[U-Boot-Users] 7xx/74xx cache question

[Jerry Van Baren]

Richard Danter wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Further progress on my port. I can now write to flash!
> 
> I noticed in lib_ppc/board.c board_init_r() that on e500 CPU's the 
> unlock_ram_in_cache() function is called. The 7xx/74xx also locks the 
> init RAM in the dcache, but nowhere is it unlocked.
> 
> I tried calling unlock_ram_in_cache() from my board's misc_init_r() 
> function, but this crashes U-Boot.
> 
> As an experiment, I left the cache locked, but then ran the "dcache off" 
> command from the shell. If I do printenv before turning the dcache off 
> it is all OK, if I do it after then it crashes.
> 
> With my debugger I can see that the gd data structure is garbage when 
> env_get_char_memory() is called. But I thought all data was copied to 
> the main sys RAM.
> 
> Is there something else I need to do before/after calling 
> unlock_ram_in_cache() so I can use the D-Cache as normal?
> 
> Thanks
> Rich
> 
> PS Calling icache_enable() from misc_init_r() seems to work fine.

WRT data cache enabling, in order to enable data cache, you need to 
first set up BATs and/or the MMU page tables.  You need the MMU 
configured and enabled so that you can mark I/O space(s) to be 
uncached... by default every data access is cached which wreaks havoc 
with I/O (to put it lightly :-).

I am not aware of anybody doing this in u-boot because it is a major 
pain to do and minor benefit for the brief time you should be running in 
u-boot (but likely someone has).

When you boot your OS (e.g. linux), the OS should do its own MMU set up 
and data cache enabling.

WRT your locking question, I don't know.

gvb