The FlashPro-ARM Programmer has the ability to automatically program the target device's serial number (SN) and save it in flash memory. New SNs can be created automatically by incrementing a starting base SN, or can be taken from a file created by the user. SNs that have been used are stored in separate data files to account for devices that have already been programmed. In addition to this SN, the model name, group, and revision number can also be programmed to the target device. The user can specify the display SN format and location in flash memory where this information will be stored.
The SN is programmed when "Auto Program" or "Write SN/Model" buttons are pressed and the SN feature is enabled. When the "Auto Program" function is activated the SN is programmed to the target's device memory at the same time as code data. If "Auto Program" fails for any reason then the new SN is neither created nor programmed to the device.
The software also allows the microcontroller to retain its SN if one has already been assigned to it. Every time a device is programmed and serialization is enabled the contents of the target's memory are scanned for an existing SN. If the SN is found at the specified location the message in Figure 8.1 will appear and allow the user to decide to keep the old SN, program a new SN from the list, or program a SN typed manually. 
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Figure 8.1: If an MCU already contains serialization information at a specified location then a conflict window will appear giving the user the option to retain the old serial number, or program in a new one. The Serialization Dialog screen, shown in Figure 8.2, allows the user to configure how serialization is done. Serialization can be enabled, or disabled, by selecting the check mark in the ENABLE Serialization check-box. When serialization is disabled all edit lines and check boxes are disabled. When serialization is enabled, most fields have to be set to ensure that the result will be as the user expects. The necessary fields include:
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Figure 8.2: Serialization options can be selected here. | Anchor |
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8.2 Serial Number Display Format
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Figure 8.3: This window will appear when there is a conflict between memory allocated to code and the SN. To avoid this pop-up, select the option to "Remove code contents in the location where the serialization and model are defined" in Figure 8.2.The location in the target device's flash memory where the SN will be stored is specified in the \Memory Location - SN Start Address in Memory" field of the serialization dialog screen (see Figure 8.3). Specified address must be even and should be specified in empty memory space, not used by program code or data block. However, if you'd like to integrate the SN with existing code, by programming the SN to a code location, then check the box
Remove code contents in the location where the serialization and model are defined .
The SN memory formats will be described in the following subsections.
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The Device Serialization box, located on the main programming dialog screen shown in Figure 4.1 and isolated in Figure 8.4), contains SN and model information. The first two read-only lines contain information taken from the target device during the read process. The first line shows the Model/Group/Revision text and the second line shows the SN. The following two lines contain SN and model information that will be programmed next generated automatically according to the Serialization setup.
The current target's SN and model information can be read at any time by pressing the "READ / COPY" button located in the main dialog shown in Figure 4.1.
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Figure 8.4: Seen in the main dialog window, this serialization status box will display the current device's serial number and the next serial number to be programmed. | Anchor |
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8.8 Serialization Report Dialog Screen
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Figure 8.5: Serialization report gives a summary of all the serial numbers programmed using the selected file. | Anchor |
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8.9 Serial Number Input File
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Figure 8.6: Serial numbers read from a file.