i.MX93: Understanding Compatibility Between A0 and A1 Silicon Versions

[IniterWorker]

Dear NXP Team,

NXP released AN13997 on August 29, 2023, detailing the migration from silicon A0 to A1.

Now, I am reaching out regarding the support for A0 silicon in the firmware-ele-imx_0.1.1 release. It appears that support for A0 silicon may have been dropped in this version. Specifically, I have noticed that the file mx93a0-ahab-container.img is not present in the firmware package. However, according to Semantic Versioning (SegVer), such changes should not result in breaking changes.

Could someone kindly shed light on whether the exclusion of support for A0 silicon in firmware-ele-imx_0.1.1 is intentional or an oversight during the release process? Additionally, I would appreciate insights from experts on the implications of this change for both A0 and A1 silicon from bootloader perspective.

Furthermore, I would like to provide some context regarding my current setup. I am currently utilizing a VAR-SOM-MX93 with A0 silicon, running on Yocto 4.3 Nanbield release with kernel version 6.1.24, mkimage version lf-6.6.3_1.0.0, and firmware-ele-imx_0.1.0 from meta-freescale. This configuration has been stable for our application, and any insight into the compatibility or recommended upgrade path would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your assistance and expertise.

[JosephAtNXP · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Thank you for your interest in NXP Semiconductor products,

It's an intentional change, i.MX 93 A0 was a sample sent for customers to begin with testing and development, A0 chips won't reach the market, nor the customers that once got A0 chips.

The upgrade path should be from the development side, get an A1 version of the silicon with silicon improvements, BSP support and also, your production product would meet the same A1 chips.

These are the reasons to move to A1 and why A0 is not supported anymore.

Regards