TMS570, IAR Workbench, running F021 from RAM

Balázs,

For this specific question, I will suggest to contact IAR directly and ask them to "translate" the CCS linker command file to their environment.

Dear Jean-Marc,

I have managed to load the F021 objects to RAM, and they run from there, but this doesn't solve my problem. I still cannot operate in Flash Bank0. There must be a different problem here.
As I mentioned before, my bootloader is running from Bank0, and after finishing its task, it jumps to the main program in Bank1. All the main program code is located in Bank1, so I think I should be able to do flash operations on Bank0 at this point. But the registers tell me that Bank0 is locked.
Do you have any idea what is the problem here?

Thank you for answer,
Balázs

Dear Balázs,

than you must change vetor table offset and after you can jump to the reset handler of application.
infocenter.arm.com/.../index.jsp

Regards
Riccardo Capponi

Dear Riccardo,

I apologize for not answering for this long time. I had some other things to do.

The general idea is good, thank you. I did the Flash api library replacement just like you said.

But the vector table offset change: I don't think I can do it by setting the vector table offset bit. Because on TMS570, there are some Power Management Module registers mapped to 0xFFFF0000, so the vector table cannot be placed there, right?

Do you think there are some other ways to relocate the vector table from Bank0?

At this point I'm 95% sure that the reason why I cannot operate on Flash Bank0 is the vector table being there. (Please let me know if I'm mistaken in this.) I know it cannot be directly copied to RAM, because there is a linker protection on it. This article shows how to replace it, and gives examples on two different processors:

www.iar.com/.../

According to this, the basic steps are:
1) Make a second vector table which holds the elements of the original vector table. (Since we are unable to move the original vector table directly.)
Fill the original vector table with dummy handlers.
2) Add linker script that copies the second vector table to RAM
3) At startup, remap memory to new vector table. (Find that part of the startup code where the vector table address is set, and modify it.)

The first two steps can be done easily.
The 3rd step is not clear for me how it could be done on TMS570. I don't find such part in my startup code.

Also I'm not sure that this would solve the original problem, unlocking the Flash protection. Because the vector table is still there, even if its vectors don't run from there. What is your opinion on this?

Thanks,
Balázs

Dear Balázs,

in Cortex-R5 you can remap the vector table in range 0xFFFF0000-0xFFFF001C by setting the bit V in C1, you can find information in the follow links:

Kind Regards

Riccardo Capponi

Dear Riccardo,

There are some Power Control Module Registers on 0xFFFF0000, as I mentioned before. I cannot place the vector table at this location.
Let me show you this screenshot of the debugger that I just made right now. There is my assembly routine to set the Vector Table Offset, and it works. But when the software jumps to this area it stops working, because you can see on the screenshot there are registers of the TMS570 there.
Do you have any other suggestions?

www.dropbox.com/.../0xffff.png

Anyway, TMS570 controller has a Cortex R4F core, not an R5, but it doesn't make much difference in this case.

Thank you for patience,
Balázs

So the main question is still this:
Is there any way to do operations on the FlashBank0 area by F021 on this controller? Or is this always locked since the code starts running from 0x00000000?

Hi,

You can find all information on:

www.ti.com/.../litabsmultiplefilelist.tsp

Kind Regards
Riccardo Capponi

Hi,

Thanks for the example code.
If I get it right, only one of the three bootloaders in this (the SPI bootloader) makes it possible to update the bootloader itself. The two others are not capable of that.
In your opinion, what are the factors that make the flash stay unlocked, so the bootloader area can be updated?

Thanks,
Balázs

Hi All,

I have done the changes in the linker script for IAR Workbench IDE, but still i am not able to write to bank0 sector 7 location.
does any one can share the IAR sample project to use F021 API Library for bootloader.

Thanks,
Hardik Shah

Hi All,

I have done the changes in the linker script for IAR Workbench IDE, but still i am not able to write to bank0 sector 7 location.
does any one can share the IAR sample project to use F021 API Library for bootloader.

Thanks,
Hardik Shah