Is the i.MX6 usable in its current shape?? Looong... errata lists

[ThomasG1z]

I'm receiving some doubts within the business after my choice of going for the imx6 for a new project, after looking at the latest public errata note where I count 136 hw issues..! Some not so serious but some could be, e.g. sequences of instructions that can deadlock the cpu.

Any thoughts around this? I see that there are no scheduled fixes for any of the issues. Is that true or will there be a "D" tape-out?

What do you think, can this cpu be used in high-reliability industrial control applications..?

Also I'm curious of how the recent layoff of 150-200 iMX engineers affects all this.

I'm not really familiar with the ARM core itself but some of the issues that concern me: ERR003730, ERR003731, ERR003733, ERR003739, ERR005185, ERR005198, ERR005383, ERR005385

Thoughts or views upon this?

[VladanJovanovic · Accepted solution]

i.MX 6 is or will be used in a high number of automotive and industrial applications where high-reliability is required (question is also how do you define high-reliability but that's another topic). It is extremely popular device with high market acceptance.

When it comes to errata, it is not uncommon to have errata in such a complex device. Critical ones and show stoppers are fixed. For others, either workaround is provided or they are not considered as having a big impact on capabilities of device so they are  not fixed.

Of the errata you mention, 43 is actually errata for ARM IP, so any device using those IP blocks will suffer from those. Others are spread over 23 different modules, with most of them having minor impact on usability.