A hundred pins with only 128 KB of flash looks like an unbalanced part until you see the board it goes on. R5F524T8ADFP is chosen when the design needs a lot of I/O and a modest amount of code: multi-channel valve control, a bank of relays, an array of sensors that each need their own pin rather than a multiplexed bus. The application is wide, not deep.
Wide Applications Leave A Different Trace
A deep application – a protocol stack, a menu tree – puts most of its code in the high half of the array and calls downward. A wide application spreads out: one handler per channel, a table of parameters, and a main loop that walks the table. When a hex file is delivered for this kind of product, the parameter table is usually the most valuable single object in the dump, because it encodes the configuration of every channel.
Memory Facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| ROM | 128 KB, FFFE0000h to FFFFFFFFh |
| Erase block | 2 KB |
| RAM | 16 KB |
| E2 data flash | 8 KB, separate area |
| Package | 100-pin LFQFP |
The ROM window base moves with capacity, so a 128 KB part reads from FFFE0000h while a 256 KB part reads from FFFC0000h. Getting this wrong produces a shifted image with a valid-looking vector table.
The Protection Set
Four mechanisms, four different scopes: ID code protection for the boot-mode SCI port and the emulator, ROM code protection for parallel-programmer reads through a value in block 0, start-up program protection for rewriting blocks 0 to 7 via the alternate area, and area protection for self-programming. They are all configuration. The array is not erased by any of them, which is why a locked part is still a recoverable part.
Reading Sequence
E2 first, because the calibration for a multi-channel board usually lives there. Then the option bytes, then the ROM in block order, then the ID code structure. Every pass duplicated; a block that disagrees is re-read, never averaged.
What A Rebuild Needs
Beyond the hex: the port initialisation map, the ADC channel assignment and the timer configuration. On a 100-pin wide design those three define the product, and all three are cheap to capture from a live unit and expensive to reconstruct from disassembly.
Report Contents
Merged HEX, E2 binary, option bytes, block map, ID code page, peripheral record, and a statement of the silicon revision read from the device. The revision matters when a replacement is bought from distribution, because a different revision may need a different errata workaround.
Reading A Wide, Shallow Application
A hundred-pin part with 128 KB of flash produces a code image with an unusual shape: a large initialisation block, a long table of per-channel parameters, and a main loop that walks the table rather than calling into deep function trees. Vector usage is low, because the design polls more than it interrupts.
That shape matters when the image is verified. A checksum over the whole array will pass even if a table entry is wrong, so verification on this class of product includes a structural check: the table should have a regular stride and a terminator, and if it does not, the region was captured with a misaligned base.
Channel Tables And What They Encode
Each entry in a per-channel table typically holds a pin identifier, a scaling factor, a debounce count and a fault threshold. Read as a block, the table describes the product’s I/O list more completely than the schematic does, because it includes channels the hardware provides but the current variant does not populate.
That is useful for a rebuild and useful for a customer trying to work out which variant they actually have. Two boards with the same part number can differ only in the number of populated entries, and the difference is invisible from outside.
Intake
Say how many channels the board drives and whether any of them are safety-related. Pack against foam, keep the heatsink on, and describe any coating at the time of the quote.
Start with the services desk or the contact form. The 64-pin 128 KB part is R5F524T8ADFM, and the 256 KB 100-pin device is R5F524TAADFP.