MPC8272ADS stability issues

MPC8272ADS stability issues

[Alex Zeffertt]

Hi all,

I have a question that is a bit off topic here, but you seem the most
knowledgable people to ask so please don't flame me... :)

I am using an MPC8272ADS development board.  I was wondering if
anybody on this list experienced hardware reliability problems with
this platform.

I am running ELDK 3.1.1.  I have seen the kernel hang several times,
and a Oops a few times too.  The reason I suspect that this is a
hardware problem is that these seem to happen at completely random
times, and the Oopses, in random places.  It doesn't seem to make
any difference whether I have any of my own modules loaded or not, and
I've even seen these problems occur in the bootloader.

I'm hoping for an answer along the lines of "Ah, you must have the
'fail randomly' dip switch set!"

TIA,

Alex

Re: MPC8272ADS stability issues

[Vitaly Bordug]

Alex Zeffertt wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I have a question that is a bit off topic here, but you seem the most
> knowledgable people to ask so please don't flame me... :)
> 
> I am using an MPC8272ADS development board.  I was wondering if
> anybody on this list experienced hardware reliability problems with
> this platform.
> 
> I am running ELDK 3.1.1.  I have seen the kernel hang several times,
> and a Oops a few times too.  The reason I suspect that this is a
> hardware problem is that these seem to happen at completely random
> times, and the Oopses, in random places.  It doesn't seem to make
> any difference whether I have any of my own modules loaded or not, and
> I've even seen these problems occur in the bootloader.
> 
> I'm hoping for an answer along the lines of "Ah, you must have the
> 'fail randomly' dip switch set!"
> 
Unfortunately, low stability occasionally follows this boards. I have the same symptoms, 
and it is relative to something wrong with memory.

The mtest utility run in U-Boot will follow to crash or hang sooner or later. Hence its 
either broken memory or some hidden setting (probably undocumented) that the bootloader 
forgot to tweak in the time of memory controller init.

That question has been forwarded to FS, but still no response from them in this regard.

All I can suggest is to replace the board if it crashes more frequently than 
debug/development could proceed.
> TIA,
> 
> Alex
> _______________________________________________
> Linuxppc-embedded mailing list
> Linuxppc-embedded@ozlabs.org
> https://ozlabs.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxppc-embedded
> 
> 


-- 
Sincerely,
Vitaly

Re: MPC8272ADS stability issues

[Walter L. Wimer III]

Hi Alex,

We've had increasing difficulty with our MPC8272ADS board as well.  It
will often hang or reboot while just sitting at the U-Boot prompt, or
while running Linux.  I've pretty much given up trying to use our board.
One of these days we'll get around to shipping it back to Freescale....

In a perverse sort of way, I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this
problem, but it's unfortunate that any of us are...


Walt


On Fri, 2005-11-25 at 18:51 +0300, Vitaly Bordug wrote:
> Alex Zeffertt wrote:
> > I am using an MPC8272ADS development board.  I was wondering if
> > anybody on this list experienced hardware reliability problems with
> > this platform.
> > 
> Unfortunately, low stability occasionally follows this boards. I have
> the same symptoms, and it is relative to something wrong with memory.

Re: MPC8272ADS stability issues

[Eugene Surovegin]

On Fri, Nov 25, 2005 at 06:51:25PM +0300, Vitaly Bordug wrote:
> Unfortunately, low stability occasionally follows this boards. I have the 
> same symptoms, and it is relative to something wrong with memory.

Yeah, I wasn't able to do any development on my 8272ADS due to 
the same stability problems. Sometimes I wonder how Freescale can even 
ship hw of such "quality".

-- 
Eugene

Re: MPC8272ADS stability issues

[Alex Zeffertt]

Thanks everybody.  I was hoping to hear that others had seen this
problem and that it is probably hardware, not software.

My ADS is just about stable enough to use for development till our
custom hardware arrives, at which point - hopefully - the problems
will disappear!

Alex

MPC8272ADS stability issues

[Liechty Ronald-RAT109]

Hello,

Please excuse my intrusion into this mail group.  Usually I subscribe
and read the messages for a while before I post.  However, it was
brought to Freescale's attention that there was a thread that needed
addressing.

I want to thank you all for reporting this stability issue with the
boards. We were aware of some problems and are working hard to
straighten them out, in particular problems with the Flash SIMMs.  If
you have a board which you even question please contact Freescale for
new Flash SIMMs or to get a replacement for your board. =20

Freescale and Developer Technology group within Freescale strives for
the highest quality and anything less is unacceptable.  I personally
wish to apologize for any inconvenience this has caused anyone. =20

Finally I will be monitory this message list and reporting to those who
can make differences all that I see here.  If you wish to write to me
directly please do so.

I'm sorry for the delay in responding to this issue.

Ron

-- =20
Ron Liechty =20
Ombudsman Freescale Developer Technology
ron.liechty@freescale.com=20

MPC8272ADS stability issues

[Laurie, Ian]

Hi,

Does anyone have any news regarding any resolution of this issue?

We have a board exhibiting crashes even at the U-boot level (memory
test for example).

Very interested in hearing if anyone has had some luck resolving
the problem.

Ian
ian at avnet dot com

Re: MPC8272ADS stability issues

[Dmytro Bablinyuk]

> 
> Does anyone have any news regarding any resolution of this issue?
> 
We cannot guarantee that this is solution for everybody BUT:
We had similar problems with our MPC8272ADS and this morning we 
discovered that core voltage exceeds recommended values - the core 
voltage on 8272ADS was 1.6V instead of 1.5V.
Where according to MPC8272EC, Rev. 1.2, 05/2005 page 7

--8<--
Table 4. Recommended Operating Conditions

Caution: These are the recommended and tested operating conditions. 
Proper operation outside of these conditions is not guaranteed.

Rating Symbol Value Unit
Core supply voltage VDD 1.425 – 1.575 V
--8<--

We run memory test, as for now, for almost 9 hours and so far without 
problems. Though before board was crashing every 1-4 hours. We don't 
know whether this is source of the problem - we will keep testing it.

Power supply for MPC8272ADS generates ± 5V, ± 12V, +3.3V - they are all ok.
Core voltage is generated by U45 on the 8272ADS board. There is a 
trimmer pot RP1 for adjusting the core voltage - we never checked it 
before since we assumed that it should be set properly by factory. But 
today we found that U45 gives 1.6V instead of 1.5V, which is outside of 
recommended values and datasheet says "Proper operation outside of these 
conditions is not guaranteed".
So, check you core voltage (U45) - it might help.

Dmytro