LM3S308 Luminary Micro, Inc, LM3S308 Datasheet - Page 400

• Manufacturer Part Number: LM3S308
• Description: Lm3s308 Arm Microcontroller
• Manufacturer: Luminary Micro, Inc

Serial Flash Loader
A
A.1
A.2
A.2.1
A.2.2
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Serial Flash Loader
Serial Flash Loader
The Stellaris
to the flash memory of a device without the use of a debug interface. The serial flash loader uses
a simple packet interface to provide synchronous communication with the device. The flash loader
runs off the crystal and does not enable the PLL, so its speed is determined by the crystal used.
The two serial interfaces that can be used are the UART0 and SSI0 interfaces. For simplicity, both
the data format and communication protocol are identical for both serial interfaces.
Interfaces
Once communication with the flash loader is established via one of the serial interfaces, that interface
is used until the flash loader is reset or new code takes over. For example, once you start
communicating using the SSI port, communications with the flash loader via the UART are disabled
until the device is reset.
UART
The Universal Asynchronous Receivers/Transmitters (UART) communication uses a fixed serial
format of 8 bits of data, no parity, and 1 stop bit. The baud rate used for communication is
automatically detected by the flash loader and can be any valid baud rate supported by the host
and the device. The auto detection sequence requires that the baud rate should be no more than
1/32 the crystal frequency of the board that is running the serial flash loader. This is actually the
same as the hardware limitation for the maximum baud rate for any UART on a Stellaris
which is calculated as follows:
Max Baud Rate = System Clock Frequency / 16
In order to determine the baud rate, the serial flash loader needs to determine the relationship
between its own crystal frequency and the baud rate. This is enough information for the flash loader
to configure its UART to the same baud rate as the host. This automatic baud-rate detection allows
the host to use any valid baud rate that it wants to communicate with the device.
The method used to perform this automatic synchronization relies on the host sending the flash
loader two bytes that are both 0x55. This generates a series of pulses to the flash loader that it can
use to calculate the ratios needed to program the UART to match the host’s baud rate. After the
host sends the pattern, it attempts to read back one byte of data from the UART. The flash loader
returns the value of 0xCC to indicate successful detection of the baud rate. If this byte is not received
after at least twice the time required to transfer the two bytes, the host can resend another pattern
of 0x55, 0x55, and wait for the 0xCC byte again until the flash loader acknowledges that it has
received a synchronization pattern correctly. For example, the time to wait for data back from the
flash loader should be calculated as at least 2*(20(bits/sync)/baud rate (bits/sec)). For a baud rate
of 115200, this time is 2*(20/115200) or 0.35 ms.
SSI
The Synchronous Serial Interface (SSI) port also uses a fixed serial format for communications,
with the framing defined as Motorola format with SPH set to 1 and SPO set to 1. See “Frame
Formats” on page 297 in the SSI chapter for more information on formats for this transfer protocol.
Like the UART, this interface has hardware requirements that limit the maximum speed that the SSI
clock can run. This allows the SSI clock to be at most 1/12 the crystal frequency of the board running
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serial flash loader is a preprogrammed flash-resident utility used to download code
Preliminary
June 04, 2008
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device