Overview

Even though the boot process can be a complex sequence involving multiple steps it always starts with the same first step. When the power-on reset sequence is finished and the CPU comes out of reset, the program counter is pointing to the address of the reset vector (boot vector). This address contains the first instruction that will be executed by the processor. It is usually a branch instruction loading the program counter with an address pointing to the start of the boot code (also referred to as startup code or bootloader). This mechanism allows the code that has to be executed after reset to be located at any position within the processor’s address space.

Fig. 1 Reset Vector Diagram

Boot Code

The boot code can be used to perform many different tasks and from the CPU’s point of view it’s just a standard program. There is no change in the way the processor operates when the boot code is executing, it’s doing its business as usual (fetching, decoding and executing instructions). It is called boot code (startup code) because it’s executed before the main() function of the user’s application. In its most basic form the boot code is responsible for preparing the C run-time environment for the user’s application by performing the following operations:

  • Copying the initialized variables from ROM to RAM
  • Setting all bytes from the .bss segment (it contains global and static variables without initial values) to zero.
  • Setting up the processor’s stack pointer (allocating space and initialization)
  • Setting up the heap
  • Calling main()

The compiler tool chain typically provides startup code written in assembly language. As the boot code is the first thing to execute, it is always stored in a non-volatile memory (Flash, EEPROM etc.).

Aside from the operations listed above, one of the most common usage of the boot code is to load the executable binary image (the program)  into the processor’s memory. This is the reason for this code to be referred to as a bootloader.

A bootloader can be used in different scenarios:

  • Loading the binary image through some of the microcontroller’s peripheral interfaces (UART, USB , CAN, SPI, etc. ) and then writing it to a non-volatile memory. In this case the bootloader is used for “programming/flashing” the microcontroller instead of a using a special hardware and interface for that purpose (JTAG). This method is beneficial as there is no need for dedicated pins (for programming) of the microcontroller to be left available in the final embedded system. Changes in the program can be made through common interfaces that already used in the system during normal operation.
  • Loading the binary image from some external storage into internal fast access memory. For example the binary image can be contained in external flash memory or an SD card and when the booloader is executed the image is loaded into fast executing RAM memory.

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