I just got back from an extended stay in Asia and while I was there was introduced to a nifty little device for SPI flash chips. When the mfgs all switch to SPI it may actually be much easier to deal with non-socket flashes.
http://www.dediprog.com/product.php?UID=12
$275 US gets you a programmer + the hardware to hook it up to your board.
The way it works is by asserting the HOLD pin on the SPI flash which almost all SPI flash parts have. So the flash thats soldered on board is suspended and you boot from the one in the adapter.
The only requirement is to have the HOLD pin pulled up via a resistor rather than tied directly to the SPI part's Vcc. Even if it is tied directly to Vcc working around it would only involve cutting a single trace or lifting the HOLD pin.
Richard Smith wrote:
I just got back from an extended stay in Asia and while I was there was introduced to a nifty little device for SPI flash chips. When the mfgs all switch to SPI it may actually be much easier to deal with non-socket flashes.
http://www.dediprog.com/product.php?UID=12
$275 US gets you a programmer + the hardware to hook it up to your board.
The way it works is by asserting the HOLD pin on the SPI flash which almost all SPI flash parts have. So the flash thats soldered on board is suspended and you boot from the one in the adapter.
The only requirement is to have the HOLD pin pulled up via a resistor rather than tied directly to the SPI part's Vcc. Even if it is tied directly to Vcc working around it would only involve cutting a single trace or lifting the HOLD pin.
This is what I started working on with the PLAICE project http://flash-plaice.wikispaces.com. Looks like about the same features only we add a logic analyzer to the mix for under $200.
-Bari
Bari Ari wrote:
This is what I started working on with the PLAICE project http://flash-plaice.wikispaces.com. Looks like about the same features only we add a logic analyzer to the mix for under $200.
Cool. If I buy one is it ready or do you still have stuff to finish?
Richard Smith wrote:
Bari Ari wrote:
This is what I started working on with the PLAICE project http://flash-plaice.wikispaces.com. Looks like about the same features only we add a logic analyzer to the mix for under $200.
Cool. If I buy one is it ready or do you still have stuff to finish?
The dev boards are available from Xilinx.
We have an experimental version of the logic analyzer that needs to be expanded to use the DDR.
The Java client currently only supports the logic analyzer.
uClinux is up and running on the MicroBlaze with support for the serial port and Ethernet. The MicroBlaze needs to tied to the logic analyzer and some apps and VHDL need to be written to support memory emulation and FlashROM.
-Bari
Bari Ari wrote:
The Java client currently only supports the logic analyzer.
uClinux is up and running on the MicroBlaze with support for the serial port and Ethernet. The MicroBlaze needs to tied to the logic analyzer and some apps and VHDL need to be written to support memory emulation and FlashROM.
Whats your time frame for the SPI stuff? I'd love to use it, especially since it would be fully supported under Linux. But I sort of need the functionality now. I could probably write some code (C though, not java) to deal with the SPI programming but I don't have much VHDL experience and coming up to speed on VHDL is a bit outside my time frame.
Richard Smith wrote:
Whats your time frame for the SPI stuff? I'd love to use it, especially since it would be fully supported under Linux. But I sort of need the functionality now. I could probably write some code (C though, not java) to deal with the SPI programming but I don't have much VHDL experience and coming up to speed on VHDL is a bit outside my time frame.
The PLAICE wiki got Slashdotted earlier today: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/01/0017244
The SPI bus analyzer is working. SPI Flash programming and FLASH emulation hasn't been started yet. The logic analyzer currently runs without the need of the MicroBlaze cpu. I was considering porting the programming routines from Flashrom to the PLAICE.
We are getting lots of requests from developers to join the project. It's probably a few weeks away from being ready.
-Bari
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Bari Ari -
Richard Smith