uTasker Serial Loader

[mark]

Hi All

Due to increasing demand for a possibility to load application software via the serial interface of a board from S-record files a new uTasker project has been integrated into the development version. This is basically processor independent but first tests have been completed in Coldfire projects.

There is a preliminary user's guide on the documents page: http://www.utasker.com/docs/documentation.html - direct link: http://www.utasker.com/docs/uTasker/uTaskerSerialLoader.PDF containing full details.

Object files for loading to some popular demo and evaluation boards are also available on the SW/Demos page: http://www.utasker.com/SW_Demos.html

Watch out for the new project, to be included in future service packs!

Regards

Mark

[phomann]

Hi Mark,

That's great. I already have a use for it on the LM3

Cheers,

Peter.

[mark]

Hi Peter

I updated the document to include some details about use on the Luminary Micro evaluation boards. See appendix A: http://www.utasker.com/docs/uTasker/uTaskerSerialLoader.PDF

There is also now a test version on the SW page (for the LM3S1968 Evaluation Board) http://www.utasker.com/SW_Demos.html

It was necessary to make a couple of adjustments before it all worked correctly but this should now be solved for all Luminary devices.

Regards

Mark

[phomann]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for that. Does the boot loader also include the encryption/decryption capability?

Cheers,


Peter.

[mark]

Hi Peter

No, this is simple SREC.

To add encryption (which is of course possible, at the cost of a bit of extra code space) it would be necessary to first encrypt the binary content, then generate the SREC file out of it. Then the SREC parser would need to perform the decryption before saving to FLASH.

All of this is possible to add but I wonder how much demand there is for it(?)

Regards

Mark

P.S. I added LM3S6965, LM3S8962 and LM3S3748 target files to the SW page.

[phomann]

Hi Mark,

Can the encryption program that is used for encrypting the ethernet uploadable firmware be used for the serial bootloader image? If so, can I use the decryption module in uTasker to decrypt the serial uploaded image.?

I understand that it would mean that the bootloader would be larger and may possibly have duplicate code in it. Maybe, the decryption  stuff could be in the serial boot loader, and the ethernet uploader could do a call to it for the decryption.

Without encryption I'm not sure many would want to provide images of their software.

Cheers,


Peter.

[mark]

Hi Peter

I don't think that the existing module is 100% compatible but the algorithm can certainly be used. It would also need a new encryption tool which outputs an SREC (with possibly other small differences).

At the moment I don't known what the percentage of projects using encrypted uploads is. I known that for some projects it is a MUST but I believe a high percentage don't specifically require it - meaning that the object is not protected (presumably no worry of it being copied and/or reverse engineered).

Once the 'standard' SREC loader has proven itself a second phase could indeed be the encryption...

Regards

Mark

[phomann]

Hi Mark,

OK thanks for the heads up. I can work something out, even if it is a bit simpler than the standard encryption algorith.

Cheers,

Peter.