According to the i.MX23 Reference Manual,
The SD/MMC boot mode requires either a Boot Control Block (BCB) or Master Boot Record (MBR) on
the device. The boot loader will first search for a MBR. If found, it will use the MBR data to find the boot
image. If the MBR is not present, the boot loader will search for a BCB. If found, the BCB will provide
the boot image located and size to the boot loader. If neither structure is fount, the boot loader will return
an error to the ROM.