The S32 Flash Tool is provided with support for a few QuadSPI flash memory devices which are typically the devices provided as part of the standard NXP EVB for each of the support NXP Automotive Processors. This will work for most users, but some may select a device for which support is not included with the tool. The FlashSDK was created to provide an easy method for adding support for additional QuadSPI flash memory devices to the S32 Flash Tool.
First, a brief explanation of how the S32 Flash Tool works. The S32 Flash Tool programs external flash devices such as QuadSPI, SD, MMC, and eMMC. For each external flash device, there is a flash device-specific flash algorithm file. This flash algorithm file is downloaded by S32 Flash Tool to the target device SRAM, where it will be executed by the target device BootROM. The S32 Flash Tool then sends commands to the flash algorithm along with the image to be programmed to external flash. The flash algorithm will perform the programming of the image to the external flash device.
The Flash SDK provides the capability to produce new flash algorithm files, which could then be uploaded to the target device by the S32 Flash Tool and then used to program images to the associated external flash device.
The FlashSDK is provided in the form of a S32 Design Studio for S32 Platform v3.x project. This example project, as provided, will build and output a binary file similar to the MX25UM51245G.bin,
MX25UW51245G.bin files included in the S32 Flash Tool. The project is designed to build for the Arm M7 core. It is located within the S32 Flash Tool installation directory and inside the folder 'FlashSDK_Ext'. For example, since the S32 Flash Tool is included within the S32 Design Studio 3.x, if the default installation settings were used, this could be found at the path: C:\NXP\S32DS.3.x\S32DS\tools\S32FlashTool\FlashSDK_Ext
There is some limited documentation included with the FlashSDK, it can be found by navigating to the '...\FlashSDK_Ext\doc\html' directory and then open 'index.html' with your web browser.
In this document, an example process for using the FlashSDK to produce a new binary file will be detailed.