Program SPI Flash with Promira Serial Platform & Flash Center Software
Programming SPI memory devices is a common use case for the Promira™ Serial Platform with SPI Active - Level 1 Application. There are several ways to do this with the Promira Serial Platform with SPI Active - Level 1 Application, including using Control Center™ Serial Software, Flash Center™ Software, or the Promira Software API from Total Phase.
Using the Promira platform with the Flash Center Software makes it extremely easy to program EEPROM and flash devices. With one Flash Center click the user can erase, program, and verify an entire device. This article focuses on how to program SPI flash with Flash Center and a Promira platform. Although the following describes the ST Micro SPI Flash M25P32 assembled on the High-Speed SPI Flash Demo Board, similar steps can be used for other devices. The goal of this article is to demonstrate how to program SPI flash and then read back the data.
In this article the Promira platform erases, programs and reads the M25P32. Here the Promira platform is the SPI master and the SPI flash on the SPI Flash Demo board is the SPI slave.
It's first helpful to understand the different operations options provided by Flash Center. Specifically, there are three programming modes: Program + Verify, Program, and Program (No Erase). In addition, there are Read Device, Verify, and Erase operations.
- Program + Verify - Writes data to one or more attached memory devices and then reads back the data to verify it for correctness. If the device is an SPI Flash, an erase cycle will be performed first. The erase will cover only those sectors which will be written. Note that it is possible to erase more data than is written if a write ends in the middle of a sector. A warning will be logged if this is the case. Also, if the data to be written is large enough to require the entire device to be erase, and the memory device has an “erase all” instruction, the software will use the “erase all” instruction.
- Program - Writes data to the device, but does not perform the verification step. If the device is an SPI Flash, an erase cycle will be performed first, with the same caveats as Program + Verify.
- Program (No Erase) - A special mode for SPI Flash devices. It writes data to the device, but does not perform an erase cycle. This is useful if multiple memory images are to be programmed to the device. Use FF as the pad value when loading each memory image to avoid corrupting previously written data. Because the device may have been programmed prior to this operation, it does not perform the verification step.
- Read Device - Reads the contents of the selected device and replaces it in the current contents in the data buffer.
- Verify - Verifies the contents of the selected devices against the contents of the data buffer.
- Erase - Allows the user to erase the entire memory device or allows the erasure of portion of it. For partial erasure, users can specify the start addresses and length in the erase parameters dialog as either a decimal value or as a hexadecimal value.
M25P32 Details
The 32 Mbit (4M bytes) SPI Flash M25P32 found on the SPI Flash Demo Board has 64 sectors. Each sector has 256 pages or 65,536 (64K, 0x10000) bytes. Each page has 256 bytes. Therefore, the memory has 16,384 pages or 4,194,304 (0x400000) bytes. The whole memory can be erased using the Bulk Erase instruction, or a sector at a time, using the Sector Erase instruction. For reference, provided below are the M25P32 instructions list and memory map.
Memory Programming and Reading Guidelines
- Connect the Promira platform USB connector to the PC USB connector.
- Follow the instructions of the Promira platform user manual to configure the Ethernet over USB interface.
- Download and unzip the latest version of the Total Phase Flash Center.
- Connect the Promira platform I2C/SPI connector to the SPI Flash Demo board through the 34-10 cable.
- Launch Flash Center.
- Connect the Promira platform to Flash Center.
- Click Adapters > Add Adapters.
- Select the Promira platform.
- Click Add to connect to the Promira platform.
- Configure Target Power (Pin 4, 6) to 5V; IO Power (Pin 22, 24) to Disable, Level Shift to 3.3V. Enable Target Power.
- Click Operations > Choose Target and choose M25P32.
- Configure Bit Rate to 12.5 MHz.
- Read the memory device.
- Click Operations > Read Target.
11. Program the M25P32, and read.
a. Click Operations > Program + Verify.
b. Click Operations > Read Target.
SPI Flash memory supported by Flash Center
Atmel:
AT25DF041A AT25F1024A AT25F2048 AT25F4096 AT25F512A AT25FS010 AT25FS040
AT26DF041 AT26DF081A AT26DF161 AT26DF161A AT26DF321 AT26F004 AT45DB011B
AT45DB021B AT45DB041B AT45DB041D/256 AT45DB041D/264 AT45DB081B
AT45DB081D/256 AT45DB081D/264 AT45DB161D/512 AT45DB161D/528 AT45DB321C
AT45DB321D/512 AT45DB321D/528 AT45DB642D/1024 AT45DB642D/1056
ISSI:
IS25CD010 IS25CD025 IS25CD512 IS25LP032/032A/032D IS25LP064/064A/064B
IS25LP128/128B/128D IS25LQ010B IS25LQ016B IS25LQ020B IS25LQ025B
IS25LQ032B IS25LQ040B IS25LQ080 IS25LQ080B IS25LQ512B
IS25WP016/016C/016D IS25WP032/032A/032D IS25WP064/064A
IS25WP080/080C/080D IS25WP128 IS25WQ020 IS25WQ040
Micron Technology:
M25P05-A M25P10-A M25P128 M25P16 M25P20 M25P32 M25P40 M25P64 M25P80
M25PE10 M25PE16 M25PE20 M25PE40 M25PE80 M45PE10 M45PE16 M45PE20
M45PE40 M45PE80
Macronix:
MX25L1005 MX25L1006E MX25L1021E MX25L1026E MX25L12835F MX25L12839F
MX25L12855F MX25L12873F MX25L1605 MX25L1605A MX25L1605D MX25L1606E
MX25L1633E MX25L1635E MX25L1636E MX25L1673E MX25L2005 MX25L2006E MX25L2026E
MX25L25635F MX25L25639F MX25L25655F MX25L3205 MX25L3205A MX25L3205D
MX25L3206E MX25L3235E MX25L3239E MX25L3273E MX25L4005A MX25L4006E
MX25L4026E MX25L512 MX25L5121E MX25L512E MX25L6405 MX25L6405D MX25L6406E
MX25L6435E MX25L6439E MX25L6445E MX25L6456E MX25L6473E MX25L8005 MX25L8006E
MX25L8035E MX25L8036E MX25L8073E MX25U3235F MX25U6435F MX25V1006E
MX25V2006E MX25V4006E MX25V4035 MX25V512E MX25V8006E MX25V8035
MX66L1G45G MX66L51235F
Micron
N25Q008A 8-Mbit 1,8 V N25Q00AA 1-Gbit 1,8 V N25Q00AA 1-Gbit 3,3 V
N25Q016A 16 Mbit 1,8 V N25Q032A 32-Mbit 1,8 V N25Q032A 32-Mbit 3,3 V
N25Q064A 64-Mbit 1,8 V N25Q064A 64-Mbit 3,3 V N25Q128A 128-Mbit 1,8 V
N25Q128A 128-Mbit 3,3 V N25Q256A 256-Mbit 1,8 V N25Q256A 256-Mbit 3,3 V
N25Q512A 512-Mbit 1,8 V N25Q512A 512-Mbit 3,3 V
Chingis Technologies:
Pm25LQ010B Pm25LQ020B Pm25LQ025B Pm25LQ040B Pm25LQ512B Pm25LV010
Pm25LV010A Pm25LV016 Pm25LV016B Pm25LV020 Pm25LV040 PM25LV080
PM25LV080B PM25LV512 Pm25LV512A
Spansion:
S25FL004A S25FL008A S25FL016A S25FL032A S25FL032P S25FL040A Uniform
S25FL064A S25FL064P S25FL116K S25FL128P_256KB S25FL128P_64KB
S25FL128S_256KB S25FL128S_64KB S25FL204K S25FL208K S25FL216K
S25FL256S_256KB S25FL256S_64KB S25FL512S
Intel:
S33 16-Mbit S33 32-Mbit S33 64-Mbit
SST
SST25LF020A SST25LF040A SST25PF020B SST25PF040B SST25PF080B
SST25VF010 SST25VF010A SST25VF016B SST25VF020 SST25VF020B
SST25VF032B SST25VF040 SST25VF040B SST25VF064C SST25VF080B
SST25VF512 SST25VF512A SST25WF010 SST25WF020 SST25WF020A
SST25WF512
Winbond/NexFlash:
W25P10/NX25P10 W25P16/NX25P16 W25P20/NX25P20 W25P32/NX25P32
W25P40/NX25P40 W25P80/NX25P80 W25Q16 W25Q32 W25Q80 W25X10
W25X10L W25X16 W25X20 W25X20L W25X32 W25X40 W25X40L
SPI Flash programming tools
Product is discontinued
