Kontron VM162 - Manual (Page 97)

Appendix Bootstrap Loader
4
Juli 23, 1997 Page BOOT- 5 © PEP Modular Computers
None of the above characters indicate an error. The first sector (which includes Reset SP / PC) and the last sector (which
includes the Bootstrap Loader itself) are protected. These sectors are not immediately programmed like the other sectors.
The contents of these protected sectors are buffered in RAM and programmed at the end of the operation. This is done to
limit the time the Bootstrap Loader itself is not in FLASH or not startable, because if the Bootstrap Loader crashes during
this critical period of time, it will not start again afterwards.
WARNING
When programming FLASH memory, *NEVER* press the RESET button or cycle power! This may da-
mage the Bootstrap Loader and will consequently leave the board unusable due to damaged FLASH
contents. The ABORT button may be used to cancel a running operation.
‘- q’ suppresses all messages and warnings except error messages.
Programming over the term port is also supported, but in this case the loader programs in the background by default and
the propagation of the process cannot be monitored.
It is recommended that by default the programming over the ser0 port should be used.
If the process must be aborted, press the ABORT button and try again.
3.3 Programming from an Absolute Address
The second possibility to program FLASH memory is to program it from an absolute address. The image to program must
be located in a visible address range, for example on the VMEbus. A memory card with battery-backup, FLASH or
EPROM can be used to hold the image to program. If we assume that the image is located at 0x87000000 and is 0x123456
bytes large we must type the following at the command prompt of the Bootstrap Loader:
lf -m=87000000 -l=123456
The characters which are displayed now have the same meaning as if we are programming from S-records, but the time
needed for each step to complete may be longer because the loader tries to program with the largest possible block size that
it can manage.
Again, '-c' can be used to clear untouched sectors.
Background operation is not supported and it is also not possible to specify an offset.
The programming cannot be aborted with ABORT.