Modified to use '74 style flip flops with negative going clear and set; one replaced with a couple of spare NAND gates.

Reset now is normally high, low to reset.

Neil

So, here's a first attempt at turning the Logisim design into an actual 74hc circuit. It lacks things like a clock, reset circuitry, decoupling caps, and, er, the processor part (though the processor bits of my 8153 design should do).

It requires a depressing number of parts - eleven chips and a couple of dozen resistors - and it's going to take up a lot of PCB real estate, but still, it should load the bottom half of a 64kB flash/eeprom into ram from 0xc000 to 0xffff, and the flash/eeprom should easily be programmed in situ (it will probably require a hardware switch to stop the clock).

Not sure if I'm going to build this one in the immediate future; I'd like to sort out the STM design next. But I might knock up a limited version on proto strip to prove the timing.

Neil

edit: ack, just realised the ~wp and ~hold pins on the flash are pulled the wrong way. I'll correct that at stage

If a first stage loader always loads its full range ... I am thinking 128bytes, for a memory map of RAM $0000-$FEFF, IO: $FF00-$FF7F, RAM $FF80-FFFF ... and the address side is done with two 4-bit loadable counters, then if the top bit of the high nybble counter is simply not connected, pre-loading $7C into the two counters could write garbage into the top four bytes, then continue to $80, but from the address lines perspective wrap around to $00 in time to write the 128 bytes, with the high address nybble counter generating a /CO pulse which triggers the end of the 1st stage, and the last four bytes of the process over-write the garbage written at the beginning.

I'm putting this note here because I don't have time to nut out that trigger of the end of the 1st stage. Compared to the self-addressed 1st stage bootloader concept I sketched above, I do like that it suits a 128 byte 1st stage as easily as a 64 byte 1st stage, and that it doesn't require pre-processing of the image to be loaded into the first page of the serial FlashROM.

Yes, that should work - might simplify the state machine logic as well. For some reason, I never think of preloading something like a 163...

Wait, though: if you use a preloaded 163, you still only get one bit of address out of the first one in the chain because the bottom three bits are generating the write pulse. So only 32 bytes of loader with a couple of them. Or a 163 followed by a 393 would give you half a kB. I'll have a think about that...

But I suspect if you're going to have to do an OS download anyway, then the 5813 is a simpler approach although possibly a little slower.

Neil

Yes, this is three 4-bit counters, with an active low carry overflow /CO ... this idea is to only use three bits of the bit pulse counter, preloading %80 so there is a /CO to use as the /WR as well as the clock pulse for the address counters, and use the counter outputs as directly as possible to reduce the support chip count. So, for instance, the /CO of the high nybble is the /Set line of a /S /R flip flop, and the direct Q output of the flip-flop goes to a bit latch clocked on PHI2 driving /6502_RESET and /6502_BE, so the last write cycle can be completed before the chip launches the 1st stage bootloader.

Edit: The thing I have to still think through is allowing the SBC that it is on to use the same serial shift register to access data from the serial flash, using the SSR on CB2 of a VIA in 8-bit PHI2 clocked output (with the clock on CB1) to provide the read instruction and addressing data to the Serial Flash.

Except for the mutliplex, I think the jelly bean count is 1 USR, 1 '595 SSR, 3 up/down '193 counters, 1 74x00 NAND (two nand gates for an /S /R latch, 1 for filtering system PHI2 into a Stage1 PHI1, one for selecting the FLASH after the USR load is completed), and both sides of a 74x74 clocked d-flipflop -- one is used to create the synchronous load for the USR, the other is used to allow the final byte to be written before releasing the CPU /BE and /RESET, so eight glue logic (though note that the USR's are 20 pin ICs).



My ultimate aim would be to have multiple 2nd stage images on a SerialFlash, and have the 1st stage bootloader check in a RAM location for an ID key and a RAM target address, serial flash address and number of pages to load, so that the default bootloader gives a menu of available images, pick the desired one, and then hit reset again to start it up. Part of the default 2nd stage would be a monitor and part would be the utility to load a new image into the serial flash, and the application 2nd stages would have the default 2nd stage in the magic location, so you normally just hit reset to load the default 2nd stage boot menu if you want a different application image.

I just noticed that this doesn't have to be a clocked flip-flop, since it doesn't matter if $FFFF is written ... that is the BRK/IRQ vector high address, and for a 1st stage bootloader, that is free to be garbage.

So the /CPU_BE=/CPU_RESET flip flop can be a simple /S /R flip-flop, which can be done in half of a 74x00 ... /RESET_BUTTON and /COUNT3_CO will not both be low at the same time, so the instability of a simple two-NAND gate /S /R flipflop is not an issue, and two free NAND gates is of broad general utility. This flipflop is not speed sensitive, so it is flexible on whether the other two NAND gates need to be fast or shouldn't be too fast to avoid a race.

The sharing of the Flash is something like a '241 tri-state octal driver, with four outputs on active low /1OE and four on active high 2OE. A 74ABT241 seems to be available in DIP and accepts TLL input levels, so can be driven by a 3.3V serial Flash.

/DRIVE_1OE := /BE ; low during 1st stage bootload
DRIVE_1A1 := /1ST_FLASH_SELECT
DRIVE_1Y1 =: DRIVE_2Y4 =: -DIODE+ =: /FLASH_SELECT := pullup+3.3V
DRIVE_1A2 := 1ST_SCLK
DRIVE_1Y2 =: DRIVE_2Y3 =: -DIODE+ =: FLASH_SCLK := pullup+3.3V
DRIVE_1A3 := 1ST_MOSI
DRIVE_1Y3 =: DRIVE_2Y2 =: -DIODE+ =: FLASH_DIN := pullup+3.3V
DRIVE_1A4 := FLASH_DOUT
DRIVE_1Y4 =: 1ST_MISO

DRIVE_2OE := /BE
DRIVE_2A1 := FLASH_DOUT
DRIVE_2Y1 =: SPI_MISO
DRIVE_2A2 := SPI_MOSI
DRIVE_2A3 := SPI_SCLK
DRIVE_2A4 := /SPI_FLASH_SELECT