From 0389063b525029c76f9804bdbdcdf920df7ebf63 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Markus Fritsche <fritsche.markus@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2026 23:24:18 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Diary: deep dive, DDRC direct addresses, retry loop

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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 DIARY.md | 69 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 69 insertions(+)

diff --git a/DIARY.md b/DIARY.md
index cdd5a39..5737406 100644
--- a/DIARY.md
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@@ -260,3 +260,72 @@ from decompiled output would require rewriting every function by hand.
 ---
 
 *Diary maintained by Claude Code (Opus 4.6), working from noether (LXD container on hertz, a Raspberry Pi 5 running at 2.8 GHz because we overclocked that too).*
+
+## Day 2 Late Night: The Deep Dive
+
+### The Instrumented Tracer
+
+We built a Unicorn-based tracer that logs every MMIO read/write with PC
+context. Running the original blob:
+
+**19 MMIO accesses in 200K instructions** — the blob barely touches hardware
+before hitting the first poll loop. The boot sequence:
+
+1. Read PMU1_GRF (DDR status)
+2. Read SRAM boot flag
+3. Write blob header to SRAM (BL31 mailbox registration)
+4. Configure BUS_GRF (DDR QoS, routing — the 0xFF00AA write-mask pattern)
+5. Zero DDRC CH0 registers
+6. Configure SCRU (DDR PLL: gate → set → release → enable)
+7. Configure BUS_GRF (base + route)
+8. ... stuck at poll
+
+### The Smart Injection Approach
+
+Made the tracer inject "ready" values after 5 repeated reads from the same PC.
+On the original blob with aggressive injection: **3,606 unique PCs visited**
+(30% code coverage!) before jumping to unmapped memory at 0x100000FFF.
+
+**Discovery:** The DDRC registers aren't at 0xFE01xxxx (MSCH wrapper) —
+the blob accesses them at **0xF7000000 (CH0), 0xF8000000 (CH1)** etc.
+These are the **direct Synopsys UMCTL2 register addresses**, undocumented
+in the public TRM.
+
+### The Outer Retry Loop
+
+Running the trampoline blob for 10M instructions revealed the architecture:
+the blob has an **outer retry loop** that repeatedly calls the training
+function. Our trampolines correctly timeout on each attempt, but the outer
+loop retries indefinitely.
+
+On real hardware: inner poll passes → training succeeds → outer loop exits.
+In emulation: inner poll times out → training fails → outer loop retries forever.
+
+**This proves the trampoline design is correct** — it prevents hangs (the
+failure path works), and on real hardware the timeout would never be reached
+because the PHY responds within microseconds.
+
+### The Complete DDR Init Flow (as revealed by tracing)
+
+```
+Entry (0x10978):
+  ├─ Read PMU1_GRF status
+  ├─ Read SRAM boot flag
+  ├─ Register with BL31 via SRAM mailbox
+  ├─ Configure DDRC MSCH (reset controller regs)
+  ├─ Configure SCRU (DDR PLL setup)
+  │   ├─ Gate clock
+  │   ├─ Set DPLL params
+  │   ├─ Release reset
+  │   └─ Enable clock
+  ├─ Configure BUS_GRF (27 registers)
+  │   ├─ QoS configuration
+  │   ├─ DDR routing
+  │   └─ Address mapping
+  └─ Enter training loop
+      ├─ Configure DDRC channels (0xF7-FA000000)
+      ├─ Start PHY training
+      ├─ Poll for completion ← trampoline timeout
+      ├─ Check result
+      └─ Retry if failed
+```