Low power appliations - Disable A53 and enable only M4 ?

[romainv]

Hello,

I am interested by the capability of the IMX8 Mini to mix low power real time M4 and linux environment on A53.

But I did not find any informations, even in applications notes, about usage with only M4 core enabled (the other A53 must idealy consume ~0 mW)

Is it possible to disable / shut down / deep sleep  the Cortex-A53  core while the M4 running ?

Do someone have consumption values of that ?

Thank you,

[CarlosCasillas]

Hi,

In case of the i.MX8M Mini, the Cortex-A core must boot first, and then it could release the reset of the M4 core to allow it booting. This procedure is included on the BSP as U-Boot commands, to allow the M4 boot from different memory options (internal RAM, DDR or directly from the QSPI).

A proper DTB file should be used when booting Linux on the Cortex-A cores to consider the existence of the M4 core as a coprocessor and the partitioning of the resources. Once completely booting Linux, it could be configured to enter to low-power mode, allowing the M4 core to continue its execution.

There are many factors that could affect the power consumption of the entire SoC under this scenario. You could refer to application note AN12225 for complementary details.

Hope this will be useful for you.
Best regards!
/Carlos
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:
- If this post answers your question, please click the "Mark Correct" button. Thank you!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[romainv]

It was that kind of document I was looking for.
So I can expect ~219 mW (0.877 x 250 > not 438mW... copy paste error?) of consumption for a standard application on M4 ? (with full power and only uart enabled for the hello world ?)

Thank you for your answer, this SOC looks interesting