nRF5340 QSPI flash

[Jason]

Hi:

SW: NCS v2.5.0

HW: nRF5340 + flash gd25q256e 

To reduce the power consumption of the QSPI flash, we have two approaches.

1. cut off the QSPI flash's power when the product is in sleep mode (the power can be turned on/off by an LDO)

2. always keep the power of the QSPI flash, and put the flash into deep power down mode when the product is in sleep mode.

unfortunately, both of these two approaches have problems.

for approach 1, when turning on the power again, and initiating the QSPI and XIP again, the XIP doesn't work.

e.g 

 printk("#2Address of %x value %x\n", 0x10000008, *(uint32_t *)0x10000008);

 printk("#2Address of %x value %x\n", 0x10000040, *(uint32_t *)0x10000040);

 the values are wrong. 

for approach 2，

put the QSPI flash into deep power down mode by calling pm_device_action_run(flash_dev, PM_DEVICE_ACTION_SUSPEND);

this works, we can see the power consumption is reduced.

wake up the flash from deep power down mode by calling pm_device_action_run(flash_dev, PM_DEVICE_ACTION_RESUME);

but this function return -EIO, and it is caused by the nrfx_qspi_init return NRFX_ERROR_TIMEOUT.

if we don't put the flash into deep power-down mode, every thing is OK.

below is the QSPI configuration 

&qspi {
	status = "okay";
	pinctrl-0 = <&qspi_default>;
	pinctrl-1 = <&qspi_sleep>;
	pinctrl-names = "default", "sleep";
	gd25q256: gd25q256e@0 {
		compatible = "nordic,qspi-nor";
		reg = <0>;
		/* GD25Q256 supports only pp(cmd 02H) and pp4o(cmd 32H) */
		writeoc = "pp4o";
		/* GD25Q256 supports all readoc options */
		readoc = "read4io";
		sck-frequency = <8000000>;
		jedec-id = [c8 40 19];
		sfdp-bfp = [/*read the sfdp-bfp by jesd216 sample(zephyr\samples\drivers\jesd216)*/
			e5 20 f3 ff  ff ff ff 0f  44 eb 08 6b  08 3b 42 bb
			ee ff ff ff  ff ff 00 ff  ff ff 00 ff  0c 20 0f 52
			10 d8 00 ff  d6 39 a5 fe  83 1f 15 51  ec 62 16 33
			7a 75 7a 75  04 bd d5 5c  00 06 64 00  08 50 00 01
		];
		size = <268435456>;
		has-dpd;
		t-enter-dpd = <40000>;
		t-exit-dpd = <45000>;
		enter-4byte-addr = <0x01>;
		address-size-32;
	};
};

Do you have any ideas on this issue?

Thanks!

[AHaug]

Hi,

I recommend you have a look at this modified version of the code relocation sample you're using. In this sample XiP is disabled after use and enabled before use. The same API is called to enable and disable XIP.

The sample loops with a 10 sec sleep. The test write/read/erase code runs from XIP. A thread runs XIP code continuously.

xip_write_run_disable_feat_xip_thread.zip

Kind regards,
Andreas

[Jason]

Hi,

Thanks for your sample code.

I simplified this sample code as below 

#include <zephyr/kernel.h>
#include <zephyr/sys/printk.h>
#include <zephyr/pm/device.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <zephyr/kernel.h>
#include <soc.h>
#include <zephyr/pm/device.h>
#include <zephyr/device.h>
#include <zephyr/devicetree.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <nrfx_qspi.h>
#include <zephyr/drivers/flash/nrf_qspi_nor.h>
#include <hal/nrf_gpio.h>
#include <nrfx_gpiote.h>

#define LDO_3V0_EN_PIN (32 + 12)

#define TEST_DEEP_SLEEP_MODE 0
int main(void)
{
	static const struct device *flash_dev;

	printk("Hello World! %s\n", CONFIG_BOARD);
	nrf_gpio_cfg_output(LDO_3V0_EN_PIN);
	nrf_gpio_pin_set(LDO_3V0_EN_PIN); // turn on the flash's VDD
	flash_dev = DEVICE_DT_GET(DT_ALIAS(spi_flash0));

	nrf_qspi_nor_xip_enable(flash_dev, true);
	/*read QSPI data by XIP, no problem, the value is correct*/
	printk("#0Address of %x value %x\n", 0x10000008, *(uint32_t *)0x10000008);
	printk("#1Address of %x value %x\n", 0x10000030, *(uint32_t *)0x10000030);

	int cnt = 0;
#if TEST_DEEP_SLEEP_MODE
	while (1)
	{
		printk("cnt %d\n", cnt++);
		nrf_qspi_nor_xip_enable(flash_dev, false);
		/*put QSPI flash into deep-power-down mode, no problem*/
		ret = pm_device_action_run(flash_dev, PM_DEVICE_ACTION_SUSPEND);
		printf("PM_DEVICE_ACTION_SUSPEND ret = %d\n", ret);

		k_msleep(2000);

		/*wake up QSPI flash from deep-power-down mode, has problem,
		pm_device_action_run return -EIO, and it is caused by the nrfx_qspi_init return NRFX_ERROR_TIMEOUT.*/
		ret = pm_device_action_run(flash_dev, PM_DEVICE_ACTION_RESUME);
		printf("PM_DEVICE_ACTION_RESUME ret = %d\n", ret);
		nrf_qspi_nor_xip_enable(flash_dev, true);

		printk("#0Address of %x value %x\n", 0x10000008, *(uint32_t *)0x10000008);
		printk("#1Address of %x value %x\n", 0x10000030, *(uint32_t *)0x10000030);

		k_msleep(2000);
	}
#else
	while (1)
	{
		printk("cnt %d\n", cnt++);
		nrf_qspi_nor_xip_enable(flash_dev, false);
		k_msleep(10);
		nrf_gpio_pin_clear(LDO_3V0_EN_PIN); // turn off the flash's VDD

		k_msleep(2000);

		nrf_gpio_pin_set(LDO_3V0_EN_PIN); // turn on the flash's VDD
		k_msleep(10);
		nrf_qspi_nor_xip_enable(flash_dev, true);

		/*read QSPI data by XIP, has problem, the value is wrong*/
		printk("#0Address of %x value %x\n", 0x10000008, *(uint32_t *)0x10000008);
		printk("#1Address of %x value %x\n", 0x10000030, *(uint32_t *)0x10000030);

		k_msleep(2000);
	}
#endif
	return 0;
}

this sample code works on the nrf5340-DK but still has the same problem on my custom board, please see the comments on the source code.

the difference is that my custom board uses a different QSPI flash(gd25q256e).

I have two questions.

Jason said:

1. cut off the QSPI flash's power when the product is in sleep mode (the power can be turned on/off by an LDO)

Why the XIP doesn't work correctly after turning on the flash's VDD again?

Jason said:

2. always keep the power of the QSPI flash, and put the flash into deep power down mode when the product is in sleep mode.

Why the the nrfx_qspi_init return NRFX_ERROR_TIMEOUT after the flash in deep-power-down mode?

[roshangeoroy]

Let me chime into this thread. I was having the same issue, and a fix/hack was to pull down the MISO line (IO1) before nrfx_qspi_init. I think this would mimic data from the external flash, making the Nordic chip think there's connectivity. After that, I reconfigure it. I believe this is the fix detailed in https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/pull/64782/files but for a higher version of NCS/Zephyr RTOS.

[AHaug]

Hi Jason,

Apologies for the long response time. It's been Easter holidays here in Norway for the past week.

The description in https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/pull/64782 seems to me to be exactly what you're describing, and the PR has been merged into https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/tree/main

Could you let me know if this patch resolves your issue?

Kind regards,
Andreas

[Jason]

hi roshangeoroy,

Thank you!  This fix was applied in NCS 2.6.0, and this issue was fixed after updating to NCS 2.6.0

[Jason]

Hi AHaug

this patch works. and it has been merged in NCS 2.6.0

[roshangeoroy]

Glad to be of help!

[AHaug]

Thank you both for reporting the issue and verifying that it works!

Please feel free to raise new questions on Devzone in the future for queries and bug reports

Kind regards,
Andreas