The bootloader is put in the boot ROM inside the FPGA. It is small enough for the 2kB of this ROM. The boot code is directly executed from this ROM.

At the start of the boot, the user has 2 options:

• F1 : loading a content from serial link to the RAM, and execute it. It is used when developing programs that have just been compiled on the PC. And this was also the only way to execute programs when I had not coded the OS, the filesystem, and the Flash drivers.
• F2: loading the OS from Flash and execute it. This is the normal way to start the computer for a “user”. The OS is a 64kB executable file, put in a specific portion of the Flash.

The serial port must be configured at 57600bds, without handshake/flow-control, and if possible 2 stop bits instead of 1. Warning : files must been sent in raw format, not ASCII format. Under Windows, I use the TeraTerm soft.

Remark : the bootloader is not simulated inside the emulator, because I didn’t want to emulate the serial port. Some of the functions of the emulator are directly coded in C, and take the same file format (bina/bine/binc) than the bootloader itself.

Bootloader protocol:

The bootloader protocol allows downloading content from a file in the PC, to the A2Z RAM. I use the same protocol for the bootloader, and for updating files in the OS. The protocol is simple and mono directional. I have not wired the TX part of serial port. There is no acknowledge mechanism, no repetition, no flow control, etc…

This protocol allows 2 actions:

• Download a portion of data to the RAM at a specific address. I use 256bytes blocs.
• Goto command : starts execution of the code that has been downloaded, at a specific address.

There is a checksum mechanism for both actions, to detect data corruption.

The bine/bina/binc files contain not only the data to download, but also the commands with this protocol. These file can be direcly transferred, in a raw format, via the serial port.

Warning : the bine/bina/binc are therefore not raw binary files.