Prepare For DDR4 with TiN/Cpt.Planet's DIY SPD Flasher
First we had none and today we have two. Last weekend Elmor already published the work on extending the EVS's functionality with a DDR3 SPD R/W feature. This morning TiN (EVGA) and Cpt.Planet (Corsair) showed their idea of DIY SPD flashing. The device is a bit more elaborate than Elmorlabs EVC as it requires an additional DIMM adapter and a Raspberry Pi, plus of course the software. The main advantage is that everything is open-source as it's very clear what is needed to build your own device.
In addition to the open-source nature of the device it also has support for DDR4, which is a neat I suppose.
The device is not for sale, but all the documentation can be found at xdevs.com. Enjoy DIY'ing everyone!
TiN and I have been working on an open source project for flashing DDR3/DDR4 SPDs using a RaspberryPi. You can follow the project on xDevs.com as well as grab the code.
TiN designed an awesome PCB for DDR3/DDR4 slots that connects up to the RaspberyPi and lets you flash your modules.
This is the top of the board that TiN designed.
And the back side of the board
It has three switches for changing the address as well as LEDs to indicate which address is being used.
He also included a header to connect the RaspberryPi as well as a power switch.
He also added support for a MCU so eventually we can plug this via USB into a regular PC to flash.
Here it is in action flashing DDR3
Post Reserved for Guide
Long live Elmor, TiN and Jake
When will this be available and how much will it cost?
Wow great tool!
Available - now, you can get all needed files from article here.
Cost - 0 USD, FREE.
It's build yourself educational project, I don't personally have plans to make it like a "ready-to-go kit" at this moment.
Just did it for own needs on a free weekend, nothing more.
TiN-like
Open source, that's how we like it. Looks like I got a new DIY to start and never finish
Really love this kind of project ! Thanks for making it Open-Source too !
Btw, if anybody thinks it new and cool, let me refresh your memories
Year 2010
DDR2 Ponyprog programmer from P5B
Year 2005
Programming SPDs for DDR1 Winbond-BH5
Good ol direct access LPT port. Now we use linux to fiddle two pins on 100kHz. I barely call this "progress"..
Looks like we will need supercomputer to fiddle LED in year 2020
I must say I like your new design with less glue
Why not simply use R-W everything instead?
Yes, in most cases you can as long as you have a working module with a board that supports R-W. However if you flashed a bad SPD to a module or your board isn't supported by R-W everything then what will you do. This makes it so you don't have to rely on a working system you can just use the RPI.
Bad flash -> after POST press pause, stick in the bad module, boot to OS (the module isn't seen in system because it's after POST but it's connected to I2C). And flash it like it was there as usual.
R-W knows Intel PCH (flashed with 6-th Gen chipsets, haven't run on newer ones yet).
Still much easier to flash these out of system.
Only if you don't need to install it in a memory slot
LGA2011's I2C ain't connected to PCH
And barely lots of people will like to risk their precious hardware hotswapping memory modules
But after all, there are multiple ways to do the job, either way. I'm a hw person, so I like do it hardware way.
Others who are nice with coding do in software, like Taiphoon Burner for example.
And normal people don't care about any of these
Well in your case I can believe that tracing a PCB, printing it, soldering SMD components and slots, assembling a wire with connectors, uploading OS to Raspberry and setting up the software is much easier than running a software utility.
Interesting news on LGA2011, thanks. I2C goes to MultiIO?
Anyway, great work :celebration:
Yes, specially when software utility just does not work
It's no rocket science to solder 4 wires and two resistors and learn a little linux (this is what it needs actually to do for plain read/write I2C from RPI).
Anyway, thanks.
Updated an article with all STEP-by-STEP information of all software fiddles on RPI.
nice work guys....I've made a nice experiment with BH5 chip and spd a few time ago (http://www.techarena.it/forum/overclock/8202-ddr-bh5-esperimenti-estremi.html)
ps. my english isn't very good, sorry
That's fantastic. <3
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