QUADSPI internal peripheral

Applicable for

STM32MP13x lines, STM32MP15x lines

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1. Article purpose

The purpose of this article is to:

• briefly introduce the QUADSPI peripheral and its main features,
• indicate the peripheral instances assignment at boot time and their assignment at runtime (including whether instances can be allocated to secure contexts),
• list the software frameworks and drivers managing the peripheral,
• explain how to configure the peripheral.

2. Peripheral overview

The QUADSPI peripheral interfaces the processor with serial NOR flash and serial NAND flash memories.
It supports:

• Single, Dual- or Quad-SPI flash memories
• A dual-flash mode, allowing to aggregate two flash memories into a virtual-single one
• Dual data rate and memory-mapped modes.

Refer to the STM32 MPU reference manuals for the complete list of features, and to the software frameworks and drivers, introduced below, to see which features are implemented.

3. Peripheral usage

This chapter is applicable in the scope of the OpenSTLinux BSP running on the Arm^® Cortex^®-A processor(s), and the STM32CubeMPU Package running on the Arm^® Cortex^®-M processor.

3.1. Boot time assignment

3.1.1. On STM32MP1 series

QUADSPI instance is a boot device that supports serial boot for flash programming with STM32CubeProgrammer.

Click on to expand or collapse the legend...

Check boxes illustrate the possible peripheral allocations supported by STM32 MPU Embedded Software:

• ⬚ means that the peripheral can be assigned to the given boot time context, but this configuration is not supported in STM32 MPU Embedded Software distribution.
• ☐ means that the peripheral can be assigned to the given boot time context.
• ☑ means that the peripheral is assigned by default to the given boot time context and that the peripheral is mandatory for the STM32 MPU Embedded Software distribution.
• ✓ is used for system peripherals that cannot be unchecked because they are hardware connected in the device.

The present chapter describes STMicroelectronics recommendations or choice of implementation. Additional possibilities might be described in STM32 MPU reference manuals.

Domain	Peripheral	Boot time allocation				Comment
		Instance	Cortex-A7 secure (ROM code)	Cortex-A7 secure (TF-A BL2)	Cortex-A7 non-secure (U-Boot)
Mass storage	QUADSPI	QUADSPI	✓	☐	☐

3.2. Runtime assignment

3.2.1. On STM32MP13x lines 

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STM32MP13 internal peripherals

Check boxes illustrate the possible peripheral allocations supported by STM32 MPU Embedded Software:

• ⬚ means that the peripheral can be assigned to the given runtime context, but this configuration is not supported in STM32 MPU Embedded Software distribution.
• ☐ means that the peripheral can be assigned to the given runtime context.
• ☑ means that the peripheral is assigned by default to the given runtime context and that the peripheral is mandatory for the STM32 MPU Embedded Software distribution.
• ✓ is used for system peripherals that cannot be unchecked because they are hardware connected in the device.

Refer to How to assign an internal peripheral to an execution context for more information on how to assign peripherals manually or via STM32CubeMX.
The present chapter describes STMicroelectronics recommendations or choice of implementation. Additional possibilities might be described in STM32MP13 reference manuals.

Domain	Peripheral	Runtime allocation			Comment
		Instance	Cortex-A7 secure (OP-TEE)	Cortex-A7 non-secure (Linux)
Mass storage	QUADSPI	QUADSPI	⬚	☐	Assignment (single choice)

3.2.2. On STM32MP15x lines 

Click on to expand or collapse the legend...

STM32MP15 internal peripherals

Check boxes illustrate the possible peripheral allocations supported by STM32 MPU Embedded Software:

• ⬚ means that the peripheral can be assigned to the given runtime context, but this configuration is not supported in STM32 MPU Embedded Software distribution.
• ☐ means that the peripheral can be assigned to the given runtime context.
• ☑ means that the peripheral is assigned by default to the given runtime context and that the peripheral is mandatory for the STM32 MPU Embedded Software distribution.
• ✓ is used for system peripherals that cannot be unchecked because they are hardware connected in the device.

Refer to How to assign an internal peripheral to an execution context for more information on how to assign peripherals manually or via STM32CubeMX.
The present chapter describes STMicroelectronics recommendations or choice of implementation. Additional possiblities might be described in STM32MP15 reference manuals.

Domain	Peripheral	Runtime allocation				Comment
		Instance	Cortex-A7 secure (OP-TEE)	Cortex-A7 non-secure (Linux)	Cortex-M4 (STM32Cube)
Mass storage	QUADSPI	QUADSPI		☐	☐	Assignment (single choice)

4. Software frameworks and drivers

Below are listed the software frameworks and drivers managing the QUADSPI peripheral for the embedded software components listed in the above tables.

• Linux^®: MTD framework and driver (drivers/spi/spi-stm32-qspi.c )
• STM32Cube: QUADSPI HAL driver and header file of QUADSPI HAL module
• TF-A BL2: MTD frameworks (drivers/mtd/ ) and driver (drivers/st/spi/stm32_qspi.c )
• U-Boot: MTD frameworks (drivers/mtd/ ) and drivers (drivers/spi/stm32_qspi.c )

5. How to assign and configure the peripheral

The peripheral assignment can be done via the STM32CubeMX graphical tool (and manually completed if needed).
This tool also helps to configure the peripheral:

• partial device trees (pin control and clock tree) generation for the OpenSTLinux software components,
• HAL initialization code generation for the STM32CubeMPU Package.

The configuration is applied by the firmware running in the context in which the peripheral is assigned.

For Linux kernel configuration, refer to QUADSPI device tree configuration. Template:ArticleBasedOnModel