SPI Flash Performance Evaluation Board for a US-based Semiconductor Company
Overview
The client is a US-based technology company that designs and develops high-performance integrated circuits, flash, and memory products. With the recent launch of new flash products, the client sought to create a sales tool for their business development team. This tool aimed to showcase live performance evaluations and comparisons, including metrics such as time to boot and display images stored in flash memory, specifically for their Quad SPI and Octal SPI products. ACL Digital undertook the design and development of an SPI flash performance evaluation board based on the NXP i.MX8 processor and conducted design validation testing and interface testing to verify signal quality and system functionality.
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Challenges
Lack of a dedicated sales tool to demonstrate critical metrics and showcase live performance of the products
Solution
- Designed & developed a performance evaluation board based on NXP i.MX8 processor involving hardware architecture, class A component selection, schematics, PCB layout, component placement & board bring-up
- Performed Design Validation Testing, high speed FlexSPI interface testing to verify the signal quality & system functionality
- Modified U-boot to boot the evaluation platform from Quad Flash Octal Flash or Octal Multi Chip Package (MCP) Flash
- Developed & validated memory drivers for Octal Flash, RAM & MCP memories
- Developed an OpenGL based test application to display 1080p resolution images over HDMI monitor after reading from the flash memory
Outcomes
- Improved sales for the new products with a live performance demonstration platform (marketing tool)
