CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cembeddedmicrocontrollerbootloaderrtos
Geo P
Geo P

Reputation: 740

Is a bootloader required to run firmware?

I am currently working on firmware for a Stellaris ARM microcontroller board, and I am running the SYS/BIOS RTOS.

I was wondering if the bootloader is required on the board when I upload my firmware onto it. Can I overwrite the bootloader on the flash with my .bin file, or am I required to offset my start address to preserve the bootloader?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1185

Answers (2)

old_timer
old_timer

Reputation: 71556

No, you can use JTAG and don’t need running software in order to stop and reflash the firmware.

Upvotes: 1

Clifford
Clifford

Reputation: 93524

In the general case (i.e., not specific to Stellaris), software is software, the bootloader is software, your application is software, the processor cannot tell the difference so quite evidently a bootloader is not required, the software that runs at reset could as easily be your software.

However, the obvious benefit of a bootloader is the ability to apply in-field updates without connecting special equipment; you might regret losing that capability.

Some chips (again generally, check your data sheet for Stellaris specifics) have a bootloader in mask ROM rather than Flash and you cannot delete or overwrite that, but usually configuration pins can be set to select the boot behaviour in order to by-pass the bootloader for example.

Upvotes: 8

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