Tightly Coupled Memory

Overview

Tightly Coupled Memory (TCM) is a low-latency memory architecture integrated into the ARM Cortex-R82 that provides single-cycle access for the CPU. In NVMe controller firmware it simplifies data structures and CPU code/data sharing and accelerates command fetch for operations such as ACT command fetch, filling, submit, and polling. ScaleFlux leveraged TCM in its Cortex-R82-based Gen 6 SoC (FC6116) to make firmware simpler and faster, using it to meet OCP Storage specification requirements — specifically latency monitoring — and to enable the FDP-enable bit in IO write commands, both critical for Gen 6 NVMe controller compliance. The fast, low-latency ports let the controller hit these demands without a process-node change.