TMS320F28035: FW upgrade through OTA

Hello

1. No, there is no specific document on that.
We have our general serial flash programming doc: www.ti.com/.../sprabv4b.pdf
Additionally Uniflash can program more than one image but might not be applicable for your use case of OTA update.

2. I'm not clear on what you are describing. Maybe a flow chart would help. I've seen solutions that use a single flash entry point with code located there to determine where the newest application was installed.

3. Are talking about the HEX format? Refer to the serial flash programming section 3.1 about generating that.

Best regards
Chris

OTA FW Update Flowchart.pdfHi Chris,

Sorry for not providing sufficient information.

2. Please find in the attachment, high level flow chart of FW update implementation idea. Our idea is also to implement with single flash entry point where it always enters custom bootloader and from there it jumps to recent image address location. Please suggest if there is any other method to implement it.

3. Not hex format because the addresses are fixed(absolute addresses as per the linker file) in hex file. But in our case address where the image need to be stored changes every time we do FW update. It depends on which image is running at present and which is spare image. i.e it could be at either image-1 or image-2.

4. How this can be achieved? As per my understanding, we should generate a relocatable file with offset addresses and to be used to receive through serial port and store it in flash(image-1 or image-2) based on the offset address in the file. If this is correct, in which format we need to generate the file which need to be programmed through application FW? We need to copy the data section wise, like .text, .data etc or receive byte by byte and store as per the offset address?

Also do we need to use two linker files for two images.

5. I have gone through flash_kernel example code in which only one image is written(using serial flash programmer application) and the .b00 binary file is used. But when I see .b00 file it also has addresses fixed.

Please help.

Thanks,

Hari Priya

Hari

Thank you for the additional information! Let me review and think on this, then I'll get back to you tomorrow.

Best regards
Chris

Hari

2. I agree with that method
3, 4, 5. I'm not familiar with generating a relocatable file.
From the following post, I'm not sure it is really feasible with what the C2000 compiler provides.
e2e.ti.com/.../342657

Our ROM bootloaders (if you use it or build your own based on it) use the HEX format. This generated using the C2000 HEX Utility.
In your bootloader, you may (as I haven't done it), be able to identify the memory destination addresses and modify the locations that code gets copied to. So you generate your static images and then use your bootloader to adjust the destination memory location.

Yes, you'll need two linkers for two seperate images going to different memories.

Best regards
Chris

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your inputs.

1. So with your inputs I want to implement in my code to read binary file(.b00), parse it and store 2nd image section wise @ another flash address(need to see if .b00 file is section wise divided with related addresses). Is it possible with reading binary file?

2. Suppose say I have implemented loader functionality as said above and copied 2nd image from another memory location, doing SW reset and jump to second image from bootloader runs 2nd image? If so why 2 linker files are needed in this case? And how to switch between linker files at run time?

Thanks,
Hari Priya