SPI FLASH support for the LPC23XX

[mark]

Hi All

Here's a note to all LPC fans that I now have the following SPI FLASH support operational:

LPC2378 512k internal FLASH configured to use the last 2 sectors as parameter blocks.
An external SPI FLASH (ATMEL) 512k is connected to SSP1 to act as uFileSystem. SSP is clocked at 9MHz although it could go faster. The web pages are being copied correctly and server by the web server, so looks good!

This is in fact the first time that I have used the SSP, rather than the SPI. The SSP is more flexible and has 8 word deep rx and tx FIFOs. The main reason that I chose this is, however, that the pins are better positioned than the SPI pins, which can easily be lost if all UARTs are required.

A second reason why this choice is practical is due to the Luminary device (which I am working on in parallel). It has an SPI (as they call it), but it is in fact absolutely identical to the SSP in the LPC! Even the internal registers and bits are the same, so this is a bit like 'killing two birds with one stone...!'

Regards

Mark

[mark]

Hi again

I will try to get a service pack ready for anyone who would like to use it. You can get the circuit for connecting  the SPI chip from the documents page: http://www.utasker.com/docs/documentation.html

Note also that we have a driver for the STM25Pxxx devices which has been successfully used in the Coldfire development project. If any one is keen on using these rather than the ATMEL, just let me know - the driver can now easily be adapted for the LPC parts knowing that the control has basically been proven. If you are happy to test it on the hardware I can get it to you very quickly...

Regards

Mark

[mark]

Last update on this topic!

I added the ST SPI FLASH devices to the project and verified everything in the uTasker simulator (STM25Pxx - large granularity code FLASH and STM25PExx small granularity data FLASH). Therefore this will be included in the next LPC service pack, even if not yet proven on hardware.

Regards

Mark