Firmware Management for MCUs: The Quark Bootloader Approach

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" summary

Intel Quark reference bootloader (qm-bootloader) implements DFU-based firmware management over DFU over USB and UART by adding a QDA adaptation and XMODEM framing, provides a simple block-wise image format plus Python tools and a dfu-util fork for host-side operations, and fits under an 8 KB OTP constraint via modular code and LTO (saves ~15–20% flash). Upcoming release adds per-block HMAC-authenticated images with a dual-key provisioning and partition-consistency flags; bootloader data uses duplicated CRC-checked copies and recovery-on-boot, and the system is on GitHub.

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" chapters (22)

1. 0:00Outline
2. 0:33The Quark Bootloader aka QM-Bootloader
3. 2:43Firmware Management (FM) module
4. 4:00FM Protocol Stack Overview
5. 5:11(USB) DFU: Quick Introduction
6. 9:59QFU Image Format Overview
7. 11:53Flash layout: Application partitions
8. 12:49QFM Protocol: Examples
9. 16:48Secure FW Upgrade Feature: Overview What is provided
10. 17:46Secure FW Upgrade QFU extension
11. 18:27Secure FW Upgrade Upgrade flow
12. 19:39Secure FW Upgrade. Consistency flag and upgrade
13. 20:34Key Management Provisioning update mechanism
14. 21:57Key Management Revocation and firmware keys
15. 22:48Key Management: Key-update OFM packets
16. 23:30Key Management: First-time provisioning
17. 24:23Persistent Bootloader Data BL-Data
18. 25:01BL-Data: Duplication
19. 25:42BL-Data: Verification flow
20. 28:33BL-Data: Partitions and targets
21. 31:07Reusable software components
22. 32:08Some lessons learnt

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