In 2021, one of Germany’s leading B2B electronics magazines, Elektronik, conducted a reader test with SEGGER’s Flasher PRO and PRO XL flash programmers. Readers apply to take part. They receive the product free of charge, test it against previously defined criteria, and then give feedback plus a rating for the product.
The results of such tests are widely considered to be excellent, authentic, independent assessments for three main reasons:
- Testers are experts in their field
- Testers already use comparable products in their day-to-day work.
- Neither the product manufacturers nor the magazine has any influence on the rating.
What is Flasher PRO(XL)?
SEGGER Flashers are a family of professional in-circuit programmers, designed to be used in service environments, prototype programming and for mass production. They program the flash (non-volatile) memory of microcontrollers and Systems-on-a-Chip (SoCs) as well as (Q)SPI flashes.
The “almost-anything” flash programmers, Flasher PRO and PRO XL, work with a PC or in stand-alone mode and connect via USB and/or Ethernet. The control software is multi-platform for Linux, macOS and Windows with the Flasher PRO XL also able to program target systems running large footprint OSes such as Android, Linux, and Windows IoT.
For more info, see the SEGGER Flasher Family of In-Circuit Programmers
Test results – Highlights
Detailed information on the test and the results can be founding the Appendix at the end. Below are the highlights.
Testers praised the documentation as good, comprehensive and easy to understand as well as the software installation as being easy and following Plug&Play principles.
Comments included “simple setup”, “Installation went through without a hitch”, and an “unbelievable” number of supported devices.
It’s the output that counts
Just like SEGGER’s motto, “It simply works!”, Flasher PRO(XL) ensures ease of use for newcomers and those switching from other products, enabling them to get into a productive workflow as quickly as possible.
However, simply working is important not just for getting started, but even more so during daily work. In this area Flasher PRO(XL) achieved the best ratings: An average score of better than 1.5 was achieved for usage and better than 1.4 for programming speed and reliability.
Further tester comments were: “Had no weak points in our test”, “Speed very good” and “No obvious errors could be found during the test period”.
Conclusion
The test results have been summarized by Elektronik’s editorial staff in the headline: “Flasher PRO from SEGGER achieves top rating”.
Never has a hardware device received better ratings in a reader test than the Flasher PRO and PRO XL. In fact, in the long history of reader tests, there was only one product that received an even slightly better rating: SEGGER’s Embedded Studio IDE.
You can find more detailed information about the Flasher PRO at: https://www.segger.com/products/production/flasher/models/flasher-pro/
More detailed information about the Flasher PRO XL can be found here: https://www.segger.com/products/production/flasher/models/flasher-pro-xl/
Appendix: Test information
The test was divided into three areas: Before commissioning, Commissioning and Running operation.
Here, various criteria were evaluated with grades from 1 to 5 (1-1.5=Very good, 5=Doesn’t meet requirements).
Components tested
The testers used a wide selection of components as targets for the programming device:
- Microcontrollers from GigaDevice, Infineon, Nordic, NXP, Microchip, Silicon Labs, and STMicroelectronics
- modules like the Raspberry PI
- COMs from Ka-Ro electronics and Kontron
- ICs from Micron, onsemi, Toshiba and Winbond.
Many more devices are supported. A full list can be found here: https://www.segger.com/supported-devices/flasher/
Test range
The range of files programmed on the targets with the Flasher Pro in the tests was correspondingly large: from 2 kB to a couple of GB. Thus, the test scenarios represent a broad spectrum of real requirements in a production environment.
Details
Details can be found in the original test report which you can easily download here: https://c.a.segger.com/fileadmin/documents/Press_Articles/2021/211109_EN_Press_Elektronik_Readers_Test_SEGGER_Flasher_Special_Print.pdf