Datasheet

Functional Description
174 Intel® Xeon® Processor D-1500 Product Family
Datasheet - Volume 1 of 4: Integrated Platform Controller Hub
March 2015
3.23.4.1 Intel® Xeon® Processor D-1500 Product Family SPI Based BIOS
Requirements
A serial flash device must meet the following minimum requirements when used
explicitly for system BIOS storage.
• Erase size capability of at least one of the following: 64 Kbytes, 8 Kbytes, 4 Kbytes,
or 256 bytes.
• Device must support multiple writes to a page without requiring a preceding erase
cycle (Refer to Section 3.23.5)
• Serial flash device must ignore the upper address bits such that an address of
FFFFFFh aliases to the top of the flash memory.
• SPI Compatible Mode 0 support (clock phase is 0 and data is latched on the rising
edge of the clock).
• If the device receives a command that is not supported or incomplete (less than 8
bits), the device must complete the cycle gracefully without any impact on the flash
content.
• An erase command (page, sector, block, chip, and so on) must set all bits inside the
designated area (page, sector, block, chip, and so on) to 1 (Fh).
• Status Register bit 0 must be set to 1 when a write, erase or write to status register
is in progress and cleared to 0 when a write or erase is NOT in progress.
• Devices requiring the Write Enable command must automatically clear the Write
Enable Latch at the end of Data Program instructions.
• Byte write must be supported. The flexibility to perform a write between 1 byte to
64 bytes is recommended.
• Hardware Sequencing requirements are optional in BIOS only platforms.
• SPI flash parts that do not meet Hardware sequencing command set requirements
may work in BIOS only platforms using software sequencing.
3.23.4.2 Integrated LAN Firmware SPI Flash Requirements
A serial flash device that will be used for system BIOS and Integrated LAN or
Integrated LAN only must meet all the SPI Based BIOS Requirements plus:
• Hardware sequencing
• 4, 8, or 64 KB erase capability must be supported.
3.23.4.2.1 SPI Flash Unlocking Requirements for Integrated LAN
BIOS must ensure there is no SPI flash based read/write/erase protection on the GbE
region. GbE firmware and drivers for the integrated LAN need to be able to read, write
and erase the GbE region at all times.
3.23.4.3 Intel
®
Management Engine Firmware (Intel
®
ME FW) SPI Flash
Requirements
Intel Management Engine Firmware must meet the SPI flash based BIOS Requirements
plus:
• Hardware Sequencing.