DEMO9S12PFAME and Windows 7

[vgusiatnikov]

Hi,

I just started a new project at a new workplace and selected the S12P for one of the

components. I have been using Freescale's products through all of my productive

engineering career, with thousands of units shipped.

I was thrilled to receive the demo board for S12P, however it appears that the board

cannot be programmed via the on-board integrated USB-BDM programmer

("inDART-One") in Windows 7. This thread  seems to indicate that the board's

manufacturer has no plans to support 64-bit Windows, and that no support for this

board is provided in CodeWarrior. I have contacted the board's stated manufacturer,

SMH Technologies, and am yet to receive a reply.

Currently most laptop and desktop Windows computers sold in the United States

have 64-bit processors and run 64-bit Windows 7, and it does not appear possible to

procure a new system that would run native Windows XP. I am not sure if the board

manufacturer's drivers would run on 32-bit Windows 7, and the linked thread does not

seem to offer much hope for that. I am aware of the Windows XP Mode on Windows 7,

and am holding off on investigating this venue.

My plan is to first try the PE Micro USB Multilink Universal. Here are my questions:

(1) Is the PE Micro USB Multilink Universal likely to work with DEMO9S12PFAME

(via the board's BDM interface)? It would be nice to know before spending more

money on development tools. PE Micro says yes, but I seem to have heard that

the S12P has a different Flash architecture from the rest of the S12(X) family,

so would like to have an independent confirmation.

(2) If the answer to (1) is yes, would it be possible to do the programming in

CodeWarrior, or would this configuration require a different IDE or a different set

of tools?

(3) If the answer to (1) is no, how likely is it that SMH Technologies' drivers would

function in Windows 7's Windows XP Mode?

I have a lot of respect for Freescale and its products. However, the fact that a

Freescale-approved development board is apparently no longer supported in

CodeWarrior, and is manufactured and supported by a Freescale partner who is

apparently only willing to support obsolete versions of Windows is quite

disappointing---I am not married to the S12, and should this venue prove

unproductive, will certainly choose another vendor whose development tools

would be more likely to facilitate timely product shipment.

Thank you,

Vladimir Gusiatnikov

[BlackNight]

Hello,

I do not have that board, so I cannot tell for sure. But here is maybe something which helps:

>>(1) Is the PE Micro USB Multilink Universal likely to work with DEMO9S12PFAME (via the board's BDM interface)?

My experience is 'yes'. I quickly checked in the debugger, and the MC9S12P128 is listed in the device list for P&E.

I checked the picture of the board on the web: and this one seems to have a unpopulated BDM connector on the board (I know that older SofTec boards did NOT had that option). So if it is not supported, some soldering is required. If you use the P&E interface, then anyway you will get a performance boost (at least compared to what I had as SofTec on-board debugging solutions for HCS08 boards: the P&E solutions was at least factor 2 faster, if not more.

>>(2) If the answer to (1) is yes, would it be possible to do the programming in CodeWarrior, or would this configuration require a different IDE or a different set of tools?

Yes, you can use CodeWarrior with it.

>>(3) If the answer to (1) is no, how likely is it that SMH Technologies' drivers would function in Windows 7's Windows XP Mode?

To my understanding you cannot run a Windows XP 32bit session in a Windows 7 64bit environment. I might be wrong. The problem with SMH is that they do not provide any 64bit drivers, and this is a must in the 64bit environment. I had the SoftTec drives running under Windows Vista 32bit. To check the same for Windows 7 32bit would require a little bit of an investigation on my side.

Hope this helps,

BK

[vgusiatnikov]

Thank you! I actually have grown doubts about whether Item 2 is true for all recent versions

of CodeWarrior and will forward PE's answer to this board when I get it.

Vladimir Gusiatnikov

[BlackNight · Accepted solution]

Hello,

my reference to CodeWarrior was to the non-eclipse based version V5.1 (the one I have).

BK

[vgusiatnikov]

Thank you! P&E says that the USB Multilink Universal will work with CodeWarrior for HCS12(X) ver. 5.1,

but only after a firmware upgrade on the P&E device. However, the USB Multilink Universal FX will NOT

work with CodeWarrior for HCS12(X) ver. 5.1.