Ulf Samuelson wrote:
There are no Atmel AT91SAM9 dev boards which uses a parallel flash.
This is not quite true. I'm able to boot a AT91SAM9263-EK board via EBI NOR flash and an AT91Bootstrap/Atmel modified U-Boot right now. Did I misunderstand your statement above?
If you check the schematics, you will find "not mounted" on the 4 MB parallel flash. I doubt that there has been any significant number of AT91SAM9 kits shipped with this mounted.
The original question was why AT91bootstrap was not ported to U-boot, and the focus from the S/W group is on dataflash and NAND flash support. This is also what most customers (that I know of) are using.
One needs only to solder an appropriate EBI NOR chip to the AT91SAM9263-EK board and install the BMS jumper to allow parallel flash booting. Unfortunately, the boards in the AT91SAM9260-EK and AT91SAM9261-EK can't support an EBI NOR flash due to intentional design limitations.
They can, by adding a PCB to the EBI connector. There has been some progress here on the S/W side, but I am still waiting for the release.
Sincerely,
Ken Fuchs
Best Regards Ulf Samuelsson