TDA4 Flashing Techniques

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1 Introduction to Flashing Tools

For a particular boot media, given the hardware interfaces pinned out on the board, intent is to find a feasible solution to flash that particular boot media with bootloader and file system images.

Most software tools have some constraints that are listed in Table 1-1. From this, software tools that are supported for a particular boot media can be inferred.

Table 1-1 Software Tools Constraints

Software Tools	Hardware Interface	Boot Media			Constraints
Software Tools	Hardware Interface	OSPI NOR	eMMC	QSPI NOR	Constraints
UNIFLASH	UART	L⁽¹⁾ Only bootloader images can be flashed. UBIFS cannot be flashed.	L Only eMMC boot0 (RAW) partition can be flashed.	L Only bootloader images can be flashed. UBIFS cannot be flashed.	Support for UART boot mode. MCU_UART0 should be pinned out on the board. Flashing of only raw sectors supported for eMMC
CCS	JTAG	L Only bootloader images can be flashed. UBIFS cannot be flashed.	L Only eMMC user (UDA) can be flashed with tiny file system. Bootloader images should be already flashed.	L Only bootloader images can be flashed. UBIFS cannot be flashed.	Presence of debugger interface. Flashing speed depend on choice of JTAG.
Lauterbach	JTAG	Y⁽²⁾	Y	Y	Licensed software
u-boot	UART, MMCSD, DFU boot	Y Using SD card, JTAG, Ethernet etc. with u-boot.	Y Using SD card, JTAG, Ethernet etc. with u-boot.	Y Using SD card, JTAG, Ethernet etc. with u-boot.	u-boot should be flashed using other interfaces first.
DFU	USB	Y	Y	Y

(1) L = Limited support

(2) Y = Full support

Note: UNIFLASH by default uses MCU_UART0.
Universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) boot to u-boot needs MCU_UART0 and one of the MAIN_UART to which u-boot will print.

1.1 Trace32/Lauterbach

Trace32/Lauterbach is a powerful tool when it comes to Arm®-based SoCs.

Trace32 can also be used to flash various memory types. JTAG interface needs to be pinned out on the board to use this approach. This enables customers who have Trace32 to flash boot images to eMMC and SPI memories.

Process of flashing involves CMM scripting that Lauterbach comprehends and a one time installation on Linux PC to connect to the TDA4. Using Trace32/Lauterbach to flash avoids dependency on a secondary boot media like UART/SD to burn images to the flash parts on the custom board.

Figure 1-1 Trace32/Lauterbach Flashing