[MinnowBoard] Minnowboard MAX with Dediprog em100 pro SPI emulator

Simon Glass sjg at chromium.org
Fri Jan 9 03:40:05 UTC 2015


Hi,

On 7 January 2015 at 01:14, Krause Martin <Martin.Krause at tq-group.com> wrote:
> Hi Simon,
>
> I'm using both - the SF100 programmer and the EM100Pro emulator - on the
> Minnowboard Max with success.
>
> You could adapt the EM100Pro without soldering with the EM-TC-8
> SO8 Test Clip: http://www.dediprog.com/pd/programmer-accessories/EM-TC-8
> This clip is directly plugged "over" the SPI flash chip. With around 50 USD
> it is not really cheap, but you could save a lot of time during development
> if you have to update the BIOS a lot compared to the SF100 programmer.
>
> One erase-program cycle with the SF100 programmer needs around 85 s
> on my board (55 s for erase and 30 s for program). Compared to this it
> only takes 4-5 s to update the BIOS image in the EM100 emulator.
>

In my case I'm only updating around 512KB each time so it should be
faster. But still the EM100 is better.

> On the EM100Pro I configured the following to use it with the
> Minnowboard Max:
>
>   Memory Type: W25Q64DW, Manufacturer: Winbond, Size: 8192 (KB)
>   Hold Pin Status While Emulation: Default Low

I'm not sure I have the hold pin status option - I'm using the 'em100'
Linux utility. Maybe I have an old version.

>
> And please note, that the EM100Pro does not support a SPI-Clock of
> 50 MHz. I configured all SPI-Clocks (Read, Write and Fast Read) in the
> Component Section of the BIOS Flash Descriptor to 20 MHz, when I
> use the EM100PRO (you could do this with the intel FITC tool when
> you combine the UEFI BIOS with the TXE firmware). If you use the
> prebuild Minnowboard Max images you do not need to worry about
> the SPI clock speed, because there the default seems already to be
> 20 MHz.
>

Thanks very much for this info. I didn't realise that those clips
could overwrite the SPI flash chip. Maybe I don't need to break out
the soldering iron after all.

Regards,
Simon

> Best regards,
> Martin
>
>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>> Von: elinux-MinnowBoard [mailto:elinux-minnowboard-
>> bounces at lists.elinux.org] Im Auftrag von Simon Glass
>> Gesendet: Sonntag, 28. Dezember 2014 01:55
>> An: MinnowBoard Development and Community Discussion
>> Betreff: Re: [MinnowBoard] Minnowboard MAX with Dediprog em100 pro
>> SPI emulator
>>
>> Hi John,
>>
>> On 26 December 2014 at 23:08, John 'Warthog9' Hawley
>> <warthog19 at eaglescrag.net> wrote:
>> > I wouldn't be able to tell you how to get an EM100 to work, as I only
>> > use the SF100 & flashtool (recompiled for dediprog, and with a patch
>> > to support the newer firmware on my specific dediprog) (As a note any
>> > spi flash programmer should work once it's been level converted to 1.8v).
>> >
>> > Doing a quick reading here the EM100 is a SPI flash emulator for
>> > external parts, I.E. it's not really a programmer per-se, but intended
>> > to be a device that takes the place of the primary flash part (if I'm
>> > reading the descriptions wrong, please correct me).
>> >
>> > My understanding is that no boards have been explicitly modified to
>> > use this emulator, and that the firmware team (at least inside Intel
>> > that produces the firmware on uefidk) use flashers like the SF100 and
>> > develop directly on the actual board w/ the built-in flash chip.
>> >
>> > A quick look through the docs for the dediprog led me to:
>> >
>> >
>> http://www.dediprog.com/save/633.pdf/to/EM100Pro%20Hardware%20Co
>> nnecti
>> > on_V2.0.pdf
>> >
>> > page 15
>> >
>> > I'd need to go dig back through the schematic (and possibly the
>> > gerbers) to figure out what exactly pins 7 and 8 on the J1 header go
>> > to to give you a clear indication of what's going on there, and I
>> > won't be able to get to that till next year (those are both open
>> > though if someone else wants to go digging to fill out that
>> > information on the wiki)
>> >
>> > If you do get this working it might be useful to document on the wiki!
>>
>> Thanks for the info. I did a bit of digging and found the Minnowboard MAX
>> schematic. It shows that it can either connect the CPU to the SPI flash or the
>> SPI flash to the external SPI pins. It cannot connect the CPU to the external
>> SPI pins (note I am not a hardware engineer).
>>
>> So it seems to be impossible, except by unsoldering the flash chip, replacing
>> it with a pin header. I'll have to have a rethink about how keen I am to fiddle
>> with the board, as by soldering skills are poor!
>>
>> Or maybe the SF100-based development isn't as slow as I think?
>>
>> Also re the SF100/SF600 - are these well supported on Linux? I can only see
>> Windows drivers on the Dediprog site.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Simon
>>
>> >
>> > - John "Warthog9" Hawley
>> >
>> > On 12/26/2014 09:27 PM, Simon Glass wrote:
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> I have one of these boards and would like to load a firmware image
>> >> into the em100 (SPI emulator) and boot it. So far I have not had any
>> >> success. I am not sure:
>> >>
>> >> - which emulation to use - the Micron part is not supported but I
>> >> tried Winbond W25Q64
>> >> - how to connect it - the meaning of the DDP_IO3L pin for example
>> >> - whether it will automatically override the on-board SPI flash. It
>> >> certainly stops it booting!
>> >> - anything else I am missing
>> >>
>> >> I'm testing with the 32-bit debug image from
>> >> https://uefidk.com/content/minnowboard-max
>> >>
>> >> People on this list seem to be using a flash programmer, but I don't
>> >> have one of those. But I imagine that whoever developed the firmware
>> >> would have used an emulator.
>> >>
>> >> Thanks for any help.
>> >>
>> >> Regards,
>> >> Simon
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>> >>
>> >
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