Program External Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) NOR Flash Memory (serialflash)

The serialflash applet initializes the SPIx or Flexible Serial Communications Controller (FLEXCOMx_SPI) controller and can perform read, write, erase, and verify functions on external SPI NOR Flash memory.

The serialflash applet applies to the following devices. Documentation is available in the ../sam-ba/doc/ directory.

Additional documentation is located in the ../doc/serialflash.html document directory.

serialflash Command Structure

The serialflash applet has the following command structure:

Initialize Controller

Initialization of the serialflash applet has the following command structure:

A list of parameters to initialize the serialflash applet can be displayed with the following command (using the SAMA5D2 Series device as an example):

Syntax: serialflash:[<instance>]:[<ioset>]:[<npcs>]:[<frequency>]
Parameters:
    instance   SPI controller instance
    ioset      I/O set
    npcs       SPI chip select number
    frequency  SPI clock frequency in MHz
Examples:
    serialflash           use default board settings
    serialflash:0:1:0:66  use fully custom settings (SPI0, IOSET1, NPCS0, 66MHz)
    serialflash::::20     use default board settings but force frequency to 20MHz

A list of parameters is located in the ../doc/serialflash.html document directory.

Supported Commands

A list of commands supported by serialflash can be displayed with the following command:

read Command

The read command reads data from external SPI NOR Flash memory into a binary file.

* read - read from memory to a file
Syntax:
    read:<filename>:[<addr>]:[<length>]
Examples:
    read:firmware.bin              read all to firmware.bin
    read:firmware.bin:0x1000       read from 0x1000 to end into firmware.bin
    read:firmware.bin:0x1000:1024  read 1024 bytes from 0x1000 into firmware.bin
    read:firmware.bin::1024        read 1024 bytes from start of memory into firmware.bin

erase Command

The erase command erases (resets to 0xFF) a range of erase blocks in the external SPI NOR Flash memory. The size of the erase block depends on the target device (manufacturer and part number).

* erase - erase all or part of the memory
Syntax:
    erase:[<addr>]:[<length>]
Examples:
    erase                 erase all
    erase:4096            erase from 4096 to end
    erase:0x1000:0x10000  erase from 0x1000 to 0x11000
    erase::0x1000         erase from 0 to 0x1000

write and writeboot Command

The write and writeboot commands write data from a binary file into external SPI NOR Flash memory pages.

Padding bytes are added to align programmed data to the page boundary.

* write - write to memory from a file
Syntax:
    write:<filename>:[<addr>]
Examples:
    write:bootstrap.bin         write bootstrap.bin to start of memory
    write:u-boot.bin:0x10000    write u-boot.bin at offset 0x10000

The writeboot command should only be used when programming a bootstrap file into an external SPI NOR Flash memory boot partition.

The writeboot command modifies the relevant unused ARM exception vector to store the size of the bootstrap binary, as required by the ROM Boot code during the boot process.

Syntax:
    writeboot:<filename>
Example:
    writeboot:bootstrap.bin     write bootstrap.bin as boot program at start of memory

verify and verifyboot Command

The verify and verifyboot commands compare the data written into external SPI NOR Flash memory with the contents of a binary file.

* verify - verify memory from a file
Syntax:
    verify:<filename>:[<addr>]
Examples:
    verify:firmware.bin         verify that start of memory matches firmware.bin
    verify:firmware.bin:0x1000  verify that memory at offset 0x1000 matches firmware.bin

The verifyboot command ignores the relevant unused ARM exception vector in the binary file.

* verifyboot - verify boot program from a file
Syntax:
    verifyboot:<filename>
Example:
    verifyboot:bootstrap.bin    verify that start of memory matches boot program bootstrap.bin