are contained
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65 in one special-purpose non-volatile memory element inside the flash chip, and
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66 this NV memory element behaves like a little flash sector of its own: it has a
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67 program operation, affecting each PPB individually, and an erase operation that
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68 affects all PPBs across the chip at once. (See How-flash-really-works article
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69 for an explanation of program and erase operations.) The programmed state of a
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70 PPB corresponds to the associated flash sector or sector group being locked
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71 (write-protected), and the erased state of a PPB corresponds to the flash
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72 location being unlocked (free to erase and program at will).
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73
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74 fc-loadtool commands for manipulating PPBs are flash ppb-program and flash
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75 ppb-erase-all; they are named in this manner (as opposed to a naming scheme
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76 based on "lock/unlock" or "protect/unprotect") to emphasize the physical nature
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77 of what they actually do in the flash chip. flash ppb-program command (or
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78 flash2 ppb-program for the second bank of 16 MiB flash chips) addresses a
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79 specific sector and programs that sector's PPB, causing the sector to become
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80 write-protected; flash ppb-erase-all erases all PPBs across the flash chip,
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81 causing the entire main flash array to become unlocked for write operations.
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82
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83 The internal implementation of these PPB manipulation commands is very different
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84 between PL-J and PL-N flash types, as required by the respective flash chip
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85 families presenting a very different type of command interface for PPB
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86 operations. The command interface implemented on Spansion PL-J family and at
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87 least some Samsung flash chips (K5L29xx in particular) exposes the raw physics
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88 of the flash (see How-flash-really-works article) to the user for PPB
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89 operations, requiring flashing software tool developers to understand all of
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90 that theory and implement it in practice. OTOH, the command interface for PPB
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91 program and erase operations implemented on Spansion PL-N family (of which only
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92 PL129N is usable with Calypso) brings these special operations into harmony with
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93 ordinary flash programming and erasure procedures. We don't know (and may never
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94 know) if Spansion aimed to simplify life for flash low-level driver implementors
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95 or if internal advancements from PL-J to PL-N flash necessitated some changes
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96 in physics-level program/erase algorithms and Spansion didn't feel like exposing
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97 the internal details of their newer flash - but the practical implication for us
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98 is that we had to implement two different code paths to support both ways of
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99 performing these operations, as we need to support all flash chip types that are
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100 found in Calypso GSM devices of different ages.
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101
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102 It also needs to be noted that at least in Spansion PL-J and Samsung flash chips
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103 the special non-volatile memory element that holds PPBs has a *very* limited
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104 number of program-erase cycles: the datasheets we were able to find give a limit
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105 of 100 (1e2) cycles for this special NV memory element, compared to 1e5 cycles
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106 promised by the same datasheets for the main flash array. So please beware,
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107 and avoid needlessly cycling these write protection bits.