[avrdude-dev] [RFC] XMEGA PDI programming with a AM335x processor

[Enric Balletbo i Serra]

Dear all,

This is a request for comments.

I've been working on add XMEGA PDI programming support using the Programmable 
Realtime Unit (PRUSS) available on AM335x based boards like Beaglebone Black. 
With this you can program an XMEGA in-circuit without requiring any external 
hardware. The programmer needs a custom firmware that needs to be loaded to the 
PRU [1], avrdude loads the firmware and communicates with it to be able to 
program the firmware on XMEGA, the code is available here [2] and the specific 
commit that adds support for it is here [3]. It works doing

 avrdude -p atxmega16d4 -c pruss -e -U flash:w:my-firmware.hex

But there is still an issue that I need to solve, though I have a workaround to 
make it work. I'm pretty sure that the problem is in the PRU firmware side so 
not a problem with avrdude. Nevermind if you want to help test, review or give 
me your comments all are welcome. Do not hesitate to contact me if you are 
interested on this, either by email or in the irc (nickname eballetbo). I hope 
have a stable version soon but meanwhile, I repeat, if anyone would like to 
test all feedback is welcome.

Best regards,

 Enric


[1] https://github.com/eballetbo/pdi-pruss
[2] https://github.com/eballetbo/avrdude
[3] 
https://github.com/eballetbo/avrdude/commit/ba3cb893cf3931033faeb4ebe0c296842f168cc7