Alder Lake Platforms

Note

12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor, formally known as Alder Lake family.

Supported Boards

SBL supports various platforms corresponding to Alder Lake-S, Alder Lake-P, Alder Lake-PS, Alder Lake-N, Arizona Beach (AZB) and Amston Lake Processors.

Each Alder Lake board is assigned with a unique platform ID.

Board	Platform ID	SPI Programmer	UART	PLAT
ADL-S DDR4	0x0017	J1G2	U6J1	adls
ADL-S DDR5	0x001B	J1G2	U6J1	adls
ADL-P DDR5	0x0012	J1C1	J9J3	adlp
ADL-P LPDDR5	0x0013	J1C1	J9J3	adlp
ADL-P LPDDR4	0x0010	J1C1	J9J3	adlp
ADL-PS DDR5 RVP	0x000B	J25	J109	adlps
ADL-PS DDR5 CRB	0x000D	J31	J34	adlps
ADL-N DDR5 CRB	0x000A	J2E2	J9A1	adln
AZB LPDDR5 CRB	0x0009	J30	J32	azb
ASL DDR5 CRB	0x000A	J2E2	J9A1	adln

Debug UART

For Alder Lake platforms, serial port connector location can be found from the above table for each supported target board.

Note

Configure host PuTTY or minicom to 115200bps, 8N1, no hardware flow control.

Building

To build SBL for any Alder Lake platform:

python BuildLoader.py build <PLAT>

<PLAT> = adlp, adls, adlps, adln, azb

Note

adln platform option supports both ADL-N and ASL platforms.

The output images are generated under Outputs directory.

Stitching

1. Gather Alder Lake IFWI firmware image

Users can either download the full IFWI image if the IFWI image release is available or read the existing IFWI image on the board using SPI programmer. This image contains additional firmware ingredients that are required boot on Alder Lake.

Note

StitchLoader.py currently does not support stitching with boot guard feature enabled. To stitch with Boot Guard enabled, please use StitchIfwi.py.

2. Stitch SBL images into downloaded BIOS image:

   python Platform/AlderlakeBoardPkg/Script/StitchLoader.py -i <BIOS_IMAGE_NAME> -s Outputs/<plat>/SlimBootloader.bin -o <SBL_IFWI_IMAGE_NAME>
   

where -i = Input file, -o = Output file, plat = adls/adlp

For example, to stitch SBL IFWI image sbl_adls_ifwi.bin from ADL-S downloaded firmware images:

python Platform/AlderlakeBoardPkg/Script/StitchLoader.py -i xxxx.bin -s Outputs/adls/SlimBootloader.bin -o sbl_adls_ifwi.bin

For more details on stitch tool, see Stitch Tool on how to stitch the IFWI image with SBL.

Flashing

Flash the generated sbl_adlx_ifwi.bin to the target board using a DediProg SF100 or SF600 programmer.

Note

Refer the table above to identify the connector on the target board for SPI flash programmer. When using such device, please ensure:

1. The alignment/polarity when connecting Dediprog to the board.

2. The power to the board is turned off while the programmer is connected (even when not in use).

3. The programmer is set to update the flash from offset 0x0.

Capsule image for Alder Lake

The Slimbootloader.bin image generated from the build steps above can be used to create a capsule image. Please refer to Build Tool on generating SBL image.

For all Alder Lake platforms, the below command can be used:

python ./BootloaderCorePkg/Tools/GenCapsuleFirmware.py -p BIOS Outputs/<plat>/SlimBootloader.bin -k <Keys> -o FwuImage.bin

For more details on generating capsule image, please refer Generating capsule.

Triggering Firmware Update

SBL for Alder Lake uses BIT16 of PMC I/O register (Over-Clocking WDT Control (OC_WDT_CTL) - Offset 54h) to trigger firmware update. When BIT16 is set, SBL will set the boot mode to FLASH_UPDATE. Please refer to Firmware Update on how to trigger firmware update flow. Below is an example:

To trigger firmware update in SBL shell:

1. Copy FwuImage.bin into root directory on FAT partition of a USB key

2. Boot and press any key to enter SBL shell

3. Type command fwupdate from shell

   SBL will reset the platform and initiate firmware update flow. The platform will reset multiple times to complete the update process.

   A sample boot messages from console:

   Shell> fwupdate
   ...
   ============= Intel Slim Bootloader STAGE1A =============
   ...
   ============= Intel Slim Bootloader STAGE1B =============
   ...
   BOOT: BP0
   MODE: 18
   ...
   ============= Intel Slim Bootloader STAGE2 =============
   ...
   Jump to payload
   ...
   Starting Firmware Update
   ...
   =================Read Capsule Image==============
   ...
   ................
   Finished     1%
   ...
   Finished    99%
   ...
   ...
   
   Reset required to proceed with the firmware update.
   
   ============= Intel Slim Bootloader STAGE1A =============
   ...
   ============= Intel Slim Bootloader STAGE1B =============
   ...
   BOOT: BP1
   MODE: 18
   ...
   ============= Intel Slim Bootloader STAGE2 =============
   ...
   =================Read Capsule Image==============
   ...
   ................
   Finished     1%
   ...
   Finished    99%
   Updating 0x002B1000, Size:0x0A000
   ...............
   Finished   100%
   Set next FWU state: 0x7C
   Firmware Update status updated to reserved region
   Set next FWU state: 0x77
   Reset required to proceed with the firmware update.
   ...
   ==================== OS Loader ====================
   
   Starting Kernel ...
   

Booting Yocto Linux

You may need to change boot options to boot from USB. See Change Boot Options.

1. Download Yocto Linux

2. Create bootable USB key. For example: In Windows, Rufus can be used. In Linux, etcher app can be used.

3. Boot the bootable OS image from USB key on the board.

See Platform ID Detection using GPIOs for more details.

To customize board configurations in *.dlt file, make sure to specify PlatformId to the corresponding values for the board.

See Configuration Tools for more details.