Kontron SMARC-sAL28

The Kontron SMARC-sAL28 board is a TSN-enabled dual-core ARM A72 processor module with an on-chip 6-port TSN switch and a 3D GPU.

Quickstart

Compile U-Boot

Configure and compile the binary:

$ make kontron_sl28_defconfig
$ CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu make

Copy u-boot.rom to a TFTP server.

Install the bootloader on the board

To install the bootloader binary use the following command:

> tftp path/to/u-boot.rom
> sf probe 0
> sf update $fileaddr 0x210000 $filesize

The board is fully failsafe, you can’t break anything. If builtin watchdog is enabled, you’ll automatically end up in the failsafe bootloader if something goes wrong. If the watchdog is disabled, you have to manually enter failsafe mode by asserting the FORCE_RECOV# line during board reset.

Update image

After the build finished, there will be an update image called u-boot-update.bin. This can either be used in the DFU mode (which isn’t supported yet) or encapsulated in an EFI UpdateCapsule.

To build the capsule use the following command

$ tools/mkeficapsule -f u-boot-update.bin -i 1 UpdateUboot

Afterward you can copy this file to your ESP into the /EFI/UpdateCapsule/ folder. On the next EFI boot this will automatically update your bootloader.

Builtin watchdog

The builtin watchdog will supervise the bootloader startup. If anything goes wrong it will reset the board and boot into the failsafe bootloader.

Once the bootloader is started successfully, it will disable the watchdog timer.

wdt command flags

The wdt start as well as the wdt expire command take a flags argument. The supported bitmask is as follows.

Bit | Description |

— | —————————– |

| Enable failsafe mode          |
| Lock the control register     |
| Disable board reset           |
| Enable WDT_TIME_OUT# line     |

For example, you can use wdt expire 1 to issue a reset and boot into the failsafe bootloader.

Disable the builtin watchdog

If for some reason, this isn’t a desired behavior, the watchdog can also be configured to not be enabled on board reset. It’s configuration is saved in the non-volatile board configuration bits. To change these you can use the sl28 nvm command.

For more information on the non-volatile board configuration bits, see the following section.

Non-volatile Board Configuration Bits

The board has 16 configuration bits which are stored in the CPLD and are non-volatile. These can be changed by the sl28 nvm command.

Bit	Description
0	Power-on inhibit
1	Enable eMMC boot
2	Enable watchdog by default
3	Disable failsafe watchdog by default
4	Clock generator selection bit 0
5	Clock generator selection bit 1
6	Disable CPU SerDes clock #2 and PCIe-A clock output
7	Disable PCIe-B and PCIe-C clock output
8	Keep onboard PHYs in reset
9	Keep USB hub in reset
10	Keep eDP-to-LVDS converter in reset
11	Enable I2C stuck recovery on I2C PM and I2C GP busses
12	Enable automatic onboard PHY H/W reset
13	reserved
14	Used by the RCW to determine boot source
15	Used by the RCW to determine boot source

Please note, that if the board is in failsafe mode, the bits will have the factory defaults, ie. all bits are off.

Power-On Inhibit

If this is set, the board doesn’t automatically turn on when power is applied. Instead, the user has to either toggle the PWR_BTN# line or use any other wake-up source such as RTC alarm or Wake-on-LAN.

eMMC Boot

If this is set, the RCW will be fetched from the on-board eMMC at offset 1MiB. For further details, have a look at the Reset Configuration Word Documentation.

Watchdog

By default, the CPLD watchdog is enabled in failsafe mode. Using bits 2 and 3, the user can change its mode or disable it altogether.

Bit 2	Bit 3	Description
0	0	Watchdog enabled, failsafe mode
0	1	Watchdog disabled
1	0	Watchdog enabled, failsafe mode
1	1	Watchdog enabled, normal mode

Clock Generator Select

The board is prepared to supply different SerDes clock speeds. But for now, only setting 0 is supported, otherwise the CPU will hang because the PLL will not lock.

Clock Output Disable And Keep Devices In Reset

To safe power, the user might disable different devices and clock output of the board. It is not supported to disable the “CPU SerDes clock #2” for now, otherwise the CPU will hang because the PLL will not lock.

Automatic reset of the onboard PHYs

By default, there is no hardware reset of the onboard PHY. This is because for Wake-on-LAN, some registers have to retain their values. If you don’t use the WOL feature and a soft reset of the PHY is not enough you can enable the hardware reset. The onboard PHY hardware reset follows the power-on reset.