Little Board™/486e Technical Manual
2–20
Serial Booting and Serial Programming
Serial console functionality has been expanded to incorporate two additional features useful in
embedded applications.
! The serial boot facility enables the Little Board/486e C PU to boot from code downloaded
through a serial port in a manner similar to booting from a local hard disk or from a network.
! The serial programming facility permits updating FLASH memory dev ices in stalle d in the byte -
wide socket over the serial port.
Refer to the Ampro Common Utilities manual for descriptions of Ampro’s SERLOAD and
SERPROG utilities used to support serial boo ting and se rial pro gr amming.
Using a Serial Modem
Any RS-232C port can be used as a modem interface. Se rial po rt ini tializ ation is not an i ssue s ince
most PC communications programs control the serial port hardware directly. If the program does
not handle serial port hardware in this manner, use the DOS MODE command to initialize the
port.
Connect the appropriate I/O handshake signals required by the communications software when
installing a modem. Standard PC-compatible, serial modem cables that connect all of the proper
signals correctly are commonly available.
Many powerful communications programs are available to control modem communications. Some of
these programs offer powerful script languages that allow you to generate complex automa tic ally
functioning applications with little effort.