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18
Am29DL16xD
July 29, 2002
SecSi
(Secured Silicon) Sector Flash
Memory Region
The SecSi (Secured Silicon) Sector feature provides a
Flash memory region that enables permanent part
identification through an Electronic Serial Number
(ESN). The SecSi Sector uses an Indicator Bit (DQ7)
to indicate whether or not the sector is locked when
shipped from the factory. This bit is permanently set at
the factory and cannot be changed, which prevents
cloning of a factory locked part. This ensures the secu-
rity of the ESN once the product is shipped to the field.
Current version of device has 64 Kbytes; future
versions will have only 256 bytes. This should be
considered during system design.
AMD offers the device with the SecSi Sector either
factory locked or customer lockable. The fac-
tory-locked version is always protected when shipped
from the factory, and has the SecSi Sector Indicator
Bit permanently set to a “1.” The customer-lockable
version is shipped with the unprotected, allowing cus-
tomers to utilize the that sector in any manner they
choose. The customer-lockable version has the SecSi
Sector Indicator Bit permanently set to a “0.” Thus, the
SecSi Sector Indicator Bit prevents customer-lockable
devices from being used to replace devices that are
factory locked.
The system accesses the SecSi Sector through a
command sequence (see “Enter SecSi Sector/Exit
SecSi Sector Command Sequence”). After the system
has written the Enter SecSi Sector command se-
quence, it may read the SecSi Sector by using the
addresses normally occupied by the boot sectors. This
mode of operation continues until the system issues
the Exit SecSi Sector command sequence, or until
power is removed from the device. On power-up, or
following a hardware reset, the device reverts to send-
ing commands to the boot sectors.
Factory Locked: SecSi Sector Programmed and
Protected At the Factory
In a factory locked device, the SecSi Sector is pro-
tected when the device is shipped from the factory.
The SecSi Sector cannot be modified in any way. The
device is available preprogrammed with one of the
following:
■
A random, secure ESN only
■
Customer code through the ExpressFlash service
■
Both a random, secure ESN and customer code
through the ExpressFlash service.
In devices that have an ESN, a Bottom Boot device
will have the 16-byte ESN in the lowest addressable
memory area at addresses 00000h–00007h in word
mode (or 000000h–00000Fh in byte mode). In the Top
Boot device the starting address of the ESN will be at
the bottom of the lowest 8 Kbyte boot sector at ad-
dresses F8000h–F8007h in word mode (or
1F0000h–1F000Fh in byte mode).
Customers may opt to have their code programmed by
AMD through the AMD ExpressFlash service. AMD
programs the customer’s code, with or without the ran-
dom ESN. The devices are then shipped from AMD’s
factory with the SecSi Sector permanently locked.
Contact an AMD representative for details on using
AMD’s ExpressFlash service.
Customer Lockable: SecSi Sector NOT
Programmed or Protected At the Factory
If the security feature is not required, the SecSi Sector
can be treated as an additional Flash memory space,
expanding the size of the available Flash array.
Current
version of device has 64 Kbytes; future versions
will have only 256 bytes. This should be consid-
ered during system design.
The SecSi Sector can be
read, programmed, and erased as often as required.
(
Note that in upcoming versions of this device, the
SecSi Sector erase function will not be available.
)
Note that the accelerated programming (ACC) and un-
lock bypass functions are not available when
programming the SecSi Sector.
The SecSi Sector area can be protected using one of the
following procedures:
■
Write the three-cycle Enter SecSi Sector Region
command sequence, and then follow the in-system
sector protect algorithm as shown in Figure 2, ex-
cept that
RESET# may be at either V
IH
or V
ID
. This
allows in-system protection of the without raising
any device pin to a high voltage. Note that this
method is only applicable to the SecSi Sector.
■
Write the three-cycle Enter SecSi Sector Region
command sequence, and then use the alternate
method of sector protection described in the “Sec-
tor/Sector Block Protection and Unprotection”.
Once the SecSi Sector is locked and verified, the sys-
tem must write the Exit SecSi Sector Region
command sequence to return to reading and writing
the remainder of the array.
The SecSi Sector protection must be used with cau-
tion since, once protected, there is no procedure
available for unprotecting the SecSi Sector area and
none of the bits in the SecSi Sector memory space
can be modified in any way.
Hardware Data Protection
The command sequence requirement of unlock cycles
for programming or erasing provides data protection
against inadvertent writes (refer to Table 14 for com-
mand definitions). In addition, the following hardware
data protection measures prevent accidental erasure
or programming, which might otherwise be caused by