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1.   Trusted Firmware-A - version 1.5

1.1.   New features

  • Added new firmware support to enable RAS (Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability) functionality.

    • Secure Partition Manager (SPM): A Secure Partition is a software execution environment instantiated in S-EL0 that can be used to implement simple management and security services. The SPM is the firmware component that is responsible for managing a Secure Partition.

    • SDEI dispatcher: Support for interrupt-based SDEI events and all interfaces as defined by the SDEI specification v1.0, see SDEI Specification

    • Exception Handling Framework (EHF): Framework that allows dispatching of EL3 interrupts to their registered handlers which are registered based on their priorities. Facilitates firmware-first error handling policy where asynchronous exceptions may be routed to EL3.

      Integrated the TSPD with EHF.

  • Updated PSCI support:

    • Implemented PSCI v1.1 optional features MEM_PROTECT and SYSTEM_RESET2. The supported PSCI version was updated to v1.1.

    • Improved PSCI STAT timestamp collection, including moving accounting for retention states to be inside the locks and fixing handling of wrap-around when calculating residency in AArch32 execution state.

    • Added optional handler for early suspend that executes when suspending to a power-down state and with data caches enabled.

      This may provide a performance improvement on platforms where it is safe to perform some or all of the platform actions from pwr_domain_suspend with the data caches enabled.

  • Enabled build option, BL2_AT_EL3, for BL2 to allow execution at EL3 without any dependency on TF BL1.

    This allows platforms which already have a non-TF Boot ROM to directly load and execute BL2 and subsequent BL stages without need for BL1. This was not previously possible because BL2 executes at S-EL1 and cannot jump straight to EL3.

  • Implemented support for SMCCC v1.1, including SMCCC_VERSION and SMCCC_ARCH_FEATURES.

    Additionally, added support for SMCCC_VERSION in PSCI features to enable discovery of the SMCCC version via PSCI feature call.

  • Added Dynamic Configuration framework which enables each of the boot loader stages to be dynamically configured at runtime if required by the platform. The boot loader stage may optionally specify a firmware configuration file and/or hardware configuration file that can then be shared with the next boot loader stage.

    Introduced a new BL handover interface that essentially allows passing of 4 arguments between the different BL stages.

    Updated cert_create and fip_tool to support the dynamic configuration files. The COT also updated to support these new files.

  • Code hygiene changes and alignment with MISRA guideline:

    • Fix use of undefined macros.
    • Achieved compliance with Mandatory MISRA coding rules.
    • Achieved compliance for following Required MISRA rules for the default build configurations on FVP and Juno platforms : 7.3, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5 and 8.8.

  • Added support for Armv8.2-A architectural features:

    • Updated translation table set-up to set the CnP (Common not Private) bit for secure page tables so that multiple PEs in the same Inner Shareable domain can use the same translation table entries for a given stage of translation in a particular translation regime.
    • Extended the supported values of ID_AA64MMFR0_EL1.PARange to include the 52-bit Physical Address range.
    • Added support for the Scalable Vector Extension to allow Normal world software to access SVE functionality but disable access to SVE, SIMD and floating point functionality from the Secure world in order to prevent corruption of the Z-registers.
  • Added support for Armv8.4-A architectural feature Activity Monitor Unit (AMU)

    extensions.

    In addition to the v8.4 architectural extension, AMU support on Cortex-A75 was implemented.

  • Enhanced OP-TEE support to enable use of pageable OP-TEE image. The Arm standard platforms are updated to load up to 3 images for OP-TEE; header, pager image and paged image.

    The chain of trust is extended to support the additional images.

  • Enhancements to the translation table library:

    • Introduced APIs to get and set the memory attributes of a region.
    • Added support to manage both priviledge levels in translation regimes that describe translations for 2 Exception levels, specifically the EL1&0 translation regime, and extended the memory map region attributes to include specifying Non-privileged access.
    • Added support to specify the granularity of the mappings of each region, for instance a 2MB region can be specified to be mapped with 4KB page tables instead of a 2MB block.
    • Disabled the higher VA range to avoid unpredictable behaviour if there is an attempt to access addresses in the higher VA range.
    • Added helpers for Device and Normal memory MAIR encodings that align with the Arm Architecture Reference Manual for Armv8-A (Arm DDI0487B.b).
    • Code hygiene including fixing type length and signedness of constants, refactoring of function to enable the MMU, removing all instances where the virtual address space is hardcoded and added comments that document alignment needed between memory attributes and attributes specified in TCR_ELx.

  • Updated GIC support:

    • Introduce new APIs for GICv2 and GICv3 that provide the capability to specify interrupt properties rather than list of interrupt numbers alone. The Arm platforms and other upstream platforms are migrated to use interrupt properties.

    • Added helpers to save / restore the GICv3 context, specifically the Distributor and Redistributor contexts and architectural parts of the ITS power management. The Distributor and Redistributor helpers also support the implementation-defined part of GIC-500 and GIC-600.

      Updated the Arm FVP platform to save / restore the GICv3 context on system suspend / resume as an example of how to use the helpers.

      Introduced a new TZC secured DDR carve-out for use by Arm platforms for storing EL3 runtime data such as the GICv3 register context.

  • Added support for Armv7-A architecture via build option ARM_ARCH_MAJOR=7. This includes following features:

    • Updates GICv2 driver to manage GICv1 with security extensions.
    • Software implementation for 32bit division.
    • Enabled use of generic timer for platforms that do not set ARM_CORTEX_Ax=yes.
    • Support for Armv7-A Virtualization extensions [DDI0406C_C].
    • Support for both Armv7-A platforms that only have 32-bit addressing and Armv7-A platforms that support large page addressing.
    • Included support for following Armv7 CPUs: Cortex-A12, Cortex-A17, Cortex-A7, Cortex-A5, Cortex-A9, Cortex-A15.
    • Added support in QEMU for Armv7-A/Cortex-A15.

  • Enhancements to Firmware Update feature:

    • Updated the FWU documentation to describe the additional images needed for Firmware update, and how they are used for both the Juno platform and the Arm FVP platforms.

  • Enhancements to Trusted Board Boot feature:

    • Added support to cert_create tool for RSA PKCS1# v1.5 and SHA384, SHA512 and SHA256.
    • For Arm platforms added support to use ECDSA keys.
    • Enhanced the mbed TLS wrapper layer to include support for both RSA and ECDSA to enable runtime selection between RSA and ECDSA keys.

  • Added support for secure interrupt handling in AArch32 sp_min, hardcoded to only handle FIQs.

  • Added support to allow a platform to load images from multiple boot sources, for example from a second flash drive.

  • Added a logging framework that allows platforms to reduce the logging level at runtime and additionally the prefix string can be defined by the platform.

  • Further improvements to register initialisation:

    • Control register PMCR_EL0 / PMCR is set to prohibit cycle counting in the secure world. This register is added to the list of registers that are saved and restored during world switch.
    • When EL3 is running in AArch32 execution state, the Non-secure version of SCTLR is explicitly initialised during the warmboot flow rather than relying on the hardware to set the correct reset values.

  • Enhanced support for Arm platforms:

    • Introduced driver for Shared-Data-Structure (SDS) framework which is used for communication between SCP and the AP CPU, replacing Boot-Over_MHU (BOM) protocol.

      The Juno platform is migrated to use SDS with the SCMI support added in v1.3 and is set as default.

      The driver can be found in the plat/arm/css/drivers folder.

    • Improved memory usage by only mapping TSP memory region when the TSPD has been included in the build. This reduces the memory footprint and avoids unnecessary memory being mapped.

    • Updated support for multi-threading CPUs for FVP platforms - always check the MT field in MPDIR and access the bit fields accordingly.

    • Support building for platforms that model DynamIQ configuration by implementing all CPUs in a single cluster.

    • Improved nor flash driver, for instance clearing status registers before sending commands. Driver can be found plat/arm/board/common folder.

  • Enhancements to QEMU platform:

    • Added support for TBB.
    • Added support for using OP-TEE pageable image.
    • Added support for LOAD_IMAGE_V2.
    • Migrated to use translation table library v2 by default.
    • Added support for SEPARATE_CODE_AND_RODATA.

  • Applied workarounds CVE-2017-5715 on Arm Cortex-A57, -A72, -A73 and -A75, and for Armv7-A CPUs Cortex-A9, -A15 and -A17.

  • Applied errata workaround for Arm Cortex-A57: 859972.

  • Applied errata workaround for Arm Cortex-A72: 859971.

  • Added support for Poplar 96Board platform.

  • Added support for Raspberry Pi 3 platform.

  • Added Call Frame Information (CFI) assembler directives to the vector entries which enables debuggers to display the backtrace of functions that triggered a synchronous abort.

  • Added ability to build dtb.

  • Added support for pre-tool (cert_create and fiptool) image processing enabling compression of the image files before processing by cert_create and fiptool.

    This can reduce fip size and may also speed up loading of images. The image verification will also get faster because certificates are generated based on compressed images.

    Imported zlib 1.2.11 to implement gunzip() for data compression.

  • Enhancements to fiptool:

    • Enabled the fiptool to be built using Visual Studio.
    • Added padding bytes at the end of the last image in the fip to be facilitate transfer by DMA.

1.2.   Issues resolved since last release

  • TF-A can be built with optimisations disabled (-O0).
  • Memory layout updated to enable Trusted Board Boot on Juno platform when running TF-A in AArch32 execution mode (resolving tf-issue#501).

1.3.   Known Issues

  • DTB creation not supported when building on a windows host. This step in the build process is skipped when running on a windows host.

2.   Trusted Firmware-A - version 1.4

2.1.   New features

  • Enabled support for platforms with hardware assisted coherency.

    A new build option HW_ASSISTED_COHERENCY allows platforms to take advantage of the following optimisations:

    • Skip performing cache maintenance during power-up and power-down.
    • Use spin-locks instead of bakery locks.
    • Enable data caches early on warm-booted CPUs.

  • Added support for Cortex-A75 and Cortex-A55 processors.

    Both Cortex-A75 and Cortex-A55 processors use the Arm DynamIQ Shared Unit (DSU). The power-down and power-up sequences are therefore mostly managed in hardware, reducing complexity of the software operations.

  • Introduced Arm GIC-600 driver.

    Arm GIC-600 IP complies with Arm GICv3 architecture. For FVP platforms, the GIC-600 driver is chosen when FVP_USE_GIC_DRIVER is set to FVP_GIC600.

  • Updated GICv3 support:

    • Introduced power management APIs for GICv3 Redistributor. These APIs allow platforms to power down the Redistributor during CPU power on/off. Requires the GICv3 implementations to have power management operations.

      Implemented the power management APIs for FVP.

    • GIC driver data is flushed by the primary CPU so that secondary CPU do not read stale GIC data.

  • Added support for Arm System Control and Management Interface v1.0 (SCMI).

    The SCMI driver implements the power domain management and system power management protocol of the SCMI specification (Arm DEN 0056ASCMI) for communicating with any compliant power controller.

    Support is added for the Juno platform. The driver can be found in the plat/arm/css/drivers folder.

  • Added support to enable pre-integration of TBB with the Arm TrustZone CryptoCell product, to take advantage of its hardware Root of Trust and crypto acceleration services.

  • Enabled Statistical Profiling Extensions for lower ELs.

    The firmware support is limited to the use of SPE in the Non-secure state and accesses to the SPE specific registers from S-EL1 will trap to EL3.

    The SPE are architecturally specified for AArch64 only.

  • Code hygiene changes aligned with MISRA guidelines:

    • Fixed signed / unsigned comparison warnings in the translation table library.
    • Added U(_x) macro and together with the existing ULL(_x) macro fixed some of the signed-ness defects flagged by the MISRA scanner.

  • Enhancements to Firmware Update feature:

    • The FWU logic now checks for overlapping images to prevent execution of unauthenticated arbitary code.
    • Introduced new FWU_SMC_IMAGE_RESET SMC that changes the image loading state machine to go from COPYING, COPIED or AUTHENTICATED states to RESET state. Previously, this was only possible when the authentication of an image failed or when the execution of the image finished.
    • Fixed integer overflow which addressed TFV-1: Malformed Firmware Update SMC can result in copy of unexpectedly large data into secure memory.

  • Introduced support for Arm Compiler 6 and LLVM (clang).

    TF-A can now also be built with the Arm Compiler 6 or the clang compilers. The assembler and linker must be provided by the GNU toolchain.

    Tested with Arm CC 6.7 and clang 3.9.x and 4.0.x.

  • Memory footprint improvements:

    • Introduced tf_snprintf, a reduced version of snprintf which has support for a limited set of formats.

      The mbedtls driver is updated to optionally use tf_snprintf instead of snprintf.

    • The assert() is updated to no longer print the function name, and additional logging options are supported via an optional platform define PLAT_LOG_LEVEL_ASSERT, which controls how verbose the assert output is.

  • Enhancements to TF-A support when running in AArch32 execution state:

    • Support booting SP_MIN and BL33 in AArch32 execution mode on Juno. Due to hardware limitations, BL1 and BL2 boot in AArch64 state and there is additional trampoline code to warm reset into SP_MIN in AArch32 execution state.
    • Added support for Arm Cortex-A53/57/72 MPCore processors including the errata workarounds that are already implemented for AArch64 execution state.
    • For FVP platforms, added AArch32 Trusted Board Boot support, including the Firmware Update feature.

  • Introduced Arm SiP service for use by Arm standard platforms.

    • Added new Arm SiP Service SMCs to enable the Non-secure world to read PMF timestamps.

      Added PMF instrumentation points in TF-A in order to quantify the overall time spent in the PSCI software implementation.

    • Added new Arm SiP service SMC to switch execution state.

      This allows the lower exception level to change its execution state from AArch64 to AArch32, or vice verse, via a request to EL3.

  • Migrated to use SPDX[0] license identifiers to make software license auditing simpler.

    NOTE: Files that have been imported by FreeBSD have not been modified.

    [0]: https://spdx.org/

  • Enhancements to the translation table library:

    • Added version 2 of translation table library that allows different translation tables to be modified by using different 'contexts'. Version 1 of the translation table library only allows the current EL's translation tables to be modified.

      Version 2 of the translation table also added support for dynamic regions; regions that can be added and removed dynamically whilst the MMU is enabled. Static regions can only be added or removed before the MMU is enabled.

      The dynamic mapping functionality is enabled or disabled when compiling by setting the build option PLAT_XLAT_TABLES_DYNAMIC to 1 or 0. This can be done per-image.

    • Added support for translation regimes with two virtual address spaces such as the one shared by EL1 and EL0.

      The library does not support initializing translation tables for EL0 software.

    • Added support to mark the translation tables as non-cacheable using an additional build option XLAT_TABLE_NC.

  • Added support for GCC stack protection. A new build option ENABLE_STACK_PROTECTOR was introduced that enables compilation of all BL images with one of the GCC -fstack-protector-* options.

    A new platform function plat_get_stack_protector_canary() was introduced that returns a value used to initialize the canary for stack corruption detection. For increased effectiveness of protection platforms must provide an implementation that returns a random value.

  • Enhanced support for Arm platforms:

    • Added support for multi-threading CPUs, indicated by MT field in MPDIR. A new build flag ARM_PLAT_MT is added, and when enabled, the functions accessing MPIDR assume that the MT bit is set for the platform and access the bit fields accordingly.

      Also, a new API plat_arm_get_cpu_pe_count is added when ARM_PLAT_MT is enabled, returning the Processing Element count within the physical CPU corresponding to mpidr.

    • The Arm platforms migrated to use version 2 of the translation tables.

    • Introduced a new Arm platform layer API plat_arm_psci_override_pm_ops which allows Arm platforms to modify plat_arm_psci_pm_ops and therefore dynamically define PSCI capability.

    • The Arm platforms migrated to use IMAGE_LOAD_V2 by default.

  • Enhanced reporting of errata workaround status with the following policy:

    • If an errata workaround is enabled:
      • If it applies (i.e. the CPU is affected by the errata), an INFO message is printed, confirming that the errata workaround has been applied.
      • If it does not apply, a VERBOSE message is printed, confirming that the errata workaround has been skipped.
    • If an errata workaround is not enabled, but would have applied had it been, a WARN message is printed, alerting that errata workaround is missing.

  • Added build options ARM_ARCH_MAJOR and ARM_ARM_MINOR to choose the architecture version to target TF-A.

  • Updated the spin lock implementation to use the more efficient CAS (Compare And Swap) instruction when available. This instruction was introduced in Armv8.1-A.

  • Applied errata workaround for Arm Cortex-A53: 855873.

  • Applied errata workaround for Arm-Cortex-A57: 813419.

  • Enabled all A53 and A57 errata workarounds for Juno, both in AArch64 and AArch32 execution states.

  • Added support for Socionext UniPhier SoC platform.

  • Added support for Hikey960 and Hikey platforms.

  • Added support for Rockchip RK3328 platform.

  • Added support for NVidia Tegra T186 platform.

  • Added support for Designware emmc driver.

  • Imported libfdt v1.4.2 that addresses buffer overflow in fdt_offset_ptr().

  • Enhanced the CPU operations framework to allow power handlers to be registered on per-level basis. This enables support for future CPUs that have multiple threads which might need powering down individually.

  • Updated register initialisation to prevent unexpected behaviour:

    • Debug registers MDCR-EL3/SDCR and MDCR_EL2/HDCR are initialised to avoid unexpected traps into the higher exception levels and disable secure self-hosted debug. Additionally, secure privileged external debug on Juno is disabled by programming the appropriate Juno SoC registers.
    • EL2 and EL3 configurable controls are initialised to avoid unexpected traps in the higher exception levels.
    • Essential control registers are fully initialised on EL3 start-up, when initialising the non-secure and secure context structures and when preparing to leave EL3 for a lower EL. This gives better alignement with the Arm ARM which states that software must initialise RES0 and RES1 fields with 0 / 1.

  • Enhanced PSCI support:

    • Introduced new platform interfaces that decouple PSCI stat residency calculation from PMF, enabling platforms to use alternative methods of capturing timestamps.
    • PSCI stat accounting performed for retention/standby states when requested at multiple power levels.

  • Simplified fiptool to have a single linked list of image descriptors.

  • For the TSP, resolved corruption of pre-empted secure context by aborting any pre-empted SMC during PSCI power management requests.

2.2.   Issues resolved since last release

  • TF-A can be built with the latest mbed TLS version (v2.4.2). The earlier version 2.3.0 cannot be used due to build warnings that the TF-A build system interprets as errors.
  • TBBR, including the Firmware Update feature is now supported on FVP platforms when running TF-A in AArch32 state.
  • The version of the AEMv8 Base FVP used in this release has resolved the issue of the model executing a reset instead of terminating in response to a shutdown request using the PSCI SYSTEM_OFF API.

2.3.   Known Issues

  • Building TF-A with compiler optimisations disabled (-O0) fails.
  • Trusted Board Boot currently does not work on Juno when running Trusted Firmware in AArch32 execution state due to error when loading the sp_min to memory because of lack of free space available. See tf-issue#501 for more details.
  • The errata workaround for A53 errata 843419 is only available from binutils 2.26 and is not present in GCC4.9. If this errata is applicable to the platform, please use GCC compiler version of at least 5.0. See PR#1002 for more details.

3.   Trusted Firmware-A - version 1.3

3.1.   New features

  • Added support for running TF-A in AArch32 execution state.

    The PSCI library has been refactored to allow integration with EL3 Runtime Software. This is software that is executing at the highest secure privilege which is EL3 in AArch64 or Secure SVC/Monitor mode in AArch32. See PSCI Integration Guide.

    Included is a minimal AArch32 Secure Payload, SP-MIN, that illustrates the usage and integration of the PSCI library with EL3 Runtime Software running in AArch32 state.

    Booting to the BL1/BL2 images as well as booting straight to the Secure Payload is supported.

  • Improvements to the initialization framework for the PSCI service and Arm Standard Services in general.

    The PSCI service is now initialized as part of Arm Standard Service initialization. This consolidates the initializations of any Arm Standard Service that may be added in the future.

    A new function get_arm_std_svc_args() is introduced to get arguments corresponding to each standard service and must be implemented by the EL3 Runtime Software.

    For PSCI, a new versioned structure psci_lib_args_t is introduced to initialize the PSCI Library. Note this is a compatibility break due to the change in the prototype of psci_setup().

  • To support AArch32 builds of BL1 and BL2, implemented a new, alternative firmware image loading mechanism that adds flexibility.

    The current mechanism has a hard-coded set of images and execution order (BL31, BL32, etc). The new mechanism is data-driven by a list of image descriptors provided by the platform code.

    Arm platforms have been updated to support the new loading mechanism.

    The new mechanism is enabled by a build flag (LOAD_IMAGE_V2) which is currently off by default for the AArch64 build.

    Note TRUSTED_BOARD_BOOT is currently not supported when LOAD_IMAGE_V2 is enabled.

  • Updated requirements for making contributions to TF-A.

    Commits now must have a 'Signed-off-by:' field to certify that the contribution has been made under the terms of the Developer Certificate of Origin.

    A signed CLA is no longer required.

    The Contribution Guide has been updated to reflect this change.

  • Introduced Performance Measurement Framework (PMF) which provides support for capturing, storing, dumping and retrieving time-stamps to measure the execution time of critical paths in the firmware. This relies on defining fixed sample points at key places in the code.

  • To support the QEMU platform port, imported libfdt v1.4.1 from https://git.kernel.org/cgit/utils/dtc/dtc.git

  • Updated PSCI support:

    • Added support for PSCI NODE_HW_STATE API for Arm platforms.
    • New optional platform hook, pwr_domain_pwr_down_wfi(), in plat_psci_ops to enable platforms to perform platform-specific actions needed to enter powerdown, including the 'wfi' invocation.
    • PSCI STAT residency and count functions have been added on Arm platforms by using PMF.

  • Enhancements to the translation table library:

    • Limited memory mapping support for region overlaps to only allow regions to overlap that are identity mapped or have the same virtual to physical address offset, and overlap completely but must not cover the same area.

      This limitation will enable future enhancements without having to support complex edge cases that may not be necessary.

    • The initial translation lookup level is now inferred from the virtual address space size. Previously, it was hard-coded.

    • Added support for mapping Normal, Inner Non-cacheable, Outer Non-cacheable memory in the translation table library.

      This can be useful to map a non-cacheable memory region, such as a DMA buffer.

    • Introduced the MT_EXECUTE/MT_EXECUTE_NEVER memory mapping attributes to specify the access permissions for instruction execution of a memory region.

  • Enabled support to isolate code and read-only data on separate memory pages, allowing independent access control to be applied to each.

  • Enabled SCR_EL3.SIF (Secure Instruction Fetch) bit in BL1 and BL31 common architectural setup code, preventing fetching instructions from non-secure memory when in secure state.

  • Enhancements to FIP support:

    • Replaced fip_create with fiptool which provides a more consistent and intuitive interface as well as additional support to remove an image from a FIP file.
    • Enabled printing the SHA256 digest with info command, allowing quick verification of an image within a FIP without having to extract the image and running sha256sum on it.
    • Added support for unpacking the contents of an existing FIP file into the working directory.
    • Aligned command line options for specifying images to use same naming convention as specified by TBBR and already used in cert_create tool.

  • Refactored the TZC-400 driver to also support memory controllers that integrate TZC functionality, for example Arm CoreLink DMC-500. Also added DMC-500 specific support.

  • Implemented generic delay timer based on the system generic counter and migrated all platforms to use it.

  • Enhanced support for Arm platforms:

    • Updated image loading support to make SCP images (SCP_BL2 and SCP_BL2U) optional.
    • Enhanced topology description support to allow multi-cluster topology definitions.
    • Added interconnect abstraction layer to help platform ports select the right interconnect driver, CCI or CCN, for the platform.
    • Added support to allow loading BL31 in the TZC-secured DRAM instead of the default secure SRAM.
    • Added support to use a System Security Control (SSC) Registers Unit enabling TF-A to be compiled to support multiple Arm platforms and then select one at runtime.
    • Restricted mapping of Trusted ROM in BL1 to what is actually needed by BL1 rather than entire Trusted ROM region.
    • Flash is now mapped as execute-never by default. This increases security by restricting the executable region to what is strictly needed.

  • Applied following erratum workarounds for Cortex-A57: 833471, 826977, 829520, 828024 and 826974.

  • Added support for Mediatek MT6795 platform.

  • Added support for QEMU virtualization Armv8-A target.

  • Added support for Rockchip RK3368 and RK3399 platforms.

  • Added support for Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC platform.

  • Added support for Arm Cortex-A73 MPCore Processor.

  • Added support for Arm Cortex-A72 processor.

  • Added support for Arm Cortex-A35 processor.

  • Added support for Arm Cortex-A32 MPCore Processor.

  • Enabled preloaded BL33 alternative boot flow, in which BL2 does not load BL33 from non-volatile storage and BL31 hands execution over to a preloaded BL33. The User Guide has been updated with an example of how to use this option with a bootwrapped kernel.

  • Added support to build TF-A on a Windows-based host machine.

  • Updated Trusted Board Boot prototype implementation:

    • Enabled the ability for a production ROM with TBBR enabled to boot test software before a real ROTPK is deployed (e.g. manufacturing mode). Added support to use ROTPK in certificate without verifying against the platform value when ROTPK_NOT_DEPLOYED bit is set.
    • Added support for non-volatile counter authentication to the Authentication Module to protect against roll-back.

  • Updated GICv3 support:

    • Enabled processor power-down and automatic power-on using GICv3.
    • Enabled G1S or G0 interrupts to be configured independently.
    • Changed FVP default interrupt driver to be the GICv3-only driver. Note the default build of TF-A will not be able to boot Linux kernel with GICv2 FDT blob.
    • Enabled wake-up from CPU_SUSPEND to stand-by by temporarily re-routing interrupts and then restoring after resume.

3.2.   Issues resolved since last release

3.3.   Known issues

  • The version of the AEMv8 Base FVP used in this release resets the model instead of terminating its execution in response to a shutdown request using the PSCI SYSTEM_OFF API. This issue will be fixed in a future version of the model.
  • Building TF-A with compiler optimisations disabled (-O0) fails.
  • TF-A cannot be built with mbed TLS version v2.3.0 due to build warnings that the TF-A build system interprets as errors.
  • TBBR is not currently supported when running TF-A in AArch32 state.

4.   Trusted Firmware-A - version 1.2

4.1.   New features

  • The Trusted Board Boot implementation on Arm platforms now conforms to the mandatory requirements of the TBBR specification.

    In particular, the boot process is now guarded by a Trusted Watchdog, which will reset the system in case of an authentication or loading error. On Arm platforms, a secure instance of Arm SP805 is used as the Trusted Watchdog.

    Also, a firmware update process has been implemented. It enables authenticated firmware to update firmware images from external interfaces to SoC Non-Volatile memories. This feature functions even when the current firmware in the system is corrupt or missing; it therefore may be used as a recovery mode.

  • Improvements have been made to the Certificate Generation Tool (cert_create) as follows.

    • Added support for the Firmware Update process by extending the Chain of Trust definition in the tool to include the Firmware Update certificate and the required extensions.
    • Introduced a new API that allows one to specify command line options in the Chain of Trust description. This makes the declaration of the tool's arguments more flexible and easier to extend.
    • The tool has been reworked to follow a data driven approach, which makes it easier to maintain and extend.

  • Extended the FIP tool (fip_create) to support the new set of images involved in the Firmware Update process.

  • Various memory footprint improvements. In particular:

    • The bakery lock structure for coherent memory has been optimised.
    • The mbed TLS SHA1 functions are not needed, as SHA256 is used to generate the certificate signature. Therefore, they have been compiled out, reducing the memory footprint of BL1 and BL2 by approximately 6 KB.
    • On Arm development platforms, each BL stage now individually defines the number of regions that it needs to map in the MMU.

  • Added the following new design documents:

  • Applied the new image terminology to the code base and documentation, as described on the TF-A wiki on GitHub.

  • The build system has been reworked to improve readability and facilitate adding future extensions.

  • On Arm standard platforms, BL31 uses the boot console during cold boot but switches to the runtime console for any later logs at runtime. The TSP uses the runtime console for all output.

  • Implemented a basic NOR flash driver for Arm platforms. It programs the device using CFI (Common Flash Interface) standard commands.

  • Implemented support for booting EL3 payloads on Arm platforms, which reduces the complexity of developing EL3 baremetal code by doing essential baremetal initialization.

  • Provided separate drivers for GICv3 and GICv2. These expect the entire software stack to use either GICv2 or GICv3; hybrid GIC software systems are no longer supported and the legacy Arm GIC driver has been deprecated.

  • Added support for Juno r1 and r2. A single set of Juno TF-A binaries can run on Juno r0, r1 and r2 boards. Note that this TF-A version depends on a Linaro release that does not contain Juno r2 support.

  • Added support for MediaTek mt8173 platform.

  • Implemented a generic driver for Arm CCN IP.

  • Major rework of the PSCI implementation.

    • Added framework to handle composite power states.
    • Decoupled the notions of affinity instances (which describes the hierarchical arrangement of cores) and of power domain topology, instead of assuming a one-to-one mapping.
    • Better alignment with version 1.0 of the PSCI specification.

  • Added support for the SYSTEM_SUSPEND PSCI API on Arm platforms. When invoked on the last running core on a supported platform, this puts the system into a low power mode with memory retention.

  • Unified the reset handling code as much as possible across BL stages. Also introduced some build options to enable optimization of the reset path on platforms that support it.

  • Added a simple delay timer API, as well as an SP804 timer driver, which is enabled on FVP.

  • Added support for NVidia Tegra T210 and T132 SoCs.

  • Reorganised Arm platforms ports to greatly improve code shareability and facilitate the reuse of some of this code by other platforms.

  • Added support for Arm Cortex-A72 processor in the CPU specific framework.

  • Provided better error handling. Platform ports can now define their own error handling, for example to perform platform specific bookkeeping or post-error actions.

  • Implemented a unified driver for Arm Cache Coherent Interconnects used for both CCI-400 & CCI-500 IPs. Arm platforms ports have been migrated to this common driver. The standalone CCI-400 driver has been deprecated.

4.2.   Issues resolved since last release

  • The Trusted Board Boot implementation has been redesigned to provide greater modularity and scalability. See the Authentication Framework document. All missing mandatory features are now implemented.
  • The FVP and Juno ports may now use the hash of the ROTPK stored in the Trusted Key Storage registers to verify the ROTPK. Alternatively, a development public key hash embedded in the BL1 and BL2 binaries might be used instead. The location of the ROTPK is chosen at build-time using the ARM_ROTPK_LOCATION build option.
  • GICv3 is now fully supported and stable.

4.3.   Known issues

  • The version of the AEMv8 Base FVP used in this release resets the model instead of terminating its execution in response to a shutdown request using the PSCI SYSTEM_OFF API. This issue will be fixed in a future version of the model.
  • While this version has low on-chip RAM requirements, there are further RAM usage enhancements that could be made.
  • The upstream documentation could be improved for structural consistency, clarity and completeness. In particular, the design documentation is incomplete for PSCI, the TSP(D) and the Juno platform.
  • Building TF-A with compiler optimisations disabled (-O0) fails.

5.   Trusted Firmware-A - version 1.1

5.1.   New features

  • A prototype implementation of Trusted Board Boot has been added. Boot loader images are verified by BL1 and BL2 during the cold boot path. BL1 and BL2 use the PolarSSL SSL library to verify certificates and images. The OpenSSL library is used to create the X.509 certificates. Support has been added to fip_create tool to package the certificates in a FIP.

  • Support for calling CPU and platform specific reset handlers upon entry into BL3-1 during the cold and warm boot paths has been added. This happens after another Boot ROM reset_handler() has already run. This enables a developer to perform additional actions or undo actions already performed during the first call of the reset handlers e.g. apply additional errata workarounds.

  • Support has been added to demonstrate routing of IRQs to EL3 instead of S-EL1 when execution is in secure world.

  • The PSCI implementation now conforms to version 1.0 of the PSCI specification. All the mandatory APIs and selected optional APIs are supported. In particular, support for the PSCI_FEATURES API has been added. A capability variable is constructed during initialization by examining the plat_pm_ops and spd_pm_ops exported by the platform and the Secure Payload Dispatcher. This is used by the PSCI FEATURES function to determine which PSCI APIs are supported by the platform.

  • Improvements have been made to the PSCI code as follows.

    • The code has been refactored to remove redundant parameters from internal functions.
    • Changes have been made to the code for PSCI CPU_SUSPEND, CPU_ON and CPU_OFF calls to facilitate an early return to the caller in case a failure condition is detected. For example, a PSCI CPU_SUSPEND call returns SUCCESS to the caller if a pending interrupt is detected early in the code path.
    • Optional platform APIs have been added to validate the power_state and entrypoint parameters early in PSCI CPU_ON and CPU_SUSPEND code paths.
    • PSCI migrate APIs have been reworked to invoke the SPD hook to determine the type of Trusted OS and the CPU it is resident on (if applicable). Also, during a PSCI MIGRATE call, the SPD hook to migrate the Trusted OS is invoked.

  • It is now possible to build TF-A without marking at least an extra page of memory as coherent. The build flag USE_COHERENT_MEM can be used to choose between the two implementations. This has been made possible through these changes.

    • An implementation of Bakery locks, where the locks are not allocated in coherent memory has been added.
    • Memory which was previously marked as coherent is now kept coherent through the use of software cache maintenance operations.

    Approximately, 4K worth of memory is saved for each boot loader stage when USE_COHERENT_MEM=0. Enabling this option increases the latencies associated with acquire and release of locks. It also requires changes to the platform ports.

  • It is now possible to specify the name of the FIP at build time by defining the FIP_NAME variable.

  • Issues with depedencies on the 'fiptool' makefile target have been rectified. The fip_create tool is now rebuilt whenever its source files change.

  • The BL3-1 runtime console is now also used as the crash console. The crash console is changed to SoC UART0 (UART2) from the previous FPGA UART0 (UART0) on Juno. In FVP, it is changed from UART0 to UART1.

  • CPU errata workarounds are applied only when the revision and part number match. This behaviour has been made consistent across the debug and release builds. The debug build additionally prints a warning if a mismatch is detected.

  • It is now possible to issue cache maintenance operations by set/way for a particular level of data cache. Levels 1-3 are currently supported.

  • The following improvements have been made to the FVP port.

    • The build option FVP_SHARED_DATA_LOCATION which allowed relocation of shared data into the Trusted DRAM has been deprecated. Shared data is now always located at the base of Trusted SRAM.
    • BL2 Translation tables have been updated to map only the region of DRAM which is accessible to normal world. This is the region of the 2GB DDR-DRAM memory at 0x80000000 excluding the top 16MB. The top 16MB is accessible to only the secure world.
    • BL3-2 can now reside in the top 16MB of DRAM which is accessible only to the secure world. This can be done by setting the build flag FVP_TSP_RAM_LOCATION to the value dram.

  • Separate transation tables are created for each boot loader image. The IMAGE_BLx build options are used to do this. This allows each stage to create mappings only for areas in the memory map that it needs.

  • A Secure Payload Dispatcher (OPTEED) for the OP-TEE Trusted OS has been added. Details of using it with TF-A can be found in OP-TEE Dispatcher

5.2.   Issues resolved since last release

  • The Juno port has been aligned with the FVP port as follows.
    • Support for reclaiming all BL1 RW memory and BL2 memory by overlaying the BL3-1/BL3-2 NOBITS sections on top of them has been added to the Juno port.
    • The top 16MB of the 2GB DDR-DRAM memory at 0x80000000 is configured using the TZC-400 controller to be accessible only to the secure world.
    • The Arm GIC driver is used to configure the GIC-400 instead of using a GIC driver private to the Juno port.
    • PSCI CPU_SUSPEND calls that target a standby state are now supported.
    • The TZC-400 driver is used to configure the controller instead of direct accesses to the registers.
  • The Linux kernel version referred to in the user guide has DVFS and HMP support enabled.
  • DS-5 v5.19 did not detect Version 5.8 of the Cortex-A57-A53 Base FVPs in CADI server mode. This issue is not seen with DS-5 v5.20 and Version 6.2 of the Cortex-A57-A53 Base FVPs.

5.3.   Known issues

  • The Trusted Board Boot implementation is a prototype. There are issues with the modularity and scalability of the design. Support for a Trusted Watchdog, firmware update mechanism, recovery images and Trusted debug is absent. These issues will be addressed in future releases.
  • The FVP and Juno ports do not use the hash of the ROTPK stored in the Trusted Key Storage registers to verify the ROTPK in the plat_match_rotpk() function. This prevents the correct establishment of the Chain of Trust at the first step in the Trusted Board Boot process.
  • The version of the AEMv8 Base FVP used in this release resets the model instead of terminating its execution in response to a shutdown request using the PSCI SYSTEM_OFF API. This issue will be fixed in a future version of the model.
  • GICv3 support is experimental. There are known issues with GICv3 initialization in the TF-A.
  • While this version greatly reduces the on-chip RAM requirements, there are further RAM usage enhancements that could be made.
  • The firmware design documentation for the Test Secure-EL1 Payload (TSP) and its dispatcher (TSPD) is incomplete. Similarly for the PSCI section.
  • The Juno-specific firmware design documentation is incomplete.

6.   Trusted Firmware-A - version 1.0

6.1.   New features

  • It is now possible to map higher physical addresses using non-flat virtual to physical address mappings in the MMU setup.
  • Wider use is now made of the per-CPU data cache in BL3-1 to store:
    • Pointers to the non-secure and secure security state contexts.
    • A pointer to the CPU-specific operations.
    • A pointer to PSCI specific information (for example the current power state).
    • A crash reporting buffer.
  • The following RAM usage improvements result in a BL3-1 RAM usage reduction from 96KB to 56KB (for FVP with TSPD), and a total RAM usage reduction across all images from 208KB to 88KB, compared to the previous release.
    • Removed the separate early_exception vectors from BL3-1 (2KB code size saving).
    • Removed NSRAM from the FVP memory map, allowing the removal of one (4KB) translation table.
    • Eliminated the internal psci_suspend_context array, saving 2KB.
    • Correctly dimensioned the PSCI aff_map_node array, saving 1.5KB in the FVP port.
    • Removed calling CPU mpidr from the bakery lock API, saving 160 bytes.
    • Removed current CPU mpidr from PSCI common code, saving 160 bytes.
    • Inlined the mmio accessor functions, saving 360 bytes.
    • Fully reclaimed all BL1 RW memory and BL2 memory on the FVP port by overlaying the BL3-1/BL3-2 NOBITS sections on top of these at runtime.
    • Made storing the FP register context optional, saving 0.5KB per context (8KB on the FVP port, with TSPD enabled and running on 8 CPUs).
    • Implemented a leaner tf_printf() function, allowing the stack to be greatly reduced.
    • Removed coherent stacks from the codebase. Stacks allocated in normal memory are now used before and after the MMU is enabled. This saves 768 bytes per CPU in BL3-1.
    • Reworked the crash reporting in BL3-1 to use less stack.
    • Optimized the EL3 register state stored in the cpu_context structure so that registers that do not change during normal execution are re-initialized each time during cold/warm boot, rather than restored from memory. This saves about 1.2KB.
    • As a result of some of the above, reduced the runtime stack size in all BL images. For BL3-1, this saves 1KB per CPU.
  • PSCI SMC handler improvements to correctly handle calls from secure states and from AArch32.
  • CPU contexts are now initialized from the entry_point_info. BL3-1 fully determines the exception level to use for the non-trusted firmware (BL3-3) based on the SPSR value provided by the BL2 platform code (or otherwise provided to BL3-1). This allows platform code to directly run non-trusted firmware payloads at either EL2 or EL1 without requiring an EL2 stub or OS loader.
  • Code refactoring improvements:
    • Refactored fvp_config into a common platform header.
    • Refactored the fvp gic code to be a generic driver that no longer has an explicit dependency on platform code.
    • Refactored the CCI-400 driver to not have dependency on platform code.
    • Simplified the IO driver so it's no longer necessary to call io_init() and moved all the IO storage framework code to one place.
    • Simplified the interface the the TZC-400 driver.
    • Clarified the platform porting interface to the TSP.
    • Reworked the TSPD setup code to support the alternate BL3-2 intialization flow where BL3-1 generic code hands control to BL3-2, rather than expecting the TSPD to hand control directly to BL3-2.
    • Considerable rework to PSCI generic code to support CPU specific operations.
  • Improved console log output, by:
    • Adding the concept of debug log levels.
    • Rationalizing the existing debug messages and adding new ones.
    • Printing out the version of each BL stage at runtime.
    • Adding support for printing console output from assembler code, including when a crash occurs before the C runtime is initialized.
  • Moved up to the latest versions of the FVPs, toolchain, EDK2, kernel, Linaro file system and DS-5.
  • On the FVP port, made the use of the Trusted DRAM region optional at build time (off by default). Normal platforms will not have such a "ready-to-use" DRAM area so it is not a good example to use it.
  • Added support for PSCI SYSTEM_OFF and SYSTEM_RESET APIs.
  • Added support for CPU specific reset sequences, power down sequences and register dumping during crash reporting. The CPU specific reset sequences include support for errata workarounds.
  • Merged the Juno port into the master branch. Added support for CPU hotplug and CPU idle. Updated the user guide to describe how to build and run on the Juno platform.

6.2.   Issues resolved since last release

  • Removed the concept of top/bottom image loading. The image loader now automatically detects the position of the image inside the current memory layout and updates the layout to minimize fragementation. This resolves the image loader limitations of previously releases. There are currently no plans to support dynamic image loading.
  • CPU idle now works on the publicized version of the Foundation FVP.
  • All known issues relating to the compiler version used have now been resolved. This TF-A version uses Linaro toolchain 14.07 (based on GCC 4.9).

6.3.   Known issues

  • GICv3 support is experimental. The Linux kernel patches to support this are not widely available. There are known issues with GICv3 initialization in the TF-A.

  • While this version greatly reduces the on-chip RAM requirements, there are further RAM usage enhancements that could be made.

  • The firmware design documentation for the Test Secure-EL1 Payload (TSP) and its dispatcher (TSPD) is incomplete. Similarly for the PSCI section.

  • The Juno-specific firmware design documentation is incomplete.

  • Some recent enhancements to the FVP port have not yet been translated into the Juno port. These will be tracked via the tf-issues project.

  • The Linux kernel version referred to in the user guide has DVFS and HMP support disabled due to some known instabilities at the time of this release. A future kernel version will re-enable these features.

  • DS-5 v5.19 does not detect Version 5.8 of the Cortex-A57-A53 Base FVPs in CADI server mode. This is because the <SimName> reported by the FVP in this version has changed. For example, for the Cortex-A57x4-A53x4 Base FVP, the <SimName> reported by the FVP is FVP_Base_Cortex_A57x4_A53x4, while DS-5 expects it to be FVP_Base_A57x4_A53x4.

    The temporary fix to this problem is to change the name of the FVP in sw/debugger/configdb/Boards/ARM FVP/Base_A57x4_A53x4/cadi_config.xml. Change the following line:

    <SimName>System Generator:FVP_Base_A57x4_A53x4</SimName>

    to System Generator:FVP_Base_Cortex-A57x4_A53x4

    A similar change can be made to the other Cortex-A57-A53 Base FVP variants.

7.   Trusted Firmware-A - version 0.4

7.1.   New features

  • Makefile improvements:
    • Improved dependency checking when building.
    • Removed dump target (build now always produces dump files).
    • Enabled platform ports to optionally make use of parts of the Trusted Firmware (e.g. BL3-1 only), rather than being forced to use all parts. Also made the fip target optional.
    • Specified the full path to source files and removed use of the vpath keyword.
  • Provided translation table library code for potential re-use by platforms other than the FVPs.
  • Moved architectural timer setup to platform-specific code.
  • Added standby state support to PSCI cpu_suspend implementation.
  • SRAM usage improvements:
    • Started using the -ffunction-sections, -fdata-sections and --gc-sections compiler/linker options to remove unused code and data from the images. Previously, all common functions were being built into all binary images, whether or not they were actually used.
    • Placed all assembler functions in their own section to allow more unused functions to be removed from images.
    • Updated BL1 and BL2 to use a single coherent stack each, rather than one per CPU.
    • Changed variables that were unnecessarily declared and initialized as non-const (i.e. in the .data section) so they are either uninitialized (zero init) or const.
  • Moved the Test Secure-EL1 Payload (BL3-2) to execute in Trusted SRAM by default. The option for it to run in Trusted DRAM remains.
  • Implemented a TrustZone Address Space Controller (TZC-400) driver. A default configuration is provided for the Base FVPs. This means the model parameter -C bp.secure_memory=1 is now supported.
  • Started saving the PSCI cpu_suspend 'power_state' parameter prior to suspending a CPU. This allows platforms that implement multiple power-down states at the same affinity level to identify a specific state.
  • Refactored the entire codebase to reduce the amount of nesting in header files and to make the use of system/user includes more consistent. Also split platform.h to separate out the platform porting declarations from the required platform porting definitions and the definitions/declarations specific to the platform port.
  • Optimized the data cache clean/invalidate operations.
  • Improved the BL3-1 unhandled exception handling and reporting. Unhandled exceptions now result in a dump of registers to the console.
  • Major rework to the handover interface between BL stages, in particular the interface to BL3-1. The interface now conforms to a specification and is more future proof.
  • Added support for optionally making the BL3-1 entrypoint a reset handler (instead of BL1). This allows platforms with an alternative image loading architecture to re-use BL3-1 with fewer modifications to generic code.
  • Reserved some DDR DRAM for secure use on FVP platforms to avoid future compatibility problems with non-secure software.
  • Added support for secure interrupts targeting the Secure-EL1 Payload (SP) (using GICv2 routing only). Demonstrated this working by adding an interrupt target and supporting test code to the TSP. Also demonstrated non-secure interrupt handling during TSP processing.

7.2.   Issues resolved since last release

  • Now support use of the model parameter -C bp.secure_memory=1 in the Base FVPs (see New features).
  • Support for secure world interrupt handling now available (see New features).
  • Made enough SRAM savings (see New features) to enable the Test Secure-EL1 Payload (BL3-2) to execute in Trusted SRAM by default.
  • The tested filesystem used for this release (Linaro AArch64 OpenEmbedded 14.04) now correctly reports progress in the console.
  • Improved the Makefile structure to make it easier to separate out parts of the TF-A for re-use in platform ports. Also, improved target dependency checking.

7.3.   Known issues

  • GICv3 support is experimental. The Linux kernel patches to support this are not widely available. There are known issues with GICv3 initialization in the TF-A.
  • Dynamic image loading is not available yet. The current image loader implementation (used to load BL2 and all subsequent images) has some limitations. Changing BL2 or BL3-1 load addresses in certain ways can lead to loading errors, even if the images should theoretically fit in memory.
  • TF-A still uses too much on-chip Trusted SRAM. A number of RAM usage enhancements have been identified to rectify this situation.
  • CPU idle does not work on the advertised version of the Foundation FVP. Some FVP fixes are required that are not available externally at the time of writing. This can be worked around by disabling CPU idle in the Linux kernel.
  • Various bugs in TF-A, UEFI and the Linux kernel have been observed when using Linaro toolchain versions later than 13.11. Although most of these have been fixed, some remain at the time of writing. These mainly seem to relate to a subtle change in the way the compiler converts between 64-bit and 32-bit values (e.g. during casting operations), which reveals previously hidden bugs in client code.
  • The firmware design documentation for the Test Secure-EL1 Payload (TSP) and its dispatcher (TSPD) is incomplete. Similarly for the PSCI section.

8.   Trusted Firmware-A - version 0.3

8.1.   New features

  • Support for Foundation FVP Version 2.0 added. The documented UEFI configuration disables some devices that are unavailable in the Foundation FVP, including MMC and CLCD. The resultant UEFI binary can be used on the AEMv8 and Cortex-A57-A53 Base FVPs, as well as the Foundation FVP.

    NOTE: The software will not work on Version 1.0 of the Foundation FVP.

  • Enabled third party contributions. Added a new contributing.md containing instructions for how to contribute and updated copyright text in all files to acknowledge contributors.

  • The PSCI CPU_SUSPEND API has been stabilised to the extent where it can be used for entry into power down states with the following restrictions:

    • Entry into standby states is not supported.
    • The API is only supported on the AEMv8 and Cortex-A57-A53 Base FVPs.

  • The PSCI AFFINITY_INFO api has undergone limited testing on the Base FVPs to allow experimental use.

  • Required C library and runtime header files are now included locally in TF-A instead of depending on the toolchain standard include paths. The local implementation has been cleaned up and reduced in scope.

  • Added I/O abstraction framework, primarily to allow generic code to load images in a platform-independent way. The existing image loading code has been reworked to use the new framework. Semi-hosting and NOR flash I/O drivers are provided.

  • Introduced Firmware Image Package (FIP) handling code and tools. A FIP combines multiple firmware images with a Table of Contents (ToC) into a single binary image. The new FIP driver is another type of I/O driver. The Makefile builds a FIP by default and the FVP platform code expect to load a FIP from NOR flash, although some support for image loading using semi- hosting is retained.

    NOTE: Building a FIP by default is a non-backwards-compatible change.

    NOTE: Generic BL2 code now loads a BL3-3 (non-trusted firmware) image into DRAM instead of expecting this to be pre-loaded at known location. This is also a non-backwards-compatible change.

    NOTE: Some non-trusted firmware (e.g. UEFI) will need to be rebuilt so that it knows the new location to execute from and no longer needs to copy particular code modules to DRAM itself.

  • Reworked BL2 to BL3-1 handover interface. A new composite structure (bl31_args) holds the superset of information that needs to be passed from BL2 to BL3-1, including information on how handover execution control to BL3-2 (if present) and BL3-3 (non-trusted firmware).

  • Added library support for CPU context management, allowing the saving and restoring of

    • Shared system registers between Secure-EL1 and EL1.
    • VFP registers.
    • Essential EL3 system registers.

  • Added a framework for implementing EL3 runtime services. Reworked the PSCI implementation to be one such runtime service.

  • Reworked the exception handling logic, making use of both SP_EL0 and SP_EL3 stack pointers for determining the type of exception, managing general purpose and system register context on exception entry/exit, and handling SMCs. SMCs are directed to the correct EL3 runtime service.

  • Added support for a Test Secure-EL1 Payload (TSP) and a corresponding Dispatcher (TSPD), which is loaded as an EL3 runtime service. The TSPD implements Secure Monitor functionality such as world switching and EL1 context management, and is responsible for communication with the TSP. NOTE: The TSPD does not yet contain support for secure world interrupts. NOTE: The TSP/TSPD is not built by default.

8.2.   Issues resolved since last release

  • Support has been added for switching context between secure and normal worlds in EL3.
  • PSCI API calls AFFINITY_INFO & PSCI_VERSION have now been tested (to a limited extent).
  • The TF-A build artifacts are now placed in the ./build directory and sub-directories instead of being placed in the root of the project.
  • TF-A is now free from build warnings. Build warnings are now treated as errors.
  • TF-A now provides C library support locally within the project to maintain compatibility between toolchains/systems.
  • The PSCI locking code has been reworked so it no longer takes locks in an incorrect sequence.
  • The RAM-disk method of loading a Linux file-system has been confirmed to work with the TF-A and Linux kernel version (based on version 3.13) used in this release, for both Foundation and Base FVPs.

8.3.   Known issues

The following is a list of issues which are expected to be fixed in the future releases of TF-A.

  • The TrustZone Address Space Controller (TZC-400) is not being programmed yet. Use of model parameter -C bp.secure_memory=1 is not supported.
  • No support yet for secure world interrupt handling.
  • GICv3 support is experimental. The Linux kernel patches to support this are not widely available. There are known issues with GICv3 initialization in TF-A.
  • Dynamic image loading is not available yet. The current image loader implementation (used to load BL2 and all subsequent images) has some limitations. Changing BL2 or BL3-1 load addresses in certain ways can lead to loading errors, even if the images should theoretically fit in memory.
  • TF-A uses too much on-chip Trusted SRAM. Currently the Test Secure-EL1 Payload (BL3-2) executes in Trusted DRAM since there is not enough SRAM. A number of RAM usage enhancements have been identified to rectify this situation.
  • CPU idle does not work on the advertised version of the Foundation FVP. Some FVP fixes are required that are not available externally at the time of writing.
  • Various bugs in TF-A, UEFI and the Linux kernel have been observed when using Linaro toolchain versions later than 13.11. Although most of these have been fixed, some remain at the time of writing. These mainly seem to relate to a subtle change in the way the compiler converts between 64-bit and 32-bit values (e.g. during casting operations), which reveals previously hidden bugs in client code.
  • The tested filesystem used for this release (Linaro AArch64 OpenEmbedded 14.01) does not report progress correctly in the console. It only seems to produce error output, not standard output. It otherwise appears to function correctly. Other filesystem versions on the same software stack do not exhibit the problem.
  • The Makefile structure doesn't make it easy to separate out parts of the TF-A for re-use in platform ports, for example if only BL3-1 is required in a platform port. Also, dependency checking in the Makefile is flawed.
  • The firmware design documentation for the Test Secure-EL1 Payload (TSP) and its dispatcher (TSPD) is incomplete. Similarly for the PSCI section.

9.   Trusted Firmware-A - version 0.2

9.1.   New features

  • First source release.
  • Code for the PSCI suspend feature is supplied, although this is not enabled by default since there are known issues (see below).

9.2.   Issues resolved since last release

  • The "psci" nodes in the FDTs provided in this release now fully comply with the recommendations made in the PSCI specification.

9.3.   Known issues

The following is a list of issues which are expected to be fixed in the future releases of TF-A.

  • The TrustZone Address Space Controller (TZC-400) is not being programmed yet. Use of model parameter -C bp.secure_memory=1 is not supported.
  • No support yet for secure world interrupt handling or for switching context between secure and normal worlds in EL3.
  • GICv3 support is experimental. The Linux kernel patches to support this are not widely available. There are known issues with GICv3 initialization in TF-A.
  • Dynamic image loading is not available yet. The current image loader implementation (used to load BL2 and all subsequent images) has some limitations. Changing BL2 or BL3-1 load addresses in certain ways can lead to loading errors, even if the images should theoretically fit in memory.
  • Although support for PSCI CPU_SUSPEND is present, it is not yet stable and ready for use.
  • PSCI API calls AFFINITY_INFO & PSCI_VERSION are implemented but have not been tested.
  • The TF-A make files result in all build artifacts being placed in the root of the project. These should be placed in appropriate sub-directories.
  • The compilation of TF-A is not free from compilation warnings. Some of these warnings have not been investigated yet so they could mask real bugs.
  • TF-A currently uses toolchain/system include files like stdio.h. It should provide versions of these within the project to maintain compatibility between toolchains/systems.
  • The PSCI code takes some locks in an incorrect sequence. This may cause problems with suspend and hotplug in certain conditions.
  • The Linux kernel used in this release is based on version 3.12-rc4. Using this kernel with the TF-A fails to start the file-system as a RAM-disk. It fails to execute user-space init from the RAM-disk. As an alternative, the VirtioBlock mechanism can be used to provide a file-system to the kernel.

Copyright (c) 2013-2018, Arm Limited and Contributors. All rights reserved.