DFU using external FLASH

[why_do_i_need_a_user_name]

Our device has a 16Mb external FLASH device attached to the SPI bus. We were wondering if it was sensible\possible\desirable to use this FLASH as a temporary store of DFU images such as an application image.

This way, the internal FLASH would not programmed until the DFU image was fully downloaded and verified.

This would guarantee dual-bank updates irrespective of image size.

Has anyone tried this? can it be made to work? We are currently using the S310 DFU example in SDK 9

[Hung Bui]

Hi you_do_need_a_user_name,

I don't see any constraint that you should not use external flash to store DFU image before swapping it with the original application image.

The main reason we don't do that with our SDK example because we want to provide a solution without requiring additional component, which mean additional cost.

If you use external flash for the purpose, the code will more simple and you can have larger size limit with dual bank update.

[Anantha Keshava]

Hi Hung Bui,

at_least_i_have_a_user_name

Thanks for confirming this. Is there an example code to get something like this working quickly for my evaluation?

[Hung Bui]

Hi Anantha, 

We haven't added anything regarding this matter yet. But the fstorage module is designed so it's not too difficult to modify it to use external flash instead of the internal one.