Abstract

In automotive Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), system reliability is critical — especially during the boot process. This application note presents a method for achieving redundant boot functionality using a single eMMC device on TI TDA4x Jacinto devices. The system uses embedded MultiMediaCard (eMMC) boot mode as primary and MultiMediaCard/Secure Disk (MMC/SD) boot mode as backup. Both paths share the same eMMC hardware without requiring physical boot mode changes or additional memory devices.

The proposed design makes sure that the system can recover and boot successfully even if the primary boot images are corrupted — for example, due to unexpected power loss during an update. This is accomplished by carefully organizing bootloader images, leveraging different boot modes, and preparing distinct boot paths within the same device. Validation is demonstrated by deliberately corrupting the primary image and observing the automatic fallback to the backup boot path. This approach offers a reliable, cost-effective, and maintenance-friendly redundant boot design for ADAS applications, providing system robustness and availability in real-world automotive environments.