Boot process / flash / rom
Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 6:40 pmHi,
I am missing information about the boot process, especially the interaction with the flash. - perhaps someone knows one or more answers to my questions.
Specifically, I am trying to boot the esp8266 from a 128MBit flash.
What I understand is, that there is code in the ROM within the esp8266, which, upon power-up, reads the first block of the flash via SPI.
In that block we have 2 bytes (at position 2 and 3).
Their meaning is (found elsewhere):
Now what is left unclear in the documentation is
1) in which flash_mode and clock frequency does the ROM load the initial sector 0 ?
2) what happens after the rom loads this sector? (I would have expected it to start executing whatever code is contained in that sector, but instead it seems to search within the flash for other code at semi-random addresses).
3) assuming the ROM searches the flash for other valid code, how are these addresses determined?
4) I believe the flash size is significant, for the ROM to determine which address the code is expected. If so, is the size of the flash determined by flash_size (byte 3) in sector 0, or does the ROM use "Common Flash Interface" to determine the flash size?
5) what is the criteria for the ROM to decide wether or not it found valid code at a given address?
6) Whilst the flashchip is capable of QUOT the required connections are not made. Will the ROM honour the flash_mode setting in byte 2 when searching for code in the flash?)
7) Which functions are available within the ROM and could you please document that API. (not the SDK - that is well enough documented - I am looking for the functions within the ROM)
8) Given that above table only goes upto 4 Megabyte / 32mbit: what value should I set flash_size on a 128mbit flash?
Thanks,
Conrad
http://www.singingcat.net
the flash chip is this one:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/ ... ND/3874288
I am missing information about the boot process, especially the interaction with the flash. - perhaps someone knows one or more answers to my questions.
Specifically, I am trying to boot the esp8266 from a 128MBit flash.
What I understand is, that there is code in the ROM within the esp8266, which, upon power-up, reads the first block of the flash via SPI.
In that block we have 2 bytes (at position 2 and 3).
Their meaning is (found elsewhere):
==============================
# SPI FLASH PARAMS
#-------------------
#flash_mode=
# 0: QIO
# 1: QOUT
# 2: DIO
# 3: DOUT
#-------------------
#flash_clk_div=
# 0 : 80m / 2
# 1 : 80m / 3
# 2 : 80m / 4
# 0xf: 80m / 1
#-------------------
#flash_size=
# 0 : 512 KB
# 1 : 256 KB
# 2 : 1024 KB
# 3 : 2048 KB
# 4 : 4096 KB
#-------------------
# END OF SPI FLASH PARAMS
#============================
byte2=int(flash_mode)&0xff
byte3=(((int(flash_size)<<4)| int(flash_clk_div))&0xff)
Now what is left unclear in the documentation is
1) in which flash_mode and clock frequency does the ROM load the initial sector 0 ?
2) what happens after the rom loads this sector? (I would have expected it to start executing whatever code is contained in that sector, but instead it seems to search within the flash for other code at semi-random addresses).
3) assuming the ROM searches the flash for other valid code, how are these addresses determined?
4) I believe the flash size is significant, for the ROM to determine which address the code is expected. If so, is the size of the flash determined by flash_size (byte 3) in sector 0, or does the ROM use "Common Flash Interface" to determine the flash size?
5) what is the criteria for the ROM to decide wether or not it found valid code at a given address?
6) Whilst the flashchip is capable of QUOT the required connections are not made. Will the ROM honour the flash_mode setting in byte 2 when searching for code in the flash?)
7) Which functions are available within the ROM and could you please document that API. (not the SDK - that is well enough documented - I am looking for the functions within the ROM)
8) Given that above table only goes upto 4 Megabyte / 32mbit: what value should I set flash_size on a 128mbit flash?
Thanks,
Conrad
http://www.singingcat.net
the flash chip is this one:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/ ... ND/3874288