j-link external flash loader for nrf5340

[Przemek Ostrowski]

The J-Link itself can’t “see” the external flash — it only talks to the nRF5340’s CPU via SWD.
I would like to program initial image of the external flash.
1. On Segger website they mention somethin about SPIFI, does nrf5340 support that?
2. Does Nordic provide a flashloader (custom programming algorithm) for that external flash that J-Link runs in the MCU RAM and loads the flash image using QSPI commands to write data into the external flash?

Thank you for help.

[Priyanka]

Hi,

1. On Segger website they mention somethin about SPIFI, does nrf5340 support that?

The nRF5340 has a QSPI peripheral with optional XIP (execute-in-place) so the external flash can be memory-mapped & cached, but there’s no “SPIFI” block. 

2. Does Nordic provide a flashloader (custom programming algorithm) for that external flash that J-Link runs in the MCU RAM and loads the flash image using QSPI commands to write data into the external flash?

You can use the nRF5340 QSPI. SEGGER J-Link supports programming external SPI/QSPI flashes either when they’re memory-mapped (XIP) or by running a small RAM-resident algorithm on the target that uses the SoC’s QSPI controller:

https://www.segger.com/products/debug-probes/j-link/technology/cpus-and-devices/supported-spi-flashes/ 

https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/nrfutil/page/nrfutil-device/guides/programming_external_memory.html 

https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-2.9.2/page/nrf/app_dev/device_guides/nrf53/qspi_xip_guide_nrf5340.html 

-Priyanka

[Przemek Ostrowski]

That is great news. Thank you!