[MinnowBoard] Minnowboard MAX with Dediprog em100 pro SPI emulator

[Krause Martin]

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.

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

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.

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
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> elinux-MinnowBoard mailing list
> >> elinux-MinnowBoard at lists.elinux.org
> >> http://lists.elinux.org/mailman/listinfo/elinux-minnowboard
> >>
> >
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