Looking for "Ezport" info

[efk]

Hello,

I am designing a hardware having the MFC52235. My dream is to be able to upload the firmware, without opening each casing of the future productions of interfaces, but the BDM port is not really suitable for that because of too many pins.

I heard about the possibility of firmware uploading via "Ezport", so i am looking for some infos for that, and i am looking also for a "ready to use" "Ezport" programmer interface (like the "USB Coldfire Multilink" for the BDM port).

PS: i found several posts about "Ezport" with MFC52235 in this forum, but all of them are not fixed. It looks like "Ezport" is too complex to use, or just simply not considered.

Is there any good news regarding "Ezport" with MFC52235 ?

What is the standard firmware uploading procedure for production ?

Regards.

[efk]

Thank you for your answers. I just would like to add a point regarding production.

The "firmware uploading" will be made by somebody who is in charge of "Quality Control" at the end of the production line. This person does not have an advanced electronic knowledge, and he must work quickly. He is able only to do the following:
- plug the new board (with the MFC52235) to the test PC, via the "EzPort" interface
- run a PC program which uploads the program data into the MFC52235 flash
- unplug the "Ezport" interface
- reset the new board with a power off/on operation
- plug the new board to the test PC, via the Ethernet line
- run a PC test software which say "interface is ok" or "interface is not ok"

There is no problem if i have to buy a M52233DEMO board for that, but the operation should be suitable for non electronic qualified people.

I also think that Freescale knows well what i described above, and they certainely already have a solution for "firmware uploading" for "quality control" at the end of the production line, made by non electronic qualified people.

Regards.

[Petter]

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efk wrote:
What is the standard firmware uploading procedure for production ?

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I've been thinking about the same myself.

I've modified my generic JTAG programmer to do EzPort and I was wondering if there is a demand for such a programmer. What do other 52235x users think?

I can think of three possible methods

1) BDM
2) EzPort
3) EzPort through JTAG where the EzPort is connected to some other JTAG device

1 and 2 has the disadvantage that it requires a connector (BDM being quite bulky) in addition to JTAG (or some clever muxing). The operator has to plug/unplug these under production. One can of course make some kind of edge-connector etc. on the board to eliminate the cost of the connectors. 3 is a problem if there are no other JTAG parts on the board, even though adding one is a possibility (the cheapest I can think of is the Xilinx Coolrunner II which cost 1$ in low quantities).

[UK_CF_FAE]

Hi Petter and EFK -

The whole point about the EzPort is that it is supposed to be a very easy interface to program the device over. Its basically SPI, so any mcu with a SPI port could be programmed to flash the device. I've been thinking about adapting a M52233DEMO board to act as a EzPort programmer.

Mark