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- SAM-BA serialflash applet

# SAM-BA serialflash applet

The serialflash applet drives any SPIx or FLEXCOMx_SPI controller to program an external SPI NOR flash memory embedded on the board and connected to the SAM MPU device.

## Supported SPI NOR flash memories

The list of all SPI NOR flash memories supported by the serialflash applet is available here.

## Applet initialization

The list of parameters to initialize the serialflash applet can be displayed with the following command:

    sam-ba -p <port> -d <device> -a serialflash:help

    $ sam-ba -p serial -d sama5d2 -a serialflash:help
    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

### Instance, I/O set and Chip-Select

An instance parameter x tells the serialflash applet to use the SPIx or FLEXCOMx_SPI controller. The ioset parameter is an index that represents a group of I/O pins muxed to the SPI controller. The npcs parameter represents the chip-select line used by the SPI controller to enable the SPI NOR flash memory. The {Instance, I/O set, Chip-Select} triplets are device specific; please refer to the serialflash section of the device configuration:

- SAM9xx5 configuration
- SAM9X60 configuration
- SAMA5D2 configuration
- SAMA5D3 configuration
- SAMA5D4 configuration
- SAMA7G5 configuration
- SAM9X7 configuration

### Frequency

The frequency parameter expresses the SPI bus clock frequency in MHz.

## Supported commands

The list of commands supported by the serialflash applet can be displayed with the following commands:

    sam-ba -p <port> -d <device> -a serialflash -c help

    $ sam-ba -p serial -d sama5d2 -a serialflash -c help

### The erase command

The erase command resets to 0xFF a range of erase blocks. The size of those erase blocks depends on the manufacturer and memory part. Typical erase block sizes are 8KiB, 32KiB or 64KiB of data.

    $ sam-ba -p serial -b sam9x60-ek -a serialflash -c erase:help
    * 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

### The write and writeboot commands

The write and writeboot commands program data from a binary file into the SPI flash pages. The blocks containing the pages to be programmed should be erased first with the erase command. Padding bytes are added to align programmed data to the page boundary. The typical page size is 256 bytes. Prior to what both commands do, the writeboot command also modifies the relevant unused ARM exception vector to store the size of the bootstrap binary, as required by the ROM code during the boot process.

    $ sam-ba -p serial -b sam9x60-ek -a serialflash -c write:help
    * 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

    $ sam-ba -p serial -b sam9x60-ek -a serialflash -c writeboot:help
    Syntax:
        writeboot:<filename>
    Example:
        writeboot:bootstrap.bin     write bootstrap.bin as boot program at start of memory

### The read command

The read command loads data from the SPI flash into a binary file.

    $ sam-ba -p serial -b sam9x60-ek -a serialflash -c read:help
    * 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

### The verify and verifyboot commands

The verify and verifyboot compare the data programmed in the SPI flash with the content of a given binary file. Unlike the verify command, the verifyboot command ignores the actual value of the relevant unused ARM exception vector in the binary file and does as if the value were the size of the binary file.

    $ sam-ba -p serial -b sam9x60-ek -a serialflash -c verify:help
    * 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

    $ sam-ba -p serial -b sam9x60-ek -a serialflash -c verifyboot:help
    * verifyboot - verify boot program from a file
    Syntax:
        verifyboot:<filename>
    Example:
        verifyboot:bootstrap.bin    verify that start of memory matches boot program bootstrap.bin