Flash ROM Info

VM Labs SDK Internal Release 0.86.2
June 14
, 2001


Important Upgrades

The following changes are recommended for the SDK release.

  • You should upgrade your debug stub to version 4.9.5. See the Debug Stub Info document for details on how to do this.
  • You should upgrade your flash ROM to the latest firmware versions (included in this release). See the Flash ROM Info document for details on how to do this.

If these upgrades are not performed, the development tools and downloaded code may produce unexpected results or fail to operate.

WARNING: These instructions are for revision 5.x systems only! Revision 4.x and prior systems are no longer supported by VM Labs. If you have a revision 4.x or earlier system, please contact your VM Labs support contact for an upgrade.

Changes for the 0.86 release

For this release of the SDK, there have been changes to the Flash images and scripts included. These are:

Flash ROM and the debug stub

Before you update anything, please make sure you understand the difference between the two parts of your NUON development system which use FLASH ROM.  They are:

The debug card contains a PowerPC 860 processor, and most of the code on the stub's ROM is intended for that processor, not the NUON chip on the motherboard.  This code does not have anything to do with the BIOS or the startup code, except that it must safely co-exist on those occasions when it must ask one of the NUON processor's MPEs to do something.  In those cases, it may download a small piece of code to an MPE to facilitate some debugging function, or to speed up transfers over the Ethernet interface.

Please see "Debug Stub Info" for information how to update your stub.

This is what we usually mean when we refer to the "Flash", the "Flash ROM", or the "Boot ROM".

This Flash ROM contains the BIOS (if a ROM BIOS is installed) as well as whatever startup code is installed.  Older versions of the NUON startup code displayed color bars or a NUON logo graphic.  The newest version which ships with this SDK draws an animated fractal image.

The boot code does not really interact with the stub.  The BIOS only interacts to the degree that the stub may occasionally download a small piece of code to do some debugging function or to speed up a data transfer.

Other than the BIOS and startup code, the items which may optionally be installed into your Flash ROM would be the DVD player firmware and a copy of the NUON Synth's wavetable data.

Please see the remainder of this document for information on how to update your Boot/BIOS ROM.

Locating and Setting the FLASH/ROM Jumper

The FLASH/ROM jumper is a three pin jumper switch located on the printer circuit board of your development system. The exact location of this jumper varies widely, depending on the board revision. Click on the following pictures for a (really large) expanded view of the two example boards.

5.3 board jumper (set for Flash).This jumper is in a clear case system, using a 5.3 board. It is set for FLASH.

5.1 board jumper (set for ROM)This jumper is in a "white box" (PC case) development system, using a 5.1 board. It is set for ROM.

Note that these are just given as examples, the jumper in your system may be located elsewhere!

To select FLASH memory using the FLASH/ROM jumper, configure the jumper as shown in the diagram below.

Jumper set to flash

To select ROM memory using the FLASH/ROM jumper, configure the jumper as shown in the diagram below.

Jumper set to ROM

Note that it is safe to "hot switch" the jumper while the system is powered on. In fact, this will be required if the FLASH memory is uninitialized or if the boot image becomes corrupted. In that case, you will have to perform the following steps:

    1. Select ROM memory with the FLASH/ROM jumper.
    2. Power cycle the system.
    3. Once the system has come back up (to one of color bars, NUON logo, or fractals), select FLASH memory with the FLASH/ROM jumper.
    4. Follow the instructions below to write a fresh, working image to FLASH.

Updating ROM-based BIOS & Boot Code

Flashing to Developer mode

The ROM-based BIOS and startup boot code for your Revision 5.x system may be updated by following these instructions:

  1. Make sure your SDK is properly installed and that your MD_PORT environment variable is set correctly.
  2. Change to the %VMLABS%\bin\NUON\ directory (Windows) or $VMLABS/bin/NUON/ directory (Linux).
  3. Reset your development system and wait for the reset process to complete.
  4. To install the latest combination of boot code and the ROM-based BIOS for MPE 3, you can do one of the following:
    • Use the nuon-flash.tcl script:
      • On Linux systems, you can execute the script by typing: wish nuon-flash.tcl
      • On Windows systems, you will need to install TCL 8.1 by executing bundled\windows\tcl811.exe. Once this is installed, you can run the nuon-flash.tcl script by typing start nuon-flash.tcl or by double clicking on it.
    • For more information, see the nuon-flash.tcl documentation.

    • Use one of the scripts:
      • For the NTSC version, execute the flash-dev.bat batch file (Windows) or flash-dev (Linux).
      • For the PAL version, execute the flash-dev-pal.bat batch file (Windows) or flash-dev-pal (Linux).

These steps will result in a program being downloaded to your development system, followed by the data to be programmed into the Flash ROM.  Your development system's display will indicate the current status of the update. When it is finished, you should reset your development system.

Note that if your system locks up at either the Clearing or Programming stages, it probably means your FLASH/ROM jumper is set for ROM. Follow the instructions given earlier in this document to correctly set the jumper to FLASH. 

Linux failure note: if this fails to execute, check the permissions on the script to ensure that you have execute permission. Type chmod +x <filename> to add execute permission.

Flashing to DVD player mode

This is not the recommended mode. However, if you want your system to come up in DVD player mode, you can execute the nuon-flash.tcl script, then on the resulting window, set the Developer toggle to "No". Click the Flash button to begin flashing the system.

Checking the BIOS version

If you flashed to Developer mode, you can find out the BIOS version by doing the following:


Please email comments or questions to SDK-Release@vmlabs.com

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