AM335x SPI memory flashing

cha mo

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: AM3359, SYSBIOS, UNIFLASH

Hi everyone,

We made custom boards using AM3359 processor with SPI flash memory.
Currently we use Code Composer to flash our application, but it's slow and has many steps.
Is there anyway to speed up when flashing many boards.

Thanks.

over 9 years ago

0 Biser Gatchev-XID over 9 years ago

TI__Guru**** 393215 points

Hi,

What software do you want to flash - Linux or something else?

0 cha mo over 9 years ago in reply to Biser Gatchev-XID

Prodigy 50 points

Hi,

Any software on Windows or Linux is welcome. We just want to flash our application to the custom boards as fast as possible.

Thanks.

0 Biser Gatchev-XID over 9 years ago in reply to cha mo

TI__Guru**** 393215 points

I am asking what is the software you want to flash, not what software you use on the host PC.

0 cha mo over 9 years ago in reply to Biser Gatchev-XID

Prodigy 50 points

Hi,

We want to flash our application binary image (.bin) file.

We're using the following procedure and binary files to flash.

Procedure: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/AM335X_StarterWare_Booting_And_Flashing#Flashing_bootloader_and_application_to_SPI_Flash

Flashing tool: \ti\am335x_sysbios_ind_sdk_01.01.01.01\tools\flashing_tools\SPI_Flash\pre_built\CCS_based\isdk_spi_flasher.out

Software (binary) to flash: \am335x_sysbios_ind_sdk_prebuilt_01_01_01_01\am335x_sysbios_ind_sdk_prebuilt_01_01_01_01\applications\ethercat\SPI\ethercat_SPI.bin

Thanks.

0 Biser Gatchev-XID over 9 years ago in reply to cha mo

TI__Guru**** 393215 points

I will ask the ISDK team to look at this. They will respond here.

0 Rahul Prabhu over 9 years ago

TI__Guru** 116950 points

Cha Mo,

Currently the CCS based flasher is the only tool available to flash the ISDK binaries to the AM3359 based boards.

There is a Ethernet and USB based flashing tool called Uniflash that allows users to flash SPL and U-boot images to AM3359 EVMs but this doesn`t support the ISDK usecase and RTOS/Starterware based SBL and has not been validated on ICE/IDK boards.

There is an internal discussion to support this tool for this usecase but there will not be a solution available for this functionality in the short term.

Regards,

Rahul

0 cha mo over 9 years ago in reply to Rahul Prabhu

Prodigy 50 points

Hi Rahul,

In technical term, is there any difference to prevent you all from not supporting in those specific cases you mentioned. Can you please explain more ?

Thanks.

0 Rahul Prabhu over 9 years ago in reply to cha mo

TI__Guru** 116950 points

Cha mo,

From my understanding there are 2 issues that need some design changes/validation to the tool to support. Let me try to explain.

In Linux boot the image consists of a initial boot image MLO and u-boot secondary bootloader that loads the kernel while RTOS/Starterware uses an SBL and app to boot the application. The uniflash tool currently loads the MLO to the base of the flash and the u-boot image to a certain pre-fixed offset on the flash. This prefixed offset is different from the offset at which the SBL locates the app in case of starterware/RTOS SDK. For RTOS use case the SBL needs to be flashed at base of the flash(similar to MLO) but app needs to be flashed at an offset that is hard coded in the SBL source. The offset is a configurable option in the tool in its current form.

The other difference is that the general purpose EVM and the ICE boards may have differences in terms of flash memory that the Uniflash tool may not be designed for so there is some effort to add support for those flash devices/interfaces and validate that to support that hardware.

Regards,

Rahul

0 cha mo over 9 years ago in reply to Rahul Prabhu

Prodigy 50 points

Hi Rahul,

Thanks for your explanation.

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AM335x SPI memory flashing