AM62 Platforms

Introduction:

The AM62 SoC family is the follow on AM335x built on the K3 Multicore SoC architecture platform, providing ultra-low-power modes, dual display, multi-sensor edge compute, security and other BOM-saving integrations. The AM62 SoC targets a broad market to enable applications such as Industrial HMI, PLC/CNC/Robot control, Medical Equipment, Building Automation, Appliances and more.

Some highlights of this SoC are:

  • Quad-Cortex-A53s (running up to 1.4GHz) in a single cluster. Pin-to-pin compatible options for single and quad core are available.

  • Cortex-M4F for general-purpose or safety usage.

  • Dual display support, providing 24-bit RBG parallel interface and OLDI/LVDS-4 Lane x2, up to 200MHz pixel clock support for 2K display resolution.

  • Selectable GPU support, up to 8GFLOPS, providing better user experience in 3D graphic display case and Android.

  • PRU(Programmable Realtime Unit) support for customized programmable interfaces/IOs.

  • Integrated Giga-bit Ethernet switch supporting up to a total of two external ports (TSN capable).

  • 9xUARTs, 5xSPI, 6xI2C, 2xUSB2, 3xCAN-FD, 3x eMMC and SD, GPMC for NAND/FPGA connection, OSPI memory controller, 3xMcASP for audio, 1x CSI-RX-4L for Camera, eCAP/eQEP, ePWM, among other peripherals.

  • Dedicated Centralized System Controller for Security, Power, and Resource Management.

  • Multiple low power modes support, ex: Deep sleep, Standby, MCU-only, enabling battery powered system design.

More details can be found in the Technical Reference Manual: https://www.ti.com/lit/pdf/spruiv7

Boot Flow:

Below is the pictorial representation of boot flow:

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|        TIFS            |      Main R5          |        A53            |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|    +--------+          |                       |                       |
|    |  Reset |          |                       |                       |
|    +--------+          |                       |                       |
|         :              |                       |                       |
|    +--------+          |   +-----------+       |                       |
|    | *ROM*  |----------|-->| Reset rls |       |                       |
|    +--------+          |   +-----------+       |                       |
|    |        |          |         :             |                       |
|    |  ROM   |          |         :             |                       |
|    |services|          |         :             |                       |
|    |        |          |   +-------------+     |                       |
|    |        |          |   |  *R5 ROM*   |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   +-------------+     |                       |
|    |        |<---------|---|Load and auth|     |                       |
|    |        |          |   | tiboot3.bin |     |                       |
|    +--------+          |   +-------------+     |                       |
|    |        |<---------|---| Load sysfw  |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   | part to TIFS|     |                       |
|    |        |          |   | core        |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   +-------------+     |                       |
|    |        |          |         :             |                       |
|    |        |          |         :             |                       |
|    |        |          |         :             |                       |
|    |        |          |   +-------------+     |                       |
|    |        |          |   |  *R5 SPL*   |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   +-------------+     |                       |
|    |        |          |   |    DDR      |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   |   config    |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   +-------------+     |                       |
|    |        |          |   |    Load     |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   |  tispl.bin  |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   +-------------+     |                       |
|    |        |          |   |   Load R5   |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   |   firmware  |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   +-------------+     |                       |
|    |        |<---------|---| Start A53   |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   | and jump to |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   | DM fw image |     |                       |
|    |        |          |   +-------------+     |                       |
|    |        |          |                       |     +-----------+     |
|    |        |----------|-----------------------|---->| Reset rls |     |
|    |        |          |                       |     +-----------+     |
|    |  TIFS  |          |                       |          :            |
|    |Services|          |                       |     +-----------+     |
|    |        |<---------|-----------------------|---->|*ATF/OPTEE*|     |
|    |        |          |                       |     +-----------+     |
|    |        |          |                       |          :            |
|    |        |          |                       |     +-----------+     |
|    |        |<---------|-----------------------|---->| *A53 SPL* |     |
|    |        |          |                       |     +-----------+     |
|    |        |          |                       |     |   Load    |     |
|    |        |          |                       |     | u-boot.img|     |
|    |        |          |                       |     +-----------+     |
|    |        |          |                       |          :            |
|    |        |          |                       |     +-----------+     |
|    |        |<---------|-----------------------|---->| *U-Boot*  |     |
|    |        |          |                       |     +-----------+     |
|    |        |          |                       |     |  prompt   |     |
|    |        |----------|-----------------------|-----+-----------+-----|
|    +--------+          |                       |                       |
|                        |                       |                       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  • Here TIFS acts as master and provides all the critical services. R5/A53 requests TIFS to get these services done as shown in the above diagram.

Sources:

  1. SYSFW:

    Tree: git://git.ti.com/k3-image-gen/k3-image-gen.git Branch: master

  2. ATF:

    Tree: https://github.com/ARM-software/arm-trusted-firmware.git Branch: master

  3. OPTEE:

    Tree: https://github.com/OP-TEE/optee_os.git Branch: master

  4. U-Boot:

    Tree: https://source.denx.de/u-boot/u-boot Branch: master

  5. TI Linux Firmware:

    Tree: git://git.ti.com/processor-firmware/ti-linux-firmware.git Branch: ti-linux-firmware

Build procedure:

  1. ATF:

$ make CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-none-linux-gnu- ARCH=aarch64 PLAT=k3 TARGET_BOARD=lite SPD=opteed
  1. OPTEE:

$ make PLATFORM=k3 CFG_ARM64_core=y CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabihf- CROSS_COMPILE64=aarch64-none-linux-gnu-
  1. U-Boot:

  • 3.1 R5:

$ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabihf- am62x_evm_r5_defconfig O=/tmp/r5
$ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabihf- O=/tmp/r5
$ cd <k3-image-gen>
$ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabihf- SOC=am62x SBL=/tmp/r5/spl/u-boot-spl.bin SYSFW_PATH=<path to ti-linux-firmware>/ti-sysfw/ti-fs-firmware-am62x-gp.bin

Use the tiboot3.bin generated from last command

  • 3.2 A53:

$ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-none-linux-gnu- am62x_evm_a53_defconfig O=/tmp/a53
$ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-none-linux-gnu- ATF=<path to ATF dir>/build/k3/lite/release/bl31.bin TEE=<path to OPTEE OS dir>/out/arm-plat-k3/core/tee-pager_v2.bin DM=<path to ti-linux-firmware>/ti-dm/am62xx/ipc_echo_testb_mcu1_0_release_strip.xer5f O=/tmp/a53

Target Images

Copy the below images to an SD card and boot:
  • tiboot3.bin from step 3.1

  • tispl.bin, u-boot.img from 3.2

Image formats:

  • tiboot3.bin:

+-----------------------+
|        X.509          |
|      Certificate      |
| +-------------------+ |
| |                   | |
| |        R5         | |
| |   u-boot-spl.bin  | |
| |                   | |
| +-------------------+ |
| |                   | |
| |TIFS with board cfg| |
| |                   | |
| +-------------------+ |
| |                   | |
| |                   | |
| |     FIT header    | |
| | +---------------+ | |
| | |               | | |
| | |   DTB 1...N   | | |
| | +---------------+ | |
| +-------------------+ |
+-----------------------+
  • tispl.bin

+-----------------------+
|                       |
|       FIT HEADER      |
| +-------------------+ |
| |                   | |
| |      A53 ATF      | |
| +-------------------+ |
| |                   | |
| |     A53 OPTEE     | |
| +-------------------+ |
| |                   | |
| |      R5 DM FW     | |
| +-------------------+ |
| |                   | |
| |      A53 SPL      | |
| +-------------------+ |
| |                   | |
| |   SPL DTB 1...N   | |
| +-------------------+ |
+-----------------------+

Switch Setting for Boot Mode

Boot Mode pins provide means to select the boot mode and options before the device is powered up. After every POR, they are the main source to populate the Boot Parameter Tables.

The following table shows some common boot modes used on AM62 platform. More details can be found in the Technical Reference Manual: https://www.ti.com/lit/pdf/spruiv7 under the Boot Mode Pins section.

Boot Modes

Switch Label

SW2: 12345678

SW3: 12345678

SD

01000000

11000010

OSPI

00000000

11001110

EMMC

00000000

11010010

UART

00000000

11011100

USB DFU

00000000

11001010

For SW2 and SW1, the switch state in the “ON” position = 1.