Setup
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Setup — Preparing the AT91SAM7X-EK board for eCos Development

Overview

eCos applications are either programmed into the on-chip flash, or run from RAM using either a JTAG device or the GDB stubs ROM. The installation of the GDB stubs or any flash-resident application requires use of a JTAG device to write to the flash, or the Atmel-supplied SAM-BA program that interacts with the on-chip boot program. So, in all cases it is necessary to set up a JTAG device for the board. This document describes how to set up either an Abatron BDI3000 or Ronetix PEEDI and then use them to program an application into the flash.

Initial Installation with Abatron BDI3000

Preparing the Abatron BDI3000 JTAG debugger

The BDI3000 must first be configured to allow communication with your local network, and configured with the parameters for interfacing with the target board. The following steps should be followed:

  1. Prepare a PC to act as a host PC and start a TFTP server on it.
  2. Connect the Abatron BDI3000 JTAG debugger via both serial and ethernet to the host PC and power it on. Use the serial cable supplied with the BDI3000.
  3. Install the Abatron BDI3000 bdiGDB support software on the host PC.
  4. Locate the file bdi3000.at91sam7xek.cfg within the eCos platform HAL package in the source repository. This will be in the directory packages/hal/arm/at91/at91sam7xek/VERSION/misc relative to the root of your eCos installation.
  5. Locate the file regSAM7S.def within the installation of the BDI3000 bdiGDB support software.
  6. Place the bdi3000.at91sam7xek.cfg file in a location on the PC accessible to the TFTP server. Later you will configure the BDI3000 to load this file via TFTP as its configuration file.
  7. Similarly place the file regSAM7S.def in a location accessible to the TFTP server.
  8. Open bdi3000.at91sam7xek.cfg in an editor such as emacs or notepad and if necessary adjust the path of the regSAM7S.def file in the [REGS] section to match its location relative to the TFTP server root.
  9. Install and configure the Abatron BDI3000 in line with the bdiGDB instruction manual. Configure the BDI3000 to use the bdi3000.at91sam7xek.cfg configuration file at the appropriate point of this process.

Preparing the AT91SAM7X-EK board for programming with BDI3000

Follow the steps in this section in order to allow communication between the board and the host PC, and between the board and the JTAG device.

  1. First you must connect a null modem DB9 serial cable between the Serial Debug Port on the board and a serial port on the host computer.
  2. Start a suitable terminal emulator on the host computer such as minicom or HyperTerminal. Set the communication parameters to 38400 baud, 8 data bits, no parity bit and 1 stop bit with no flow control.
  3. Connect the board to the BDI3000 using a 20-pin ARM/Xscale cable from the JTAG interface connector to the Target A port on the BDI3000.
  4. Power up the AT91SAM7X-EK board.

  5. Connect to the BDI3000's CLI interface via TCP/IP on the standard telnet port 23. The telnet application is suitable for this. You should see usage information followed by the prompt: 

    SAM7X>

  6. Confirm correct connection with the BDI3000 with the reset halt command as follows: 

    SAM7X> reset halt
- TARGET: processing reset request
- TARGET: BDI asserts TRST and RESET
- TARGET: BDI removes TRST
- TARGET: Bypass check 0x000000001 => 0x00000001
- TARGET: JTAG exists check passed
- Core#0: ID code is 0x3F0F0F0F
- TARGET: All ICEBreaker access checks passed
- TARGET: BDI removes RESET
- TARGET: BDI waits for RESET inactive
- TARGET: resetting target passed
- TARGET: processing target startup ....
- TARGET: processing target startup passed
SAM7X>

Initial Installation with Ronetix PEEDI

Preparing the Ronetix PEEDI JTAG debugger

The PEEDI must first be configured to allow communication with your local network, and configured with the parameters for interfacing with the target board. The following steps give a typical outline of setting up the PEEDI using TFTP. Consult the PEEDI documentation for alternative mechanisms.

  1. Prepare a PC to act as a host PC and start a TFTP server on it.
  2. Connect the PEEDI JTAG debugger via both serial and ethernet to the host PC and power it on. Use the serial cable supplied with the PEEDI (straight through, not null modem).
  3. Locate the file peedi.at91sam7xek.cfg within the eCos platform HAL package in the source repository. This will be in the directory packages/hal/arm/at91/at91sam7xek/VERSION/misc relative to the root of your eCos installation.
  4. Place the peedi.at91sam7xek.cfg file in a location on the PC accessible to the TFTP server. Later you will configure the PEEDI to load this file via TFTP as its configuration file.
  5. Open at91sam7xek.cfg in an editor such as emacs or notepad and insert your own license information in the [LICENSE] section.
  6. Install and configure the PEEDI in line with the PEEDI Quick Start Guide or User's Manual, especially configuring PEEDI's RedBoot with the network information. Configure it to use the peedi.at91sam7xek.cfg target configuration file on the TFTP server at the appropriate point of the fconfig process, for example with a path such as: tftp://192.168.7.9/peedi.at91sam7xek.cfg
  7. Reset the PEEDI.

  8. Connect to the PEEDI's CLI interface via TCP/IP on the standard telnet port 23. The telnet application is suitable for this. You should see output similar to the following: 

    $ telnet 192.168.7.225
Trying 192.168.7.225...
Connected to 192.168.7.225.
Escape character is '^]'.

PEEDI - Powerful Embedded Ethernet Debug Interface
Copyright (c) 2005-2007 www.ronetix.at - All rights reserved
Hw:1.2, Fw:2.0.13, SN: PD-0000-XXXX-XXXX
------------------------------------------------------------

sam7xek>

Preparing the AT91SAM7X-EK board for programming with PEEDI

Follow the steps in this section in order to allow communication between the board and the host PC, and between the board and the JTAG device.

  1. First you must connect a null modem DB9 serial cable between the Serial Debug Port on the board and a serial port on the host computer.
  2. Start a suitable terminal emulator on the host computer such as minicom or HyperTerminal. Set the communication parameters to 38400 baud, 8 data bits, no parity bit and 1 stop bit with no flow control.
  3. Connect the board to the PEEDI using a 20-pin ARM/Xscale cable from the JTAG interface connector on the board to the Target port on the PEEDI.
  4. Power up the AT91SAM7X-EK board.
  5. Connect to the PEEDI's CLI on port 23 as before.

  6. Confirm correct connection with the PEEDI with the reset command as follows: 

    sam7xek> reset
++ info: user reset
sam7xek>
++ info: RESET and TRST asserted
++ info: TRST released
++ info: 1 TAP controller(s) detected
++ info: TAP : IDCODE = 0x3F0F0F0F, ARM7TDMI compliant
++ info: RESET released
++ info: core 0: initialized

sam7xek>

Installation into Flash

Installation of an application into the on-chip flash, or the installation of the GDB stubs, using a JTAG programmer takes exactly the same form:

  1. Locate the binary image of the executable to be installed. For the GDB stubs do this by locating the file gdb.module.bin within the loaders subdirectory of the base of the eCos installation. For applications use arm-eabi-objcopy -O binary to convert the ELF output of the linker into binary.
  2. Copy the file into a location on the host computer accessible to its TFTP server.
  3. Connect to the JTAG device telnet port as before.

  4. The flash must be unlocked to ensure that the flash area we want to program is writable.

    For the BDI3000, use the unlock command:

    SAM7X>unlock 0x100000 0x100 256
Unlocking flash at 0x00100000
Unlocking flash at 0x00100100
Unlocking flash at 0x00100200
...
Unlocking flash at 0x0010fe00
Unlocking flash at 0x0010ff00
Unlocking flash passed
SAM7X>

    For the PEEDI, use the flash unlock command:

    sam7xek> flash unlock 0x100000 65536
unlocking region #0 at 0x00100000
unlocking region #1 at 0x00104000
unlocking region #2 at 0x00108000
unlocking region #3 at 0x0010C000

sam7xek>

    This command unlocks 256 pages, i.e. 64KiB. The number of pages unlocked should match at least the size of the executable to be programmed. With the PEEDI you can use an unadorned flash unlock to unlock the entire flash.

  5. Give the erase (BDI3000) or flash erase (PEEDI) command to clear any previous contents.

    For the BDI3000:

    SAM7X>erase 0x100000 0x100 256
Erasing flash at 0x00100000
Erasing flash at 0x00100100
Erasing flash at 0x00100200
...
Erasing flash at 0x0010fe00
Erasing flash at 0x0010ff00
Erasing flash passed
SAM7X>

    As with the unlock command, the size of the area erased must be at least the size of the executable to be programmed.

    For the PEEDI, only full flash erase is supported:

    sam7xek> flash erase

done.

sam7xek>

  6. Now give the prog (BDI3000) or flash program (PEEDI) command to fetch the executable from the TFTP server and program it to the flash.

    For the BDI3000:

    SAM7X>prog 0x100000 sam7.bin bin
Programming sam7.bin , please wait ....
Programming flash passed
SAM7X>

    For the PEEDI:

    sam7xek> flash program tftp://192.168.7.9/gdb_module.bin bin 0x100000
++ info: Programming directly
++ info: Programming image file: tftp://192.168.7.9/gdb_module.bin
++ info: At absolute addres:     0x00100000
unlocking   at 0x00100000 (region #0)
programming at 0x00100000
programming at 0x00101000
programming at 0x00102000
programming at 0x00103000
unlocking   at 0x00104000 (region #1)
programming at 0x00104000
programming at 0x00105000
programming at 0x00106000
programming at 0x00107000

++ info: successfully programmed 32.00 KB in 0.93 sec

sam7xek>

  7. Finally, the processor must be switched to boot from the flash rather than the internal ROM. This is done by programming a General Purpose NVM bit in the flash memory. This can be done using memory write commands in the JTAG device telnet interface. On the BDI3000 this is done using the following commands: 

    SAM7X>md 0xffffff60 3
ffffff60 : 0x00480100      4718848  ..0.
ffffff64 : 0x00000000            0  ....
ffffff68 : 0x00000001            1  ....
SAM7X>mm 0xffffff64 0x5a00020b
SAM7X>md 0xffffff60 3
ffffff60 : 0x00480100      4718848  ..0.
ffffff64 : 0x00000000            0  ....
ffffff68 : 0x00000401         1025  ....
SAM7X>

    And on the PEEDI:

    sam7xek> mem read 0xffffff60 3

0xFFFFFF60: 0x00480100 0x00000000 0x00000001
sam7xek> mem write 0xffffff64 0x5a00020b
sam7xek> mem read 0xffffff60 3

0xFFFFFF60: 0x00480100 0x00000000 0x00000401
sam7xek>

The installation is now complete. This can be tested by powering off the board, disconnecting the JTAG, and then powering on the board again. A ROM based application should start immediately, and any output will be seen on the serial connection. If the GDB stub ROM has been installed, then something similar to the following will be seen on the serial port: 

+$T050f:cc061000;0d:18082000;#4d

Programming GDB Stubs into Flash using SAM-BA

The following gives the steps needed to program the gdb stubs into Flash using SAM-BA. The user should refer to the SAM-BA documentation for full details of how to run the program.

  1. Download the AT91 In-system Programmer software package from the Atmel website. Install it on a suitable PC running Windows or Linux. The remainder of this section documents the behaviour seen under Windows, although the behaviour on Linux should not be too different.
  2. Copy gdb_module.bin from either the at91sam7xek_256 or at91sam7xek_512 subdirectories, depending on which of the two boards you are using, to a suitable location on the PC.
  3. Connect a null-modem serial cable between the DEBUG serial port of the board and a serial port on a convenient host (which need not be the PC running SAM-BA). Run a terminal emulator (Hyperterm or minicom) at 38400 baud. Connect a USB cable between the PC and the AT91SAM7X-EK board.
  4. Power up the board by plugging the USB cable from the AT91SAM7X-EK board into the PC and Windows should recognize the USB device. If it does not, then you will need to erase the existing program that has already been programmed into flash. To do this, disconnect the USB cable from the PC, effectively powering down the device, connect jumper J8 (ERASE) on the AT91SAM7X-EK board and reconnect the USB cable. This step should have erased the flash. Finally disconnect the USB cable followed by J8, reconnect the USB cable and the board should be recognized now. Windows may ask you to install a new driver, in which case follow the instructions.
  5. Start SAM-BA. Select "\usb\ARM0" for the communication interface, and "at91sam7x256-ek" or "at91sam7x512-ek" for the board to match the board you are about to program. If the USB option does not appear, check the cable and look in the Windows Device Manager for the active device. If all is well, click on "Connect".

  6. In the SAM-BA main window, select the "FLASH" tab and in the "Send File Name" field, select the gdb_module.bin. Ensure that the Address field contains "0x100000" and click "Send File". The following output should be seen: 

    (AT91-ISP v1.13) 1 % send_file {Flash} "gdb_module.bin" 0x100000 0
-I- Send File gdb_module.bin at address 0x100000
 first_sector 0 last_sector 1
-I-     Writing: 0x7400 bytes at 0x0 (buffer addr : 0x202BC8)
-I-     0x7400 bytes written by applet
(AT91-ISP v1.13) 1 %

    You may get a pop-up asking "Do you want to lock involved lock region(s) (0 to 1)?". Select "No" if prompted.

  7. In the Scripts section, select the script "Boot from Flash (GPNVM2)" and press "Execute". The following output should be seen: 

    (AT91-ISP v1.13) 1 % FLASH::ScriptGPNMV 4
-I- GPNVM2 set
(AT91-ISP v1.13) 1 %

  8. Shut down SAM-BA, disconnect and reconnect the USB cable. Press the reset button on the board and something similar to the following should be output for a AT91SAM7X256-EK board on the DEBUG serial line: 

    $T050f:cc051000;0d:e8072000;#7f

    For a AT91SAM7X512-EK board you should see something similar. For example:

    $T050f:d0051000;0d:e8072000;#4d
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