11.2 Basic Concept and Operation

The image stored on the serial flash is extracted by the SimpleLink device upon first power up and file system is then created.

The device itself is responsible to self-extract the image and build the file system. This conversion process performed during the first power-up and before the Host receives the initialization complete event. On successful completion of the conversion, the SimpleLink device continues with the regular initialization process.

As mentioned earlier, Image creation is mainly used during production line. The image can either get programmed by an external flash programmer when the serial flash is not yet assembled on the board (not attached to CC3xxx device) or when the serial flash is already assembled on the board.

The Production Line procedure is as follows:

1. Prepare the image.
2. If the serial flash is not assembled on the target board:
   1. Program the serial flash devices with the image using any off-the-shelf SPI programmer before assembling them on the target boards.
   2. Assemble the programmed serial flash devices on the target boards.
3. If the serial flash is already assembled on the target board:
   1. Program the devices with the image using Uniflash (via UART lines).
4. Power-on the board as part of its final tests.
5. Wait for indication from the Host MCU for successful power-up.
6. Continue with the rest of the final tests.

The Host MCU is responsible to generate the indication of successful power-up only after the SimpleLink device sends the initialization complete event.

As mentioned, if the conversion process fails after the power-up from any reason, the device will not complete the power-up and the Host MCU will not get the initialization complete event. To exit this state, the user has to replace the serial flash or fix the image and retry.