ARM Cortex-A72 Page Table Conflict Leading to Application Failure The core issue revolves around a bare metal application running on an ARM Cortex-A72 processor, which is experiencing a failure due to a conflict in the page table mappings. The application is responsible for creating and managing the virtual-to-physical (VA-PA) address translations. During execution, the CPU…
STM32F407 Clock Constraints and Pulse Generation Feasibility The STM32F407 microcontroller, part of the STM32F4 series, is a powerful ARM Cortex-M4-based device widely used in embedded systems. One of the common tasks in embedded systems is generating precise pulses, which can be critical for timing-sensitive applications such as communication protocols, sensor interfacing, or motor control. However,…
ETM Trace Port Configuration and Initialization Issues The core issue revolves around the Embedded Trace Macrocell (ETM) functionality on an ARM Cortex-M4F-based SoC, which fails to produce trace data during debugging sessions using ULINKPro and MDK (Microcontroller Development Kit). The ETM is a critical component for real-time trace debugging, allowing developers to capture instruction and…
ARM Cortex-A9 Secondary Core Execution Timing Discrepancy During Debugging The issue at hand involves a significant discrepancy in the execution timing of an algorithm running on the secondary core of a Cortex-A9 MPCore processor within a Zynq 702 SoC. Specifically, the algorithm execution time increases from an expected 100 ms to approximately 300 ms when…
Weighing Machine Interface Requirements and ARM Microcontroller Selection The core issue revolves around selecting an appropriate ARM microcontroller for a specific application involving a weighing machine interface. The application requires interfacing with a pre-configured weighing machine via RS-232, a keypad for rate input, two 4-digit seven-segment LED displays for rate and amount display, and a…
Floating-Point Exception Handling and FMADD Performance Anomaly The core issue revolves around the observed performance difference in the FMADD (Fused Multiply-Add) instruction on ARM processors when the FPSCR.IXC (Inexact Cumulative Exception) flag is set versus when it is not set. Specifically, the FMADD instruction executes faster when FPSCR.IXC is set to 1, compared to when…
ARM Cortex-A53 Bootloader Segfault During Baremetal Initialization When implementing a baremetal bootloader for the ARM Cortex-A53 processor on the NXP i.MX8qm Evaluation Kit (EVK), a segmentation fault (segfault) can occur during the initialization phase. This issue is particularly common when transitioning from vendor-provided bootloader packages (such as those from NXP’s Yocto BSP) to a minimalistic,…
ARM Cortex-A Multi-Core Boot Failure in Linux Kernel The issue described involves the Linux kernel hanging during the boot process when attempting to bring up secondary CPUs in a multi-core ARM Cortex-A processor cluster. Specifically, the kernel fails to boot CPU1, resulting in a system hang. This problem only occurs when there are multiple cores…
ARM DynamIQ Shared Unit Cache Partitioning Mechanics The ARM DynamIQ Shared Unit (DSU) is a critical component in modern ARM-based systems, particularly in multi-core processors. It manages the shared L3 cache and provides advanced features such as cache partitioning, which allows for the allocation of specific cache ways to individual cores. This partitioning mechanism is…
Off-Chip Memory Integration at 0x00000000 on Cortex-M0 The Cortex-M0 processor, being a highly efficient and cost-effective ARM core, is often used in resource-constrained embedded systems. One common requirement in such systems is the integration of off-chip memory, particularly when the on-chip memory is insufficient for the application’s needs. A critical question arises: Can off-chip memory…