XJFlash

With XJFlash you can use the FPGA on your board to achieve flash programming speeds up to 50 times faster than those possible using conventional boundary scan techniques, often reaching the maximum speed for the flash memory.

• Cuts flash programming times
• SPI, QSPI, parallel NOR flash devices supported
• Support for NAND flash devices available on request
• Shortens development cycles
• No need for additional equipment
• Can be used for fast firmware upgrade
• No FPGA development required

Test Integration

XJFlash programming can be easily integrated into your XJTAG test system using XJDeveloper. All XJFlash programming can be run as part of an XJRunner boundary scan test project.

Configurable Flash Programming

It doesn’t matter whether you need to program a single flash memory device, or multiple devices that are connected in series, to expand the address space, or in parallel, to make a wider data bus, you can use XJFlash to speed up your programming operations.

Custom development

XJFlash can also be used for standalone programming requirements including direct access to I²C and SPI busses or custom protocols such as Microchips ICSP.

The required connections do not need to come from an FPGA on the target board. Providing the protocol signals are available on a header on that board, it should be possible to use XJFlash to achieve fast programming as part of an XJTAG solution.

XJFlash will automatically step through four stages each time a flash device is programmed:

Initialisation – The FPGA connected to the flash is configured with the XJFlash image required for the target board.

Example time: 2.1 s.

Erase – The flash can be erased using one of two algorithms. The basic erase will simply erase all blocks within a defined range (this may be the whole flash or just the space needed for the image to be programmed). The more intelligent erase will use the fact that it is quicker to read the flash than to erase it; as such it reads from each address and only starts erasing if some data is found. This step can be skipped if it is known that the flash will always be blank before it is programmed.
Example time – intelligent erase enabled: 0.9 s with a device already erased, to 23 s with a fully programmed device (limited by erase time of device).