On 11/18/2010 03:39 PM, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
Dear Hamilton Vera,
In messageAANLkTim-w-ijiNpPMsmUM++9MwWsxbOntOdPb5HH6D0Z@mail.gmail.com 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.