Partitioning of Kinetis K50 with PE Multilink Universal

[programmer_ceds]

I have an application for the Kinetis K50 that requires the use of NVM.

I am using CodeWarrior 10.6 (with the latest updates) and a PE Multilink Universal.

I have defined a connection and in "Connection/Advanced Programming Options" I have selected "Enabling Partitioning for the device" and set the appropriate numeric value.

This works correctly if I use the Debug (green bug) icon to program the device using a debug configuration that uses the connection noted above.

However, if I use the Flash Programmer (blue flash) icon and set it to use the very same connection as the debug configuration uses, set "Flash configuration file" to K50DX256M7 and browse to the .afx file and then program the device it appears to program successfully but then fails to power up unless it has previously been programmed via the Debug route. (This applies to previously unprogrammed devices and those on which the "Erase Whole Device" option has been used)

It would therefore seem that although the same connection file is used the flash is not partitioned by the Flash Programmer.

Question 1 - should the flash programmer partition the flash if so instructed by the connection file? (Maybe I need to do something different to make this happen)

Question 2 - programming the device via the Debug route takes significantly less time than using the Flash Programmer route - is there a downside to programming production/release devices via the Debug route - they seem to function correctly?

[programmer_ceds · Accepted solution]

For anybody else with the same questions I have had the following answers from Freescale support:

The answers to your questions:

1. The Flash partitioning feature is part of the P&E plugin and only works with the debugger. The flash programmer utility does not include a command to partition the flash, so this is not supported. If you need the flash partitioned, then either use the debugger or run the partition command in the application code.
2. The debugger and flash programmer use different flash programming algorithms, so it is normal that the programming times are not the same. But at the end, the flash is programmed with the same code in both cases, so it is safe to use the debugger or the flash programmer.