JTAG FLASH, CPLD and FPGA Programming

The XJTAG JTAG Flash and Device Programmer included in XJEASE, lets you quickly and easily perform JTAG FLASH Programming operations on your hardware, allowing you to configure your in-circuit JTAG Test unit to program erase and verify Flash devices.

The Flash commands and scripts let you create a user defined list of Flash and target operations that you can execute on demand. For additional flexibility, you can call your scripts from the provided XJRUNNER application or from a user created GUI interface. The COM Interface available for XJEase lets you call your tests from test executives such as LabVIEW, Visual Basic, and other Windows-based custom applications.

The XJTAG website has a range of Flash device files for you to download, which include functions to program the Flash with any image. These files simply use the programming algorithms from the device datasheets, as for any other non-JTAG device test in XJEase. There’s no need to list the connections between the Flash and your JTAG devices — XJEase uses your netlist to automatically work this out. The underlying XJEase system then generates the required vectors to program your Flash.

JTAG Device Programming

Many JTAG devices, such as CPLDs and FPGAs, can be programmed directly using STAPL / JAM or SVF files. These files can be generated by the manufacturer’s toolkit used to create the programs for the devices. STAPL /JAM and SVF files can be used to program devices as a standalone process. Alternatively, this can easily be integrated into the rest of the test system using a single line of code in XJEase.

Flash operations are controlled by two files:

Flash Configuration File - defines; erase, program, verify and target operations to be performed along with a description of he flash devices(address, size, type).

Configuration (.def) File - sets up your target environment(like chip selects and memory access size ) to allow access to your flash devices.

Before performing flash operations, modify your initialization to allow access to your target’s flash devices and to configure a target workspace (RAM) for Flash operations. For information on setting up your configuration, please refer to your manual.

Multiple Operations and Devices

Within the defined workspace, supports multiple user-defined Sections. A Section is a description of the Flash operation which includes the following:

Section Parameter

Description

Device

Device to be programmed

Algorithm

Programming method

Size

Storage capacity (in bytes) of one device

Bit-width

Target memory bus width

Address

Physical address of selected device or sector

Image file

File containing memory image

Load address/offset

Address at which memory image is programmed

File format

Format of Image file

Erase Mode

Specifies which part of device is affected by selected operation

Unlock/Erase Sector Size

Size of device sectors

Unlock/Erase Sector Count

Number of sectors

Optional Commands and Macros

Optional macros and commands, emulator commands, GDB commands

Once the Sections are defined, you can use flash operations to specify the type and sequence of operations.

Flash Configuration Window

To display the Flash Configuration window, select Display Flash configuration from the Flash menu. displays the following window.

As indicated above, the Flash Configuration window enables you to:

Load and save Flash configurations

Create and delete sections

Erase, program and verify flash devices

When you initially bring up the Flash Configuration window, it displays the Workspace address and whether the workspace is enabled. This information comes from the emulator configuration file’s Flash section. The Workspace address is the base address of a section RAM that you dedicate for Flash operations. Workspace Enable indicates whether that space is enabled for these operations. If the address is 0xFFFFFFFF and the Workspace Enable value is False, no target RAM is used for Flash operations. Using RAM for Flash operations generally speeds the process of these operations. If valid RAM is not available at the address defined in your configuration file, all operations will fail.

Additionally, displays the timeout setting from the emulator configuration file. This setting defines the amount of time the emulator waits before returning from a failed operation with an error. This setting may be modified in the Flash Configuration window by double-clicking the current entry and typing the new value in the dialog box that appears.

Creating Sections

To illustrate how to create and use sections, let us assume that we want to use two methods to erase our Flash device. First, we need an operation that erases the entire device and second, we need an operation that erases the first sector of the device. To accomplish this we define two Sections:

A Section named "Erase All" that is responsible for erasing the entire Flash device starting at address 0xFFC00000.

A Section named "Erase First Sector" that erases the first sector of the device starting at address 0xFFC00000.

To create the Sections:

Click the Add new section button in the Flash Configuration window.

Type Section name in the Create New Flash Section dialog and click OK.

Note the display of the framework for Section settings in the Flash Configuration window.

Point to Device, click the RMB and select the geometry of the target’s Flash device. A list of supported devices appears. Find the device and double-click. For our example, let us select the 16-bit device, AM29DL162CB.

Note that the Device and other settings are changed. The Algorithm, Size and Bit-width setting now reflect the default settings for the device selected. Typically, there is no need to change these settings. To do so, point to the setting, click the RMB and select the menu item that provides the desired setting. If you know the algorithm for your device, you can skip the Device setting and select the proper algorithm from the Algorithm RMB menu. If the device algorithm is selected in this way, the device size setting must be set. To set the Size setting, point to the setting, click the RMB and select the proper size from the menu.

Double-click the Flash Address setting and enter the physical base address of the selected device in the Flash Address dialog and click OK. For the example, we enter 0xFFC00000.

Point to the Erase Mode setting and click the RMB. Select the desired erase mode and click. For our example, let us select Erase chip mode.

For sector-based Flash device, you can define the sector size that you want to unlock for erase operations. To select a sector size point to Unlock/Erase Sector Size: in the Flash configuration window and click the RMB. From the RMB menu that appears, select the desired sector size. The picture below illustrates selection of a 64KB sector size.

For sector-based Flash devices, you may select the number of sectors for an erase operation. To edit the sector count, point to Unlock/Erase Sector Count: and click the RMB. Type the desired number of sectors in the dialog that appears and click OK.

Image File, Load Address/Offset and File Format settings apply to Program and Verify operations. Since this section is concerned with the Erase operation, we can ignore them for now. A section can be defined and used for any combination of Flash operations.

The optional Commands and Macros fields specify , GDB or emulator commands and macros that you want to run before or after a Flash operation. Commands and macros are useful to initialize your system for proper programming and erase operations. They can also be used after flash operations to lock Flash, reset the target system or other application specific tasks.

To create the second example, we repeat the above steps with the following changes:

Name the Section “Erase First Sector”

Select Erase Mode

The Erase sections are now ready for use. If we want to erase a Flash device, click on the Erase flash button in the Flash Configuration window. The following dialog appears:

The Select Flash Dialog lists the available sections in the current Flash Configuration. To select an operation, click the Add button. Click OK to dismiss dialog and begin operation. A progress dialog is displayed while the Flash operation – in this case an erase – proceeds.

Program and Verify operations

To create a section that supports Flash program and/or verify operation the process described above would be repeated. However, to support these operations, the Image File, Load Address/Offset and File Format settings require entries. For example, to modify the Section Erase All to support program and verify operations:

Double-click the Image File setting and browse your host or network file system to locate and select the image you want program or verify.

Double-click the Address/Offset setting and enter the address (in hex) in the selected Flash memory device where the image will be written. NOTE: For binary download format, this number is an absolute address. For all other formats, the number represents an offset from the physical device address.

Point to the File Format setting and click the RMB. Select from the menu the format of the selected image file.

For our example, let us add the file test.elf to the Section Erase All. The Section definition now looks like this:

The Section Erase All is now configured to support all Flash operations. The process of defining a Flash Configuration section essentially describes the action that takes place when program, erase and verify operations are initiated from the Flash Configuration window buttons or Flash menu. The following table summarizes the flash operations.

Creating a Flash Configuration File

Once all necessary sections have been defined, the complete configuration can be saved in a file. Simply click the file save button in the Flash Configuration window. Once saved, the configuration can be restored using the Flash Configuration window’s file open button The combination of multiple sections per configuration file and the ability to create and save multiple files, provides tremendous flexibility in controlling your Flash devices.