From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Peter Barada Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:50:52 -0500 Subject: [U-Boot] OT Flashing high volume of devices In-Reply-To: <20101118203933.EAD3714E647@gemini.denx.de> References: <20101118203933.EAD3714E647@gemini.denx.de> Message-ID: <4CE591AC.3050506@logicpd.com> List-Id: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: u-boot@lists.denx.de On 11/18/2010 03:39 PM, Wolfgang Denk wrote: > Dear Hamilton Vera, > > In message you wrote: > >> Hi folks this is probably out off topic, we are happily using uboot in >> our devices but I am wondering about the procedures to flash/deploy >> uboot (or any bootloader) in a high scale production environment. >> > What sort of boot device are you using? NOR flash? NAND flash? > > For high volumes, you can get pre-programmed flash chips, so you have > a running system when the boards come from assembly. > Indeed, pre-programing flash used in the board assembly is the way to go. Most manufacturers make the initial image a self-test program that initially exercise all I/O (the board is initially powered up attached to a test/burn-in fixture), and if the test succeeds, then re-burns the flash with the production image(u-boot/Linux/rootfs or otherwise) that is part of the test-image. If the test fails, then the board is rejected and reworked to diagnose/fix found issues (cold-solder, lifted pins, etc). Speed of testing/initial burn-in can be increased by running more than one fixture in parallel. -- Peter Barada peterb at logicpd.com