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Chapter 13 E8Direct The E8 is an existing USB interface board, which has been used to i mplement the communications protocol
for programming R8C, and M16C devices. Originally this did not support a low level interface allowing its
use without the E8 having knowledge of the device protocol. From FDT 3.05 onwards a new E8 firmware
is supported that offers “E8Direct” - a low level interface using the existing E8 hardware, designed to be as
similar as possible to the FDM. Because of some hardware diff erences, the command protocol is not
identical, but it has been designed to be backwardly compatible.
WARNING: E8Direct is intended for use with Renesas Starter Kits. Use of E8Direct with other boards is not
supported and is untested - damage may occur to the E8 and/or the target board if incorrect settin gs are used. It
is important to always ensure that the target board power is switched off when plugging the E8 connector into
the target board
13.1 Firmware and Device ID
When plugged in initially the E8 will report itself as a Renesas E-Series Device.
Figure 13-1 Initial E8 enumeration
To use the E8Direct functionality it must be restarted, a task do ne automatically by FDT during a
connection operation (which may involve a firmware upgrade, see Chapter 12 - E8 Update). The Output
window will contain the following messages