AM263P devices come with an Octal SPI (OSPI) interface that replaces the Quad SPI (QSPI) interface from AM263 devices. With this new interface, it is possible to connect to both Octal and Quad-SPI flash memories. To connect to OSPI flash memory cells, the interface supports four additional data lines, an additional chip select, and the DQS pin that can be used as a data strobe or loopback clock input. It also includes two reset outputs for external SPI devices and an input for external ECC failure indication.

There is also a significant change in operation regarding data access. The AM263 QSPI interface uses a Serial Flash Interface (SFI) memory-mapped block to handle addressing and data access and this interface was limited to a maximum size of 8MB for external flash support. In comparison, the new AM263P OSPI peripheral does not use a memory-mapped interface block and instead handles direct and indirect data accesses through a data target interface. With this change, the upper limit on memory addresses has been increased to 128 MB.

Due to the differences in data accesses between these interfaces, they are not software compatible and any AM263-to-AM263P migration would require software updates for the QSPI/OSPI interface even if the AM263P OSPI bus is only used as a QSPI bus.

A high-level table of feature differences between these interfaces is provided below. For further details, see the device-specific Technical Reference Manuals.