Optimize Your In-System Programming with FlashRunner Binaries (FRBs)

The .FRB is a smart file format created by SMH Technologies and handled by our programming systems to install firmware inside microcontroller memories. It is one of the essential resources for using a FlashRunner programming system to flash ISP targets during electronic board test and manufacturing.

What is an .FRB?

One of the most important concepts in ISP is the firmware to be installed inside the ISP targets. The most common formats for that firmware are:

• Binary
• Intel Hex
• Motorola SREC

All of these are supported by SMH programming systems, along with many silicon vendors’ proprietary formats such as Infineon ahex, Renesas RPI and Texas Instruments txt. An FRB is the conversion of these source firmware files into our own format, which is then handled throughout the flashing flow.

Two options are available when working with FRBs:

• Encryption to protect the intellectual property in the customer firmware, turning an .FRB into a FlashRunner secure file (.FRS). Decryption happens at runtime during the program command and does not affect production performance.
• Conversion report creation, so that what happened during conversion can be checked transparently. The report is a .txt file stored on your PC, where you can review the data blocks, their sizes, and the addresses at which the .FRB will be programmed.

Why use an .FRB?

There is plenty of information available about how the common formats above are composed. What matters here is that the binary format contains raw firmware data with no indication of the memory addresses where its parts should be placed, and no protection mechanism for the data it stores — whereas Intel Hex and Motorola SREC do carry that kind of information, and more.

From this, two gaps become clear:

• Given today’s cyber security concerns, having an integrity check and protection mechanism inside the firmware is fundamental — and that is exactly what the binary file lacks.
• Given today’s concerns about production line performance, Intel Hex and Motorola SREC carry a great deal of overhead mixed in with the data that actually needs to be flashed: address indications, record and data block sizes.

FRBs combine the best of these formats. The result is a format that provides integrity checking and protection mechanisms while reducing to a minimum the overhead mixed in with the raw data. When manufacturing electronic boards, this gives SMH Technologies’ programming systems the best compromise between file protection and performance, in terms of both production time and efficiency.