The Design And Realization Of A Bootloader In A Specified Data Acquisition Based On ARM

The software architecture of an embedded system consists of three parts: the Bootloader, the operating system kernel, and the application program. As the first program run after the embedded system power on or reset but also the basic level when the system is in operation, Bootloader plays a key role in the system startup process and the application development.Since the underlying hardware configuration and the functional characteristics of Bootloader run on it are closely related, and there are much difference between the specific configuration and different manufacturers, strictly speaking it's impossible to achieve a universal Bootloader adopted by different embedded devices. In the actual software development process, it's common to transplant a universal Bootloader after necessary modification according to the hardware's actual requirements and the target board's specific configuration or straightly design a specified Bootloader.The main research of this paper is about the design and application of a Bootloader for the specific gas data acquisition terminal. The terminal used NXP LPC2368 that is based on ARM7TDMI-S as its mcu, with ?C/OS-II embedded operating system. For the cost cut, coupled with the requirements of application development and the follow-up system debugging, it's required to develop the Bootloader for the specified data acquisition terminal.Firstly, the paper studies the ARM architecture and the working mode of the ARM processor, then analyzes the target functions, the starting process and the operation mode of the Bootloader. Based on all of these, the outline design of function structureand its process is completed. Thirdly, the detailed design according to the outline is achieved from three levels, and the total design is accomplished. A friendly GUI interface is also developed in this paper to help to achieve the Bootloader local update function. In the end of this paper, the Bootloader is verified by some experiments. The result shows that the Bootloader discussed in this paper can achieve the predetermined functions of boot and loader the operating system and the local upgrade of the application.The Bootloader proposed in this paper has a simple structure and a small amount of codes, easy to read and it occupies small spaces so as to save resources on a chip and it's very helpful for theory learning. It provides a reference for the Bootloader design of embedded terminal based on ARM kernel.