Topic : Programming/Flash Erase speed

Forum : ARM

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October 8, 2015 - 3:07am
Grant Elliott

Hi there

I have been using RLink on a variety of ARM devices (primarily STM32) for some time, but recently at a factory they had a Segger progammer on the link and it programmed the devices signifcantly faster than my RLink.  I ran some tests with RFlasher and with the same PC, same target and same code the Segger is much faster at erasing the flash - the actual programming seems close.  The Segger erase + programming time is 5s compared to around 22s for the RLink.

Is there some setting or something I might be missing that is causing my RLink to run so much slower?

Thanks

Grant
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October 8, 2015 - 11:37am
Etienne Cassin

Dear Elliot,

Could you provide us the name of the target device and the size of your hex file?

Sometime, for some microcontrollers the complete erase is not necessary and the Flash can be partially erased (faster). The Rlink doesn't support partial erase then the erase time is longer.

This option (partial erase) is in our TODO list but I cannot tell you when it will be available.

Best regards,
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October 8, 2015 - 12:42pm
Grant Elliott

Hi Etienne

I am using an STM32F207VCT6 which has 256kB of FLASH and by code is around 86kB.  Given the structure of the flash in the STM32F207 (16K, 16K, 16K, 16K, 64K, 128K) if the partial erase was missing out the 128K section at the end then it makes sense that it would be a lot faster.

Thanks and regards
Grant