News

GCC 13.1.0 Tool Chains Now Available

I have built GCC 13.1.0 running under MinGW (Windows) for ARM, ColdFire, and PowerPC and made each tool chain separately available for download. These are the tool chains that I use for development of the Flash Insight programming tool but please note that Flash Insight does not support the PowerPC yet.

Building the C++ libraries for the Power PC failed under my build environment so don't expect them to work. I don't use C++ for my testing so haven't tested the GCC C++ functionality for any of the tool chains.

GCC 11.1.0 Tool Chains Now Available

After a long and unfortunate hiatus I am again able to build GCC. I have built GCC 11.1.0 running under MinGW (Windows) for ARM, ColdFire, and PowerPC and made each tool chain separately available for download. These are the tool chains that I use for development of the Flash Insight programming tool but please note that Flash Insight does not support the PowerPC yet.

Flash Insight V1.1.3 Now Available

I'm pleased to announce the initial release of Flash Insight V1.1.3, a tool for programming flash memory or in theory, any device that uses an interface compatible with either standard RS232 or any of the FTDI x232H "Bit Modes" (SPI, I2C, ARM SWD, JTAG, etc.). Currently supported device families include Kinetis-EzPort, ColdFire-EzPort, and LPC2000-ISP (RS232) all from NXP. For those not familiar with it, EzPort is an SPI interface. The unlicensed programming limit is 28KB on all of the families mentioned above which gives you quite a bit of flexibility to test drive the product.

Features

• Flash Insight uses an unmodified FTDI x232H which you can purchase from almost any electronics distributor.
• A project tree that has a default configuration as well as allows storage of multiple named configurations for each supported device family.
• Available operations include: configure/test target communications, read, blank check, erase, program, verify, and gang program (up to 15 devices).
• Supported file types include: binary, Intel Hex, Motorola SREC, and ELF (the ELF file must match the machine, byte order, and ELF class (32/64 bit).

For a more detailed description of Flash Insight please see the main help page and for device family specific information see supported device families. Links to help pages for each of the supported device families are provided there.

Support for other device families will be coming soon but depends on available time and funding. So please download it and try it out. If you like it and find it useful, please consider purchasing a license even if you don't expect to be programming more than the unlicensed limit. License purchases will help fund future development including the support of other device families.

Tranaptic Solutions provides embedded firmware development services and consulting. With the addition of Flash Insight, Tranaptic Solutions extends its ability to provide quality, economical support to manufacturers and developers of embedded products.

Web Site Updated

In order to make web site maintenance and adding new content easier, I've updated and simplified my web site. You probably won't notice much of a change in the look and feel, but performance is much improved.

COVID has been tough on everyone but with it has also come opportunity. It's allowed me to devote the time needed to get a new product to a useful if not polished state, ready for sale. News of that will be posted here soon.