The AM335x microprocessors, based on the ARM Cortex-A8 processor, are enhanced with image, graphics processing, peripherals and industrial interface options such as EtherCAT and PROFIBUS. The devices support high-level operating systems (HLOS). Linux® and Android™ are available free of charge from TI.
The AM335x microprocessor contain the subsystems shown in Figure 1-1 and a brief description of each follows:
The microprocessor unit (MPU) subsystem is based on the ARM Cortex-A8 processor and the PowerVR SGX™ Graphics Accelerator subsystem provides 3D graphics acceleration to support display and gaming effects.
The PRU-ICSS is separate from the ARM core, allowing independent operation and clocking for greater efficiency and flexibility. The PRU-ICSS enables additional peripheral interfaces and real-time protocols such as EtherCAT, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, PROFIBUS, Ethernet Powerlink, Sercos, and others. Additionally, the programmable nature of the PRU-ICSS, along with its access to pins, events and all system-on-chip (SoC) resources, provides flexibility in implementing fast, real-time responses, specialized data handling operations, custom peripheral interfaces, and in offloading tasks from the other processor cores of SoC.
Up to 1-GHz Sitara™ ARM® Cortex®-A8 32-Bit
RISC Processor
NEON™ SIMD Coprocessor
32KB of L1 Instruction and 32KB of Data Cache
With Single-Error Detection (Parity)
256KB of L2 Cache With Error Correcting Code
(ECC)
176KB of On-Chip Boot ROM
64KB of Dedicated RAM
Emulation and Debug - JTAG
Interrupt Controller (up to 128 Interrupt
Requests)
On-Chip Memory (Shared L3 RAM)
64KB of General-Purpose On-Chip Memory
Controller (OCMC) RAM
Accessible to All Masters
Supports Retention for Fast Wakeup
External Memory Interfaces (EMIF)
mDDR(LPDDR), DDR2, DDR3, DDR3L
Controller:
mDDR: 200-MHz Clock (400-MHz Data
Rate)
DDR2: 266-MHz Clock (532-MHz Data Rate)
DDR3: 400-MHz Clock (800-MHz Data Rate)
DDR3L: 400-MHz Clock (800-MHz Data
Rate)
16-Bit Data Bus
1GB of Total Addressable Space
Supports One x16 or Two x8 Memory Device
Configurations
General-Purpose Memory Controller (GPMC)
Flexible 8-Bit and 16-Bit Asynchronous
Memory Interface With up to Seven Chip
Selects (NAND, NOR, Muxed-NOR, SRAM)
Uses BCH Code to Support 4-, 8-, or 16-Bit
ECC
Uses Hamming Code to Support 1-Bit ECC
Error Locator Module (ELM)
Used in Conjunction With the GPMC to
Locate Addresses of Data Errors from
Syndrome Polynomials Generated Using a
BCH Algorithm
Supports 4-, 8-, and 16-Bit per 512-Byte
Block Error Location Based on BCH
Algorithms
Programmable Real-Time Unit Subsystem and
Industrial Communication Subsystem (PRU-ICSS)
Supports Protocols such as EtherCAT®,
PROFIBUS, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP™, and
More
Two Programmable Real-Time Units (PRUs)
32-Bit Load/Store RISC Processor Capable
of Running at 200 MHz
8KB of Instruction RAM With Single-Error
Detection (Parity)
8KB of Data RAM With Single-Error
Detection (Parity)
Single-Cycle 32-Bit Multiplier With 64-Bit
Accumulator
Enhanced GPIO Module Provides Shift-
In/Out Support and Parallel Latch on
External Signal
12KB of Shared RAM With Single-Error
Detection (Parity)
Three 120-Byte Register Banks Accessible by
Each PRU
Interrupt Controller (INTC) for Handling System
Input Events
Local Interconnect Bus for Connecting Internal
and External Masters to the Resources Inside
the PRU-ICSS
Peripherals Inside the PRU-ICSS:
One UART Port With Flow Control Pins,
Supports up to 12 Mbps
One Enhanced Capture (eCAP) Module
Two MII Ethernet Ports that Support
Industrial Ethernet, such as EtherCAT
One MDIO Port
Power, Reset, and Clock Management (PRCM)
Module
Controls the Entry and Exit of Stand-By and
Deep-Sleep Modes
Responsible for Sleep Sequencing, Power
Domain Switch-Off Sequencing, Wake-Up
Sequencing, and Power Domain Switch-On
Sequencing
Clocks
Integrated 15- to 35-MHz High-Frequency
Oscillator Used to Generate a Reference
Clock for Various System and Peripheral
Clocks
Supports Individual Clock Enable and
Disable Control for Subsystems and
Peripherals to Facilitate Reduced Power
Consumption
Five ADPLLs to Generate System Clocks
(MPU Subsystem, DDR Interface, USB and
Peripherals [MMC and SD, UART, SPI, I2C],
L3, L4, Ethernet, GFX [SGX530], LCD Pixel
Clock)
Power
Two Nonswitchable Power Domains (Real-
Time Clock [RTC], Wake-Up Logic
[WAKEUP])
Three Switchable Power Domains (MPU
Subsystem [MPU], SGX530 [GFX],
Peripherals and Infrastructure [PER])
Implements SmartReflex™ Class 2B for
Core Voltage Scaling Based On Die
Temperature, Process Variation, and
Performance (Adaptive Voltage Scaling
[AVS])
Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS)
Real-Time Clock (RTC)
Real-Time Date (Day-Month-Year-Day of Week)
and Time (Hours-Minutes-Seconds) Information
Internal 32.768-kHz Oscillator, RTC Logic and
1.1-V Internal LDO
Independent Power-on-Reset
(RTC_PWRONRSTn) Input
Dedicated Input Pin (EXT_WAKEUP) for
External Wake Events
Programmable Alarm Can be Used to Generate
Internal Interrupts to the PRCM (for Wakeup) or
Cortex-A8 (for Event Notification)
Programmable Alarm Can be Used With
External Output (PMIC_POWER_EN) to Enable
the Power Management IC to Restore Non-RTC
Power Domains
Peripherals
Up to Two USB 2.0 High-Speed OTG Ports
With Integrated PHY
Up to Two Industrial Gigabit Ethernet MACs (10,
100, 1000 Mbps)
Integrated Switch
Each MAC Supports MII, RMII, RGMII, and
MDIO Interfaces
Ethernet MACs and Switch Can Operate
Independent of Other Functions
IEEE 1588v2 Precision Time Protocol (PTP)
Up to Two Controller-Area Network (CAN) Ports
Supports CAN Version 2 Parts A and B
Up to Two Multichannel Audio Serial Ports
(McASPs)
Transmit and Receive Clocks up to 50 MHz
Up to Four Serial Data Pins per McASP Port
With Independent TX and RX Clocks
Supports Time Division Multiplexing (TDM),
Inter-IC Sound (I2S), and Similar Formats
Supports Digital Audio Interface
Transmission (SPDIF, IEC60958-1, and
AES-3 Formats)
FIFO Buffers for Transmit and Receive (256
Bytes)
Up to Six UARTs
All UARTs Support IrDA and CIR Modes
All UARTs Support RTS and CTS Flow
Control
UART1 Supports Full Modem Control
Up to Two Master and Slave McSPI Serial
Interfaces
Up to Two Chip Selects
Up to 48 MHz
Up to Three MMC, SD, SDIO Ports
1-, 4- and 8-Bit MMC, SD, SDIO Modes
MMCSD0 has Dedicated Power Rail for
1.8-V or 3.3-V Operation
Up to 48-MHz Data Transfer Rate
Supports Card Detect and Write Protect
Complies With MMC4.3, SD, SDIO 2.0
Specifications
Up to Three I2C Master and Slave Interfaces
Standard Mode (up to 100 kHz)
Fast Mode (up to 400 kHz)
Up to Four Banks of General-Purpose I/O
(GPIO) Pins
32 GPIO Pins per Bank (Multiplexed With
Other Functional Pins)
GPIO Pins Can be Used as Interrupt Inputs
(up to Two Interrupt Inputs per Bank)
Up to Three External DMA Event Inputs that can
Also be Used as Interrupt Inputs
Eight 32-Bit General-Purpose Timers
DMTIMER1 is a 1-ms Timer Used for
Operating System (OS) Ticks
DMTIMER4–DMTIMER7 are Pinned Out
One Watchdog Timer
SGX530 3D Graphics Engine
Tile-Based Architecture Delivering up to 20
Million Polygons per Second
Universal Scalable Shader Engine (USSE) is
a Multithreaded Engine Incorporating Pixel
and Vertex Shader Functionality
Advanced Shader Feature Set in Excess of
Microsoft VS3.0, PS3.0, and OGL2.0
Industry Standard API Support of Direct3D
Mobile, OGL-ES 1.1 and 2.0, OpenVG 1.0,
and OpenMax
Fine-Grained Task Switching, Load
Balancing, and Power Management
Advanced Geometry DMA-Driven Operation
for Minimum CPU Interaction
Programmable High-Quality Image Anti-
Aliasing
Fully Virtualized Memory Addressing for OS
Operation in a Unified Memory Architecture
LCD Controller
Up to 24-Bit Data Output; 8 Bits per Pixel
(RGB)
Resolution up to 2048 × 2048 (With Maximum 126-MHz Pixel Clock)
