Visible to Intel only — GUID: suc1427120493109
Ixiasoft
Visible to Intel only — GUID: suc1427120493109
Ixiasoft
1.2.2. First Stage: Boot ROM
The boot ROM code is 128 KB in size and located in on-chip ROM at addresses 0xFFFC0000 to 0xFFFDFFFF. The function of the boot ROM code is to determine the boot source, initialize the HPS after a reset, and jump to the second-stage boot loader. If the second-stage boot loader image has already been loaded from the flash memory to on-chip RAM, the boot ROM jumps to on-chip RAM location. The boot ROM performs the following actions to initialize the HPS:
- Enables instruction cache, branch predictor, floating point unit, and NEON vector unit of CPU0
- Sets up the level 4 (L4) watchdog 0 timer
- Configures dedicated pins based on Boot Select (BSEL) settings
- Initializes the flash controller to default settings
The boot process begins when CPU0 exits from the reset state. The boot ROM code only executes on CPU0. CPU1 is held in reset until it is released by user software. When CPU0 exits from reset, it starts executing code at the reset exception address.
During boot ROM execution, the clock control fuse information is automatically sent to the Clock Manager, the memory control fuse information is automatically sent to the Reset Manager and all other fuse functions (authentication, encryption, private and public key source, hash functions) are stored in a memory-mapped location for boot code to read. In normal operation, the boot ROM is mapped at the reset exception address so code starts executing in the boot ROM.
When CPU0 exits the boot ROM code and starts executing user software, boot ROM access is disabled. The user software executing on CPU0 must map the user software exception vectors to 0x0 (which was previously mapped to the boot ROM exception vectors) and release CPU1 from reset, if required. When CPU1 is released from reset, CPU1 executes the user software exception instead of the boot ROM.