Building a safe and secure embedded world

Embedded Bootloader Software

HCC has developed optimized bootloaders for many years and has a range of high quality solutions that will fit almost any scenario. Rather than create an inflexible, single-function bootloader, HCC has a library of bootloader components that can be snapped together to support almost any boot scenario. Simply let us know what trigger mechanisms, interfaces and target memory you will use and we will assemble and test a comprehensive solution from our off-the-shelf components.

All bootloaders have the ability to boot using Flash, USB or serial interfaces using minimal resources on the target controller. The benefits of using HCC bootloaders include small footprint, high-speed operation, optimized performance and a high quality stable implementation that has been widely used in commercial applications. HCC bootloaders are fail-safe and if the boot process is interrupted for any reason the system will still be able to fully recover. All bootloaders have the option of adding an advanced AES encryption module for secure data transfer and can be configured to support multiple complex interfaces.

Serial

HCC’s straightforward serial bootloader consists of a simple serial protocol, together with an appropriate flash-programming algorithm. This quick and reliable solution is sufficient for applications that do not require complex interface or device support. It can be used together with HCC’s encryption module for applications that require secure data transfer.

USB Device

The USB bootloader loads a new code image from a host application over a USB interface. It uses a special version of HCC’s EUSBD stack and a simple transfer protocol to minimize overhead. This gives the application developer several easy options for loading target programs over USB from a host. On the host side the developer has several options to manage downloads:

  • HCC’s free sample application that works with libusb (freely available).
  • HCC’s sample C# or VB application whith generic HID interface on Windows.
  • Use another generic USB host interface such as Winusb from Microsoft.

USB Host

The USB Host bootloader reads a new code image from any USB drive and uses it to update the target device’s firmware safely. It contains a special, read-only version of HCC’s optimized small-footprint FAT file system, together with HCC’s USB stack and Mass Storage class driver

For full details, see Bootloader overview.pdf.

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