RSL10 Stand-Alone Flash Loader Manual

M-20823-008
November 2021

© SCILLC, 2021
Previous Edition © 2021
“All Rights Reserved”
 onsemi
RSL10 Stand-Alone Flash Loader Manual
Table of Contents

Page
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Intended Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Flash Loader Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Flash Loader Operations and Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2.1 Flash Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Supported Flash Loader Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.1 SEGGER or IAR Systems J-Link for Arm Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4 Trouble-Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. Flash Loader User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1 The Program Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 The Tools Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.3 The Options Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.4 The Progress Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4. Command-Line Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1 The Program Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2 The Erase Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.3 The Verify Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.4 The Read Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

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 CHAPTER 1

1. Introduction
1.1 PURPOSE

IMPORTANT: onsemi acknowledges that this document might contain the inappropriate terms “white list",
"master" and "slave”. We have a plan to work with other companies to identify an industry wide solution that
can eradicate non-inclusive terminology but maintains the technical relationship of the original wording. Once
new terminologies are agreed upon, future products will contain new terminology.

This manual provides the information that you need to use the stand-alone flash loader. It describes the operations
that the flash loader can perform, and explains how to configure the flash loader to connect to an RSL10 radio IC.

The stand-alone flash loader is used to program, erase and read flash memory in RSL10.

1.2 INTENDED AUDIENCE

This manual is aimed at software development professionals who are responsible for developing and/or
maintaining applications based on RSL10.

This manual assumes that a reader will have some familiarity with embedded software development.

1.3 CONVENTIONS

In general, numbers are presented in decimal notation. In cases where hexadecimal notation is more convenient,
these numbers are identified by the prefix “0x”. For example, the decimal number 123456 can also be represented as
0x1E240.

The following special fonts are used in this manual to signify particular types of information:

monospace font
Commands and their options, file and path names, error messages, code samples and code
snippets.

mono bold
A placeholder that represents where you would specify the appropriate information. For
example, you would replace filename with the actual name of the file.

bold
Used for menu names and menu items.

1.4 FURTHER READING

For more information that will help you to use the RSL10 radio IC, refer to the following documents:

• RSL10 Getting Started Guide

• RSL10 Hardware Reference Manual
• RSL10 Firmware Reference Manual
• RSL10 Evaluation and Development Board Manual
• J-Link/J-Trace User Guide (document UM08001-R41) available from the SEGGER website: www.segger.com

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 CHAPTER 2

2. Flash Loader Overview

2.1 INTRODUCTION

The stand-alone flash loader can perform the following operations to an RSL10 radio IC:

• Program the contents of a data file to flash memory.

• Verify that the contents of a file match the contents of flash memory.
• Erase regions of flash memory.
• Verify that regions of flash memory are erased.
• Read the contents of flash memory and save them to a data file.

When programming data from or saving data to a file, the stand-alone flash loader supports the following data file
formats:

• Intel Hex
• Motorola S-record

The stand-alone flash loader communicates with the RSL10 JTAG debug port using a Segger or IAR Systems®
J-Link™ for Arm® processors. This setup is illustrated in Figure 1.

PC Running
Flash Loader
Microcontroller JTAG debug port J-Link USB

Figure 1. How the Stand-Alone Flash Loader Communicates with the Radio IC

The RSL10 radio IC contains multiple sections, all of which can be managed by the stand-alone flash loader. See
the RSL10 Hardware Reference Manual for more information about the sections.

2.2 FLASH LOADER OPERATIONS AND OPTIONS

The stand-alone flash loader can perform a variety of operations, and supports the grouping of certain operations.
Chapter 3, “Flash Loader User Interface” on page 8 describes the operations and options available from the graphical
user interface, and Chapter 4, “Command-Line Usage” on page 11 describes the ones available from the command line.

Program flash memory

This operation reads the contents of a data file and writes the data to flash memory. Optionally,
the flash loader can:

• Erase all of flash memory before programming.

• Verify that the contents of the data file were correctly written to flash memory by reading
back the flash contents and comparing it with the file contents.

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RSL10 Stand-Alone Flash Loader Manual

Verify flash memory against a file

This operation reads the contents of a data file, then reads the corresponding contents of flash
memory and compares the data. The flash loader reports if there are differences.

Erase flash memory

This operation erases sections of flash memory. By default, this operation erases all of flash
memory. This operation can also erase one or more user-specified regions of flash memory.

Verify erased
This operation verifies that sections of the flash memory are erased. By default, this operation
verifies that all of flash memory is erased. This operation can also verify that one or more
user-specified regions of flash memory is erased.

Read flash memory

This operation reads sections of flash memory and saves the data in a data file. By default, this
operation reads all of flash memory. This operation can also read one or more user-specified
regions of flash memory.

The stand-alone flash loader has several global options:

Device options These options control how the stand-alone flash loader communicates with the RSL10 radio IC.
See Section 2.3, “Supported Flash Loader Hardware” for information on these options.

JTAG speed This option determines the JTAG clock speed that the stand-alone flash loader uses when
communicating with the RSL10 radio IC.

Reset device This operation determines whether the stand-alone flash loader should reset the RSL10 radio IC
after completing the requested operation.

Table 1 maps the tasks you want to accomplish to specific information about the steps, using either the graphical
user interface or the command line interface.

Table 1. Mapping Tasks to User Interfaces

Task Graphical User Interface Command Line Interface

Program flash memory Section 3.1, “The Program Page” on page 8 Section 4.1, “The Program Command” on
page 12
Verify flash memory against a file Section 3.1, “The Program Page” on page 8 Section 4.3, “The Verify Command” on page 13
Erase flash memory Section 3.1, “The Program Page” on page 8 Section 4.2, “The Erase Command” on
page 12
Verify erased flash memory Section 3.2, “The Tools Page” on page 8 Section 4.3, “The Verify Command” on page 13
Read flash memory Section 3.2, “The Tools Page” on page 8 Section 4.4, “The Read Command” on page 13
Set device options Section 3.3, “The Options Page” on page 9 Table 4 on page 12
Determine JTAG speed Section 3.3, “The Options Page” on page 9 Table 4 on page 12
Reset the device Section 3.3, “The Options Page” on page 9 Table 4 on page 12

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RSL10 Stand-Alone Flash Loader Manual

2.2.1 Flash Regions

When the flash loader is performing operations on user-specified regions of flash memory, a standard format is
used to specify one or more ranges of addresses in flash memory.

start-end,start-end,...,start-end

Each start and end address is a decimal or C-formatted hexadecimal address. Both the start and end addresses
are included in the range. You must specify at least one range, but there is no limit to the number of ranges that you can
include.

For example:

• 0x00040000-0x0007FFFF
• 0-127,256-1023,196-199

For more information about using the flash regions, see Section 3.2, “The Tools Page” on page 8, Section 4.2, “The
Erase Command” on page 12, and Section 4.4, “The Read Command” on page 13.

2.3 SUPPORTED FLASH LOADER HARDWARE

2.3.1 SEGGER or IAR Systems J-Link for Arm Processors

The Segger J-Link Arm Emulator for Arm® Cortex®-M3 cores, also sold as the IAR Systems J-Link for Arm
Processors, is a small Arm JTAG hardware debug probe. It connects via USB to the PC host running Windows®, and
supports JTAG communication clock speeds up to 12 MHz. The J-Link device connects to the target using a standard
20-pin JTAG cable. This flash loader requires J-Link version 8.0 or higher.

The stand-alone flash loader can connect to a J-Link device in one of two ways:

• J-Link devices can be connected directly to the computer via USB. Each J-Link device is assigned a serial
number. You can optionally enter this number in the flash loader GUI. If multiple J-Link devices are connected
and no serial number is provided, a J-Link window will pop up and request the device selection. If the flash
loader is unable to connect to the J-Link device via USB, it fails with an error. The flash loader does not
attempt to default to a connected device.
• The stand-alone flash loader can also connect over a network to a J-Link device connected to another
computer. On the remote computer to which the J-Link device is connected, you must run the
jlinktcpipserver.exe program. In this case, you must provide the hostname of the remote computer and the
TCP/IP port number (usually 19020) to the flash loader to use the remote J-Link device. See the J-Link/
J-Trace User Guide (document UM08001-R41) from Segger for more information.

2.4 TROUBLE-SHOOTING

Table 2 provides a brief guide to fixing the most common errors that might occur when you use the stand-alone
flash loader. It is not a comprehensive guide to all possible problems. If you try these solutions and they don’t work,
contact your onsemi customer support representative.

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RSL10 Stand-Alone Flash Loader Manual

Table 2. Common Errors and Their Solutions

Description of Error Possible Causes Possible Solutions

No emulators connected to the USB You have not connected the J-Link Connect the J-link emulator, make sure
window. Asks for IP address. emulator, or the J-link drivers are not the drivers are properly installed. Make
properly installed. sure the version of J-link DLL is greater
than 4.7x.
Connect Failed The J-Link is physically connected, but the Some ways of checking the connection
device is not connected or not and communication are:
communicating with it. • Use the NOP command on the
Tools page of the graphical user
interface to check the
connection and communication.
• Use J-Link Commander, which
is provided by Segger in their
tools, to check that the J-Link
and the device can
communicate. For more
information, see the online help
in the J-Link Commander
interface.
Erase Failed The address specified for the erasure is Verify that the address specified for
not valid. erasure can be erased and that the
location is valid.
Program Failed The address specified for the program is Verify that the address specified for
not valid. loading the program is valid, and that the
The area specified from the address is too area to be programmed has adequate
small for the size of the program. space for the program.

Verify Failed There was a problem during programming Check that the file being used for the
and the flash loader could not verify the comparison is the same as what should be
contents of flash. in flash memory. For more information
about verifying flash memory, see
Section 3.1, “The Program Page” on
page 8 or Section 4.3, “The Verify
Command” on page 13.

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 CHAPTER 3

3. Flash Loader User Interface

To start the stand-alone flash loader from a short-cut, use the Windows Start menu and type Flashloader.exe.

When you run the stand-alone flash loader with no command-line options, it operates in graphical mode. In this
mode, the flash loader displays the graphical user interface shown in Figure 2. The user interface consists of three
pages:

• The Program page allows you to program and verify the contents of flash memory.
• The Tools page allows you to erase and read the contents of flash memory.
• The Options page allows you to control how the flash loader accesses the RSL10 radio IC.

For a list of all the tasks you can do with this application, and where to find the corresponding graphical user
interface or command line interface steps, see Table 1 on page 5.

3.1 THE PROGRAM PAGE

Use the controls on the Program page (Figure 2) to program and verify the contents of flash memory.

Figure 2. The Stand-Alone Flash Loader Program Page

For all operations on this page, first enter a filename or click Browse... to select a file. The rest of the controls are:

Program button
Copies the contents of the file to flash memory.

Verify button
Verifies that the contents of flash memory match the contents of the file.

Erase all of flash before programming

Erases the main section of flash memory. By default, the flash loader only erases blocks of flash
memory that are overwritten with data in the file.

Verify contents of flash after programming

To program and verify the flash memory in one operation, check this box.

3.2 THE TOOLS PAGE

Use the controls on the Tools page (Figure 3) of the flash loader to perform various operations on regions of flash
memory.

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RSL10 Stand-Alone Flash Loader Manual

Figure 3. The Stand-Alone Flash Loader Tools Page

For all operations on this page, first enter a region in the Region field. If you leave this field blank, the operation
applies to all of flash memory. For information on the format of a region, see Section 2.2.1, “Flash Regions” on page 6.

The controls on this page are applied to the entry in the Region field:

Erase button Erases the region of flash memory.

Verify Erased button Verifies that the region of flash memory is erased.

Read... button Reads the contents of the region of flash memory and saves the data. When you press the
Read... button, the flash loader prompts you to select a file for saving the data.

NOP... button Sends a null command to the flash memory to ensure that connectivity is as expected.

3.3 THE OPTIONS PAGE

Use the controls on the Options page (Figure 4) to control how the flash loader accesses the RSL10 radio IC.

Figure 4. The Stand-Alone Flash Loader Options Page

In the Device section of the page, you can select either a USB or Network J-Link device:

• For a USB J-Link device, select the J-Link device serial number.

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RSL10 Stand-Alone Flash Loader Manual

• For a network J-Link device, enter the Hostname and Port of the computer running the jlinktcpipserver.exe
program.

In the Options section, you can:

• Change the JTAG Speed. Enter max to use the maximum JTAG Speed supported by the J-Link device, or a
number to specify the speed in kHz.
• Check the Reset the device after operation box to have the flash loader reset the connected RSL10 radio IC
after completing any operation.

3.4 THE PROGRESS DIALOG

The stand-alone flash loader displays the progress dialog box shown in Figure 5 when performing any operation
that communicates with the RSL10 radio IC. The dialog shows the current operation at the top, the overall progress in a
progress bar, and various progress and status messages in the large text box.

Figure 5. The Progress Dialog

Press Cancel at any time to stop the operation.

After the operation completes, or after you press Cancel, the dialog remains open so that you can inspect or copy
the output of the operation. To copy, select the contents of the dialog and press Ctrl-C. Press Done to dismiss the
progress dialog.

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 CHAPTER 4

4. Command-Line Usage
To start the stand-alone flash loader from the command line, navigate to the location of the Flashloader.exe file in
the RSL10 Utility Apps folder. Add the location of Flashloader.exe to the system PATH environment variable to allow
easy access to this command.

When you run the stand-alone flash loader from the Windows command processor (CMD.EXE) with command-line
options, it operates in command-line mode. In this mode, the command-line options determine the operation to perform,
and all progress and messages are displayed on the console.

Usage:

flashloader options command command-options

The options are global flash loader options. Possible global options are listed in Table 3.

Table 3. Global Flash Loader Command-Line Options

Global Option Description

-h Display the usage message.
-u serial_number Use the specified USB J-Link device. If no USB or network J-Link
device is specified, the flash loader tries to connect to the J-Link
device it finds. If it finds more than one J-Link device, you are
prompted to select a device to use. If the flash loader finds no J-Link
devices, the connection fails, and you are asked to connect on the
network, which you can cancel.
-n hostname:port Use the specified host and port to access a network J-Link device.
-s speed Specify the maximum JTAG speed in kHz to communicate with the
RSL10 radio IC, or specify the value max to use the maximum speed
supported by the flash loader hardware. The actual JTAG speed
might be slower.
-r Reset the device after the operation finishes.
-v Display verbose output.

The command determines which flash loader operation to perform. Some commands allow command-options
that control the behavior of the command. The commands are:

program Write the contents of a data file to flash memory.

erase Erase a region of flash memory.

verify Verify that the contents of flash memory match the contents of a data file, or verify that a region
of flash memory is erased.

read Read a region of flash memory and save the data to a data file.

For a list of all the tasks you can do with this application, and where to find the corresponding graphical user
interface or command line interface steps, see Table 1 on page 5.

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RSL10 Stand-Alone Flash Loader Manual

4.1 THE PROGRAM COMMAND

Use the flashloader program command to write the contents of a data file to flash memory. By default, the
flashloader program command only erases the regions of flash memory that are being written. The flashloader
program command takes the options shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Program Command Options

Program Command Option Description

filename The name of the data file to write to flash memory (required).
-e Erase all of flash memory before programming.
-v Verify the contents of flash memory after programming.

Some examples of the flashloader program command:

• To write the contents of blinky.hex to the main section of flash memory:

flashloader program blinky.hex

• To write the contents of blinky.srec to flash memory using a remote J-Link device on a machine named
jlinkserver port 19020:

flashloader -n jlinkserver:19020 program blinky.srec -i

• To erase all of flash memory, write the contents of blinky.hex to the flash memory, verify that the contents of
flash memory match the file, then reset the device:

flashloader -r program blinky.hex -e -v

4.2 THE ERASE COMMAND

Use the flashloader erase command to erase a region of flash memory. By default, the flashloader erase
command erases all of flash memory. The flashloader erase command takes the options shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Erase Command Options

Erase Command Option Description

region Override the default behavior to erase one or more ranges of flash
memory.

Some examples of the flashloader erase command:

• To erase all of flash memory:

flashloader erase

• To erase two blocks of flash memory, using local J-Link device number 2:

flashloader -u 2 erase 0x00040000-0x0003FFFF,0x00070000-0x0007FFFF

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RSL10 Stand-Alone Flash Loader Manual

4.3 THE VERIFY COMMAND

Use the flashloader verify command to perform two similar operations:

1. Verify that a region of flash memory is erased.

2. Verify that the contents of flash memory match the contents of a data file.

By default, the flashloader verify command verifies that all of flash memory is erased. The flashloader
verify command takes the options shown in Table 6. You can only specify a region or filename option, but not
both.

Table 6. Verify Command Options

Verify Command Option Description

region Override the default behavior to verify that one or more regions of
flash memory are erased.
filename Override the default behavior to verify that the contents of flash
memory match the contents of a data file.

Some examples of the flashloader verify command:

• To verify that the entire main section of flash memory is erased, then reset the device:

flashloader -r verify

• To verify that the contents of flash memory match the contents of blinky.srec:

flashloader verify blinky.srec

4.4 THE READ COMMAND

Use the read command to read a region of flash memory and write the data to a data file. By default, the read
command reads all of flash memory. The read command takes the options shown in Table 7.

Table 7. Read Command Options

Read Command Option Description

region Override the default behavior to read one or more regions of flash
memory.
filename The name of the data file to write the contents of flash memory to
(required and must be the last parameter on the command line).

Some examples of the flashloader read command:

• To read all of flash memory and save it to allflash.hex:

flashloader read allflash.hex

• To read the contents of two blocks of flash memory and save it to myflash.srec, then reset the device:

flashloader -r read 0x00040000-0x00041000,0x00070000-0x0007FFFF myflash.srec

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RSL10 Stand-Alone Flash Loader Manual

Arm and Cortex are trademarks or registered trademarks of ARM Ltd. IAR Systems is a registered trademark of IAR Systems AB. J-Link is a licensed trademark of IAR Systems AB.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other brand names and product names appearing in this document are trademarks of their respective holders.

onsemi and the onsemi logo are trademarks of Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC dba onsemi or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. onsemi
owns the rights to a number of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other intellectual property. A listing of onsemi’s product/patent coverage may be accessed at
www.onsemi.com/site/pdf/Patent-Marking.pdf. onsemi reserves the right to make changes without further notice to any products herein. onsemi makes no warranty,
representation or guarantee regarding the suitability of its products for any particular purpose, nor does onsemi assume any liability arising out of the application or use of any
product or circuit, and specifically disclaims any and all liability, including without limitation special, consequential or incidental damages. Buyer is responsible for its products and
applications using onsemi products, including compliance with all laws, regulations and safety requirements or standards, regardless of any support or applications information
provided by onsemi. “Typical” parameters which may be provided in onsemi data sheets and/or specifications can and do vary in different applications and actual performance
may vary over time. All operating parameters, including “Typicals” must be validated for each customer application by customer’s technical experts. onsemi does not convey any
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FDA Class 3 medical devices or medical devices with a same or similar classification in a foreign jurisdiction or any devices intended for implantation in the human body. Should
Buyer purchase or use onsemi products for any such unintended or unauthorized application, Buyer shall indemnify and hold onsemi and its officers, employees, subsidiaries,
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