Name

Setup — Preparing the MPC5554DEMO board for eCos Development

Overview

In a typical development environment, the MPC5554DEMO board boots from flash into the RedBoot ROM monitor. eCos applications are configured for RAM startup and then downloaded and run on the board via the debugger powerpc-eabi-gdb. Preparing the board therefore usually involves programming a suitable RedBoot image into flash memory.

The following RedBoot configurations are supported:

ConfigurationDescriptionUseFile
ROMRedBoot running from on-chip ROMMPC5554DEMO_redboot_ROM.ecmMPC5554DEMO_redboot_ROM.bin
RAMRedBoot running in external RAMMPC5554DEMO_redboot_RAM.ecmMPC5554DEMO_redboot_RAM.bin
JTAGRedBoot running in external RAM, loaded by JTAGMPC5554DEMO_redboot_JTAG.ecmMPC5554DEMO_redboot_JTAG.bin

For serial communications, all versions run with 8 bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit at 38400 baud. The baud rate can be changed using the flash configuration console baud rate option. RedBoot also supports flash management.

Initial Installation

The simplest approach to installing RedBoot is to make use of the eSys Flasher utility and the P&E Wiggler shipped with the board. The reader is referred to the documentation for this utility for details of its use; the following is a simple step-by-step guide to using it to install RedBoot on the board:

  1. Install the eSys Flasher utility on a suitable PC running Windows XP.
  2. Copy MPC5554DEMO_redboot_ROM.srec to a suitable location on the Windows PC.
  3. Connect a straight-through (not null modem) serial cable between the COM-1 serial port of the board and a serial port on a convenient host (which need not be the PC running eSys Flasher). Run a terminal emulator (Hyperterm or minicom) at 38400 baud.
  4. Connect the P&E Wiggler to the MPC5554DEMO board and via a USB cable to the Windows PC. Connect the power supply to the MPC5554DEMO board and power it on. At some point during this process XP may ask you to install a device driver. The necessary files will have been installed with the utility, so just follow the directions to install the driver.
  5. Start eSys Flasher and select "P&E Wiggler (USB)" from the initial dialog. If the program connects to the board then the MCU and Part ID should be displayed at the top right of the next dialog.
  6. Click on the "Program Flash" button. Select "S-Record" in the following dialog (and optionally "Verify after Program"), and press "Program". In the "Open" dialog navigate to where the MPC5554DEMO_redboot_ROM.srec file is located and select it. The utility will now erase, program and optionally verify the flash. When finished, press the "Close" button to exit the utility.
  7. Pressing the reset button on the board should cause RedBoot to start up and display the following output:

    +**Warning** FLASH configuration checksum error or invalid key
    Use 'fconfig -i' to [re]initialize database
    
    RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROM]
    Non-certified release, version UNKNOWN - built 18:06:16, Nov 26 2007
    
    Platform: MPC5554DEMO (PowerPC MPC5554)
    Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
    Copyright (C) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 eCosCentric Limited
    
    RAM: 0x20000000-0x20080000, [0x20006b88-0x20051000] available
    FLASH: 0x00000000-0x001fffff, 1 x 0x4000 blocks, 2 x 0xc000 blocks, 1 x 0x4000 blocks, 2 x 0x10000 blocks, 14 x 0x20000 blocks
    RedBoot>
  8. RedBoot's flash management and configuration should be initialized as follows:

    RedBoot> fis init
    About to initialize [format] FLASH image system - continue (y/n)? y
    *** Initialize FLASH Image System
    ... Unlocking from 0x001e0000-0x001fffff: .
    ... Erase from 0x001e0000-0x001fffff: .
    ... Program from 0x20060000-0x20080000 to 0x001e0000: .
    ... Locking from 0x001e0000-0x001fffff: .
    RedBoot> fconfig -i
    Initialize non-volatile configuration - continue (y/n)? y
    Run script at boot: false
    Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration - continue (y/n)? y
    ... Unlocking from 0x001e0000-0x001fffff: .
    ... Erase from 0x001e0000-0x001fffff: .
    ... Program from 0x20060000-0x20080000 to 0x001e0000: .
    ... Locking from 0x001e0000-0x001fffff: .
    RedBoot>

Rebuilding RedBoot

Should it prove necessary to rebuild a RedBoot binary, this is done most conveniently at the command line. The steps needed to rebuild the the ROM version of RedBoot for the MPC5554DEMO are:

$ mkdir redboot_mpc5554demo_rom
$ cd redboot_mpc5554demo_rom
$ ecosconfig new mpc5554demo redboot
$ ecosconfig import $ECOS_REPOSITORY/hal/powerpc/mpc5554demo/current/misc/mpc5554demo_redboot_ROM.ecm
$ ecosconfig resolve
$ ecosconfig tree
$ make

At the end of the build the install/bin subdirectory should contain the file redboot.srec.