aspeed-mcu-runtime

Firmware applications for ASPEED MCU cores.

Part of the Kyanite stack.

Status: experimental — expect breaking changes.

System architecture

ASPEED BMC SoCs contain multiple processor cores spanning three ISAs and four runtime environments, all sharing aspeed-rs (HAL) → aspeed-data (PAC):

ISA	Cores	Runtime	Language
ARMv7-A / ARMv8-A	AP (Cortex-A7, A35)	TamaGo bare-metal	Go
ARMv7-M / ARMv7E-M	RoT + Coprocessor (Cortex-M3, M4F)	Embassy-rs async	Rust
RV32IMC	AST2700 BootMCU (ibex)	Embassy-rs async	Rust
ColdFire V1 (M68K)	AST2400/2500 coprocessor	async.h protothreads	C

Structure

aspeed-mcu-runtime/
├── app-rot/                    Root of Trust firmware
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── lib.rs              PFR core, protocols, crypto, manifests
│   │   ├── pfr/                NIST SP 800-193 state machine
│   │   ├── protocol/           MCTP, SPDM, Cerberus, PLDM
│   │   ├── crypto/             HACE / Caliptra crypto service
│   │   ├── manifest/           PFM, CFM, PCD management
│   │   ├── flash/              SPI flash + A/B image management
│   │   ├── provision/          MCTP-based provisioning
│   │   ├── event_log/          Hash-chained attestation log
│   │   ├── platform/           Intel / AMD / generic PFR
│   │   └── bin/                firmware entries + diagnostics
│   └── Cargo.toml
├── app-coprocessor/
│   ├── ssp/                    Coprocessor firmware (Embassy Rust)
│   │   ├── src/
│   │   │   ├── lib.rs          sensor DAQ, fan control, IPC, protocols
│   │   │   ├── sensor/         Sensor polling + data model
│   │   │   ├── fan_control/    PID / thermal table per zone
│   │   │   ├── mailbox/        HW mailbox IPC (AP ↔ coprocessor)
│   │   │   ├── protocol/       MCTP, PLDM Type 2, SPDM
│   │   │   ├── board_config/   Per-board sensor tables
│   │   │   └── bin/            firmware entries + diagnostics
│   │   └── Cargo.toml
│   └── coldfire/               ColdFire V1 C SDK (AST2400/AST2500)
│       ├── include/            HAL + PAC headers
│       ├── src/                HAL drivers + async runtime
│       └── Makefile
└── tools/
    ├── ast1060-load/           UART boot loader (Go)
    ├── aspeed-uart-load/       AST10x0/AST2700 UART loader (Go)
    └── imgtools/               Flash/UART/AST2700 image tools (Go)

Supported SoCs

Root of Trust (app-rot)

SoC	CPU	ISA	Role	Feature	Status
AST1060	Cortex-M4F 200MHz	ARMv7E-M	PFR processor	ast1060	HW verified
AST1080	Cortex-M4F 400MHz	ARMv7E-M	Hardened RoT (Caliptra, PUF, anti-tamper)	ast1080	Stub
AST1040	Cortex-M4F 400MHz	ARMv7E-M	BIC / BMC (Caliptra, eSPI, USB)	ast1040	Stub
AST2700 BootMCU	ibex RV32IMC 400MHz	RISC-V	Secure boot MCU (Caliptra lifecycle)	ast2700-bootmcu	HW verified

Coprocessor — Embassy Rust (app-coprocessor/ssp)

SoC	CPU	ISA	Role	Feature	Status
AST2600 SSP	Cortex-M3 200MHz	ARMv7-M	Sensor/fan/IPC	ast2600-ssp	Compiles
AST2700 SSP	Cortex-M4 400MHz	ARMv7E-M	Sensor/fan/IPC (I3C)	ast2700-ssp	Stub
AST2700 TSP	Cortex-M4 400MHz	ARMv7E-M	CAN/LTPI/PSU	ast2700-tsp	Stub

Coprocessor — C (app-coprocessor/coldfire)

SoC	CPU	ISA	Role	Status
AST2400	ColdFire V1	M68K ISA_A+C	Sensor/fan/IPC	Complete (24/24 tests)
AST2500	ColdFire V1	M68K ISA_A+C	Sensor/fan/IPC	Complete (24/24 tests)

Dependencies

Repo	Role	Used by
aspeed-rs	Embassy HAL	app-rot, app-ssp
aspeed-data	PAC + generated headers	transitive (Rust + C)
tamago	TamaGo fork — AST SoC/board packages for CA35 bare-metal Go	CA35 payload
aspeed-go	Go MMIO primitives and HAL library consumed by TamaGo	transitive (Go)

Build

# Full CI (RoT + SSP + ColdFire + QEMU test)
dagger call ci --aspeed-rs ../aspeed-rs --aspeed-data ../aspeed-data

# Individual steps
dagger call check-rot --aspeed-rs ../aspeed-rs --aspeed-data ../aspeed-data
dagger call check-ssp --aspeed-rs ../aspeed-rs --aspeed-data ../aspeed-data
dagger call check-coldfire
dagger call qemu-test --aspeed-rs ../aspeed-rs --aspeed-data ../aspeed-data

AST2700 full flash image with NATS CA35 payload

The hardware-test image is built through Dagger using StageX containers. It builds:

• AST2700 BootMCU firmware from app-rot
• CA35 payload from ../cmd/nats
• AST2700 flash image using tools/imgtools

Default build, without SSP/TSP payloads:

dagger call build-ast-2700-image \
    --aspeed-rs ../aspeed-rs \
    --aspeed-data ../aspeed-data \
    --tamago ../tamago \
    --tamago-go ../../tamago/tamago-go \
    --cmd-nats ../cmd/nats \
    --aspeed-go ../aspeed-go \
    --lneto ../lneto \
    --nats-server ../nats-server \
    --scree ../scree \
    --bmc-pb ../bmc-pb/ast2700a1 \
    export --path ./out

Useful flags:

# Output image size/name and CA35 link layout.
--image-size 32M
--output-name ast2700_bootmcu_nats.bin
--ca35-link-address 0x404000000
--ca35-reserve 0x1000
--go-build-tags linkcpuinit,ast2700dcscm

# Optional M4 coprocessor payloads from bmc-pb.
--include-ssp=true
--include-tsp=true

The resulting flash image is exported under ./out/.

For local development without Dagger, the image stitcher is:

cd tools/imgtools
GOWORK=off go run . spi-image --help

Flashing (AST1060 UART boot)

cd app-rot
cargo build --bin rot_ast1060 --features ast1060 \
    --target thumbv7em-none-eabihf --release
rust-objcopy --strip-all -O binary \
    target/thumbv7em-none-eabihf/release/rot_ast1060 /tmp/rot_ast1060.bin
GOWORK=off go run ../tools/imgtools uart-image \
    --input /tmp/rot_ast1060.bin --output /tmp/rot_ast1060_uart.bin
../tools/ast1060-load/ast1060-load \
    -port /dev/ttyUSB0 -wait 30s -monitor /tmp/rot_ast1060_uart.bin

Contributing

See the org-wide CONTRIBUTING guide. Contributions are dual-licensed.

Security

See the org-wide SECURITY policy.

License

Dual-licensed under either of Apache-2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE) or MIT (LICENSE-MIT) at your option.