Last edited 3 months ago

HPDMA internal peripheral

Applicable for STM32MP25x lines

Warning white.png Warning
Concerning the STM32MP25x lines More info.png, only the boot time assignment table and the runtime assignment table have been updated.
The other chapters have not been updated yet.

1. Article purpose[edit source]

The purpose of this article is to:

  • briefly introduce the HPDMA 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[edit source]

The HPDMA peripheral is used to perform high-speed data transfers between memory and memory or between peripherals and memory. The HPDMA controller offers 16 channels. The selection of the device connected to each channel and controlling DMA transfers is done in HPDMA peripheral.

The channels are divided into three performance groups, based on their FIFO size:

  • channel 0 to 7 have 8-byte FIFO and belong to Low performance group.
  • channel 8 to 11 have 32-byte FIFO and belong to Medium performance group.
  • channel 12 to 15 have 128-byte FIFO and belong to High performance group.

Refer to the STM32MP25xx reference manual, HPDMA channels chapter, for the implementation of HPDMA channels and their intended use. Refer to HPDMA device tree configuration for the HPDMA device tree bindings and how to select a channel fulfilling the application requirements.

The HPDMA is a RIF-Aware peripheral: transfers can be compartmented, independently at channel level, via compartment IDs (CID). Refer to STM32MP25 firewall configuration and HPDMA device tree configuration.

The HPDMA is a secure peripheral. This means that it performs each transfer in the context of the master that requested it:

  • a transfer requested by the Arm® Cortex®-A35 or Arm® Cortex®-M33 nonsecure core propagates nonsecure accesses to the targeted device and/or internal memory.
  • a transfer requested by the Arm® Cortex®-A35 or Arm® Cortex®-M33 secure core propagates secure accesses to the targeted device and/or internal memory.

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[edit source]

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[edit source]

3.1.1. On STM32MP2 series[edit source]

Click on How to.png to expand or collapse the legend...

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 STM32MP25 reference manuals.

Domain Peripheral Boot time allocation Comment How to.png
Instance Cortex-A35
secure
(ROM code)
Cortex-A35
secure
(TF-A BL2)
Cortex-A35
non-secure
(U-Boot)
Core/DMA HPDMA Info.png HPDMAx (x = 1 to 3) Shareable at internal peripheral level thanks to the RIF: see the boot time allocation per feature

The table below shows the possible boot time allocations for the features of the HPDMAx (x = 1 to 3) instances.

Feature Boot time allocation Info.png Comment
Cortex-A35
secure
(ROM code)
Cortex-A35
secure
(TF-A BL2)
Cortex-A35
non-secure
(U-Boot)
HPDMAx (x = 1 to 3) channel y (y = 0 to 15)

3.2. Runtime assignment[edit source]

3.2.1. On STM32MP25x lines More info.png[edit source]

Click on How to.png to expand or collapse the legend...

STM32MP25 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.
  • 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.
  • means that the peripheral can be assigned to the given runtime context, but this configuration is not supported in 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 STM32MP25 reference manuals.

Domain Peripheral Runtime allocation Comment How to.png
Instance Cortex-A35
secure
(OP-TEE /
TF-A BL31)
Cortex-A35
non-secure
(Linux)
Cortex-M33
secure
(TF-M)
Cortex-M33
non-secure
(STM32Cube)
Cortex-M0+
Warning.png
(STM32Cube)
Core/DMA HPDMA Info.png HPDMAx (x = 1 to 3) OP-TEE Shareable at internal peripheral level thanks to the RIF: see the runtime allocation per feature

The table below shows the possible runtime allocations for the features of the HPDMAx (x = 1 to 3) instances.

Feature Runtime allocation Info.png Comment
Cortex-A35
secure
(OP-TEE /
TF-A BL31)
Cortex-A35
non-secure
(Linux)
Cortex-M33
secure
(TF-M)
Cortex-M33
non-secure
(STM32Cube)
Cortex-M0+
Warning.png
(STM32Cube)
HPDMAx (x = 1 to 3) channel y (y = 0 to 15) OP-TEE -

4. Software frameworks and drivers[edit source]

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

STM32CubeMX allows to distinguish between nonsecure and secure channels, among all the available channels.

5. How to assign and configure the peripheral[edit source]

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

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

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

6. References[edit source]