[LinuxBIOS] Firmware hub parts

[Richard Smith]

I got my eval board today.  The bios chip is a sst 49LF002A which is a
firmware hub part.
My ROM emulator won't work. :(

My programmer will program the parts but that means I'm swapping chips
every cycle which sucks.

Do all the GX2 parts use firmware hubs?

What are my non-programmer options for flashing this part?

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Richard Smith  [060321 04:52]:
> I got my eval board today.  The bios chip is a sst 49LF002A which is a
> firmware hub part.
> My ROM emulator won't work. :(
>
> My programmer will program the parts but that means I'm swapping chips
> every cycle which sucks.
>
> Do all the GX2 parts use firmware hubs?
>
> What are my non-programmer options for flashing this part?

BIOS Savior:
http://www.ioss.com.tw/web/English/RD1BIOSSavior.html

Regards,
  Stefan

[Richard Smith]

> > What are my non-programmer options for flashing this part?
>
> BIOS Savior:
> http://www.ioss.com.tw/web/English/RD1BIOSSavior.html

I thought I rember reading that they quit makeing these.  That keeps
me from swapping chips.

Will flashrom do this part?

[ron minnich]

nah, we just bought some, they are still around and they are working for us
for the 49lf part.

ron

[ron minnich]

FYI, I just put in the support for calling VSM, and it doubtless doesn't
work :-)

But you're going to need to put a vsm binary as the first piece of your rom.

ron
>

[Ronald G Minnich]

ron minnich wrote:
> FYI, I just put in the support for calling VSM, and it doubtless doesn't 
> work :-)
>
> But you're going to need to put a vsm binary as the first piece of your rom.

I fixed this to look for a POST signature at start of vsainit.bin. If it 
does not find it, it will not try to run vsainit.bin

so you're still safe.

you can run linuxbios until it fails because there is no VSM :-)

ron

[Bari Ari]

FWH + it's been EOLed already.

Just FYI... Here's a link to the SST source:
http://www.sst.com/downloads/software_driver/SST49LF002A.txt

The  SST49LF004B is backwards compatible with the SST49LF004A
http://www.sst.com/products.xhtml/serial_flash/49/SST49LF004B

which I recall had the same programming cycles and is still available.

-Bari

Richard Smith wrote:
> I got my eval board today.  The bios chip is a sst 49LF002A which is a
> firmware hub part.
> My ROM emulator won't work. :(
>
> My programmer will program the parts but that means I'm swapping chips
> every cycle which sucks.
>
> Do all the GX2 parts use firmware hubs?
>
> What are my non-programmer options for flashing this part?

[Bari Ari]

If you are using the 5535 thin client reference design then you can make 
a couple of pin strap changes and have the board boot from the ide/flash 
interface vs the FWH.

-Bari

Richard Smith wrote:
> I got my eval board today.  The bios chip is a sst 49LF002A which is a
> firmware hub part.
> My ROM emulator won't work. :(
>
> My programmer will program the parts but that means I'm swapping chips
> every cycle which sucks.
>
> Do all the GX2 parts use firmware hubs?
>
> What are my non-programmer options for flashing this part?

[Richard Smith]

On 3/20/06, Bari Ari  wrote:
> If you are using the 5535 thin client reference design then you can make
> a couple of pin strap changes and have the board boot from the ide/flash
> interface vs the FWH.

No. Its the SOM made by Advantech.  I'll have to look at the
schematics to see if it has anything like that.  Looking at the board
I doubt it.

[Bari Ari]

The 5535 has pin straps that Advantech would have to use.

What model number is your SOM? PCM-58xx seems to be the range of model 
numbers for their AMD Geode boards.

Does your board have an IDE interface?

If so, you should be able to have it boot from flash/ide by swapping a 
couple resistors on the board.

-Bari

Richard Smith wrote:
> On 3/20/06, Bari Ari  wrote:
> > If you are using the 5535 thin client reference design then you can make
> > a couple of pin strap changes and have the board boot from the ide/flash
> > interface vs the FWH.
>
> No. Its the SOM made by Advantech.  I'll have to look at the
> schematics to see if it has anything like that.  Looking at the board
> I doubt it.

[Richard Smith]

On 3/21/06, Bari Ari  wrote:
> What model number is your SOM? PCM-58xx seems to be the range of model
> numbers for their AMD Geode boards.

SOM-2354V
> Does your board have an IDE interface?

Yeah.
> If so, you should be able to have it boot from flash/ide by swapping a
> couple resistors on the board.

I found the resistors on the schematic.  Finding them among the 0402s
on the board will be a challenge...

[Richard Smith]

> No. Its the SOM made by Advantech.  I'll have to look at the
> schematics to see if it has anything like that.  Looking at the board.

Yeah.  I've got strappings for switching to NOR/IDE.

So how does that work?
Do you lose the IDE interface and it turns into address and data?

[Bari Ari]

Richard Smith wrote:
> Yeah.  I've got strappings for switching to NOR/IDE.
>
> So how does that work?
> Do you lose the IDE interface and it turns into address and data?

http://wwwd.amd.com/AMD/developer.NSF/files/Alchemy_15/$File/31506_cs5535_da...

Take a look at the cs5535 datasheet, starting at page 183 for the full 
scoop.

-Bari