Accessing the flash, Upgrading application fw, Direct flash addressing – ThingMagic M5e-Compact User Manual

Page 46

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Flash Memory

46

Functionality of the Embedded Modules

Flash Memory Sector Mapping

Accessing the Flash

The flash is accessed only through the boot loader program. Flash is not accessible while
the application FW is running.

All accesses to flash are in terms of two-byte word addresses and word lengths. Thus,
the Write Flash Sector,

Read Flash Sector

,

Erase Flash Sector

,

and Modify Flash

Sector

commands all use the same argument types. The maximum amount of flash that

can be written or modified at a single time is 125 words, and the maximum amount of
flash that can be read at a single time is 124 words. This is a limitation of the serial
interface and data packet sizes. Multiple data packets are used to read/write/modify a
larger area of flash.

When using the Erase Flash Sector

or Write Flash Sector commands, the correct

password must be provided to complete the operation. This is done to protect against
accidentally erasing or writing to the flash. See

Boot Loader Commands

.

Upgrading Application FW

The application FW is upgraded in flash. New versions of firmware are released in a or
.sim binary file format for the M5e and M5e-Compact.The .sim binary file format is a
compressed file format that stores the data in raw binary.

Direct Flash Addressing

The modules also provide a direct interface to the flash memory. This is a legacy interface
and is not recommended for new development efforts.

Sector

Access

Code

M5e/M5e-

Compact

Start Addr

M5e/M5e-

Compact

Size

(bytes)

BootLoader

Read Only

0x01

0x000000

8 kB

Application

Read/Write

0x02

0x004000

224 kB

User Memory

Read/Write

0x03

0x03C000

16 kB

Hardware Info

Read Only

0x04

0x002000

8 kB

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