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Versatility: U-Boot is designed to be versatile and can be adapted to various architectures, including ARM, MIPS, x86, and more.
Open Source: U-Boot is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), providing users with the freedom to view, modify, and distribute the source code.
Boot Sequence Control: U-Boot handles the initialization and configuration of the hardware during the boot process. It allows users to interact with the bootloader through a command-line interface, enabling them to control the boot sequence, load kernel images, and set various parameters.
Support for Various Storage Devices: U-Boot supports loading firmware and kernel images from a variety of storage devices, including NAND and NOR flash memory, SD cards, USB storage, TFTP servers, and more.
Environment Variables: U-Boot allows the configuration of environment variables that store important settings, such as boot parameters and memory addresses.
Network Booting: U-Boot supports network booting, allowing systems to load kernel images and other files over the network using protocols like TFTP or NFS.
Development and Debugging Tools: U-Boot includes tools for debugging and development, such as memory and register inspection, script execution.
Features of U-Boot of SP7350 platform
U-Boot serves as the second-stage bootloader in SP7350 platform. After initializing itself, U-Boot then loads Linux kernel image from external storage devices into DRAM and executes it. As it runs in DRAM, its size is no longer limited by SRAM of SP7350 (only limited by the system's DRAM size), ranging from hundreds of kilobytes to several megabytes.
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