Why No Sata on the latest i.MX Processors?

[samsaprunoff]

Good day All,

This is a general question as to why SATA is not directly supported on the latest i.MX Processors?  I ask, as the only processor that directly supports SATA is the i.MX6, but I have concerns about designing with this processor is that it is a bit "long in the tooth".  I recognize that I could support SATA indirectly on the i.MX8 family, but this would not be as "clean", etc.  As for those that suggest I use something other than SATA... my application needs a lot of nonvolatile storage (TB's) and I have the option of using inexpensive Hard or SSD drives for this purpose.

With that said I was simply curious why SATA is not directly supported and so I thought I would ask the group.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Sam

[Bio_TICFSL · Accepted solution]

Hello samsaprunoff,

The i.MX8M processor does not support SATA at all. Only the PCIe interface is available.

from other unsupported devices one can use plugin method (first boot from supported device) described in sect.6.1.7 Plugin image i.MX8M Reference Manual. Unfortunately there is no way to add boot option from SSD directly, as boot sequence is hardcoded in ROM.

Regards

[samsaprunoff]

Good day,

Thank you for your response.  Indeed, I understand that PCIe was available and so one could go from PCIe to Sata with the appropriate hardware.  I was just curious why a direct Sata interface was no longer available on the new iMX processors.  I suppose that the new processor designers decided that PCIe was more universal?  Hard to say.

In my case I have no issues from booting from something other than Sata.  On-board sata would simply offer me a somewhat simple and direct interface to large data storage options.

Cheers,

Sam