M4 Core Power Question

[rickcartier]

Good Day,

I understand the A7 Core on the Solo device can be "shut down" using the M4 Core.  My question is how much of the device infrastructure is available?  i.e., is it possible to use the Ethernet Mac (not Gig) with the A7 "off" or unused?  Thank you.

[Yuri]

Hello,

  RDC (Resource Domain Controller) is responsible for

isolation and sharing of system resources. Please refer to i.MX6 SX RM
for more details.

Regards,

Yuri.

[rickcartier]

Thank you for your help and the question came up in the context that somebody could use the heterogeneous core architecture of the A7/M4 combination whereby for small volume applications they can populate a single device and then for lower performance options use, basically, the M4.  For higher performance they would then use both cores - but for both applications Ethernet is required.  

[RossMcLuckie]

That is the typical application / use case the 6SX was intended for. 

Ross

[RossMcLuckie]

Hi,

Assuming you are referring to the 6SX part here. I'm not fully clear on what you are asking, whether the question is what peripherals can be used by the M4 core only or what is the status regards low power modes?

If you refer to the reference manual -

i.MX 6SoloX Family of Applications Processors|NXP 

In the memory map chapter you will see that the A and M core maps are almost identical, some minor differences due to the M4 platform specifics, but all of the on-board peripherals, including Ethernet can be accessed and used by the M4, so pretty much all resources are available to the M core with the A core shut down.

For low power modes, you can find more details in chapter 10, table 10-1 is a good starting point.

Regards

Ross