How Can I Reduce Flash Download or Programming Time?

No doubt about it, programming Flash requires a few to several minutes of time. This small amount of time becomes a nuisance during rapid design changes during debugging or when gearing up for volume manufacturing.

However, there are a few techniques that can greatly reduce Flash download time. The specific technique depends on whether you are prototyping a design or are programming the Flash for final production.

Reducing Flash Programming Time While Prototyping

When prototyping, you may be able to eliminate Flash programming altogether!

For example, on the E5 product family, you can download and execute programs directly from the E5’s internal system RAM. The same technique is available on the A7, although A7 devices are limited to 16KB.

When using the E5 Hardware Development Platform, you can also download directly to the large 512Kx8 SRAM on the base board. Please refer to the Triscend E5 Development Platform User Manual for details (article #19959).

If you have SDRAM on your A7 board, you can also download and execute code from SDRAM.

Reducing Flash Programming Time During Production

One of the important features added to FastChip 2.4.0 is Flash sector-erase, which can drastically reduce Flash-programming time. Instead of completely erasing the Flash device, FastChip 2.4.0 only erases the sectors that require updating.

If you are using a version of FastChip before version 2.4.0, you can download a software update from the Triscend web site.

Also, your Flash vendor or their distributors may offer volume Flash programming services. Instead of programming the devices on the board, one at a time, your Flash vendor can gang program multiple devices simultaneously. This programming would need to happen prior to board assembly and does require some additional coordination during manufacturing.

You still retain the ability to update the Flash device via FastChip and the JTAG port on the Triscend CSoC device.

To support external PROM programming, FastChip Device Link can output an Intel MCS-86 Hex file used by most programmers. See article #40746 for more details.

FastChip Version: 2.4.0

This solution may or may not apply to other versions of the FastChip development system.