Techniques for Reprogramming the Boot in Automotive Embedded Controllers

Typically, automotive embedded microcontrollers will have flash ROM-resident boot (boot loader) software in order to reprogram the application software and/or the calibration data. However, depending on the engineering design and manufacturing process, there may be a need to reprogram the flash-resident boot software area itself. This can be achieved by exploiting the features that the underlying microcontroller offers, with the aim to minimize “brain dead” vulnerability, which is a major reprogramming concern.

This paper first discusses some of the needs for reprogramming the boot area, while some of the methods one can consider to address them are delineated subsequently. The paper summarizes with a word on the implementation results and comparisons using CAN-based serial communication.