A method for updating boot chip of powerpc motherboard online

Abstract

The invention provides a method for updating a PowerPC motherboard guide chip online. The method comprises the following steps: electrifying the system, and maintaining an update flag bit by a programmable logic device FPGA; transmitting a bootrom mirror image file to the system by an upper computer through a serial port in an update flow, and receiving and checking whether mirror image contents are correct by an update program; writing the checked mirror image contents in an FPGA operable address space, writing the mirror image contents in a working area by the FPGA, and meanwhile backing up the current mirror image; and starting the system again to accomplish the present update in the system, and otherwise rolling back the backup data in a backup area.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a method for updating the bootrom (Boot Read-Only-Memory) of a PowerPC motherboard boot chip on-line, in particular to a method for updating the bootrom of a PowerPC motherboard boot chip on-line through a serial port. Background technique [0002] Usually PowerPC motherboards use the bootrom boot chip to initialize the basic hardware such as the PowerPC processor, memory, and Cache, copy the image inside the bootrom to the memory, execute the remaining peripheral hardware interface initialization, system space configuration and other processes, and finally complete the loading of the operating system and guide. [0003] It is necessary to update the bootrom when debugging the PowerPC mainboard in the early stage, and later adjusting some hardware function configuration parameters according to actual user needs, or correcting remaining problems. There are two common methods: one is to directly remove the chip used for bootrom ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0004] However, the above two methods all need to open the chassis and pull out the PowerPC mainboard, and then use specific hardware to update the bootrom. Updating the bootrom for the complete machine that has already left the factory will bring additional equipment maintenance costs, and plugging and unplugging during the operation chip or connected to the JTAG cable, may cause damage to the PowerPC motherboard

[0005] The existing method of updating bootrom online usually adopts to download the image to the bootloader or the operating system, and the update program in the bootloader or the operating system directly updates the image in the bootrom chip. When the update fails, the entire PowerPC motherboard will be unusable. The current solution to this problem is to use the main and backup image partition management to start, that is, after updating the primary partition, backup the image at the same time, and then let the bootrom try to boot from the primary partition and the backup partition in turn.

However, if the bootrom can be started after the update, but fails in the middle of the start, it will also cause the PowerPC motherboard to be unusable again, and it can only be returned to the factory for repair.

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