pureboot 5: one command pair for every memory, and a clock-free backend

R/r/w/F collapse into G and g over a selector byte naming the space — flash,
EEPROM, data, fuse, SPM — with the flash bank in its high nibble. Four command
bodies, four transfer loops and four argument decodes become one of each, and
W joins the same decode instead of keeping an address form of its own. The
loader shrinks while gaining everything below: on the 1284P the stock build
goes 480 -> 432 B and the software one 496 -> 450.

What the freed space buys:

  - Data space. On AVR one pointer spans SRAM, the register file and the whole
    I/O space, so G over space 2 reads all three. pureboot keeps zero static
    RAM and pushes no register, so at loader entry an application's SRAM is
    still what the application left there — this is a post-mortem, not just a
    poke hole. As its own command it needed a dispatch arm and a loop; as one
    more space it is a single ld/st.
  - Host-issued SPM. W fills the page buffer and stops; erase, write and RWW
    re-enable are writes to space 4, which reach the same fused store-and-SPM
    pair through the transfer's own address and data. Any SPM operation, lock
    bits included, is now reachable and the loader carries no page-commit logic.
    The four-cycle SPMCSR-to-SPM window is why that primitive stays fused: no
    host can hit it across a serial link, and that — not the byte count — is
    the floor on how low-level a bootloader's primitives can go.
  - Byte addresses everywhere. The bank in the selector retires the
    word-addressed wire the >64 KiB parts needed, so the 1284s stop being the
    outlier.

SERIAL autobaud is a third backend on the same loader, over libavr's
software_autobaud: no clock, no baud, one binary per chip for every F_CPU and
every rate. Activation counts poll iterations rather than seconds and bounds
every wait, so a stray pulse cannot hold an unattended device.

b answers with the version and signature only; the host derives geometry from
the signature, which is what an autobaud build requires anyway. An update image
is a bare slot with no device to ask, so every image carries a six-byte stamp —
the same bytes b answers with, and the source of both — that the loader never
reads from flash and the host refuses to install a mismatch against. The
running-slot write guard moved onto the SPM commit, which covers erase and
write both where guarding W covered neither directly.

The position-independence lint now proves the property instead of a proxy for
it: the image must come out byte-identical linked at a different base.
-fno-move-loop-invariants left the tuned flag set — it was fitted to a command
loop carrying four transfer bodies and costs bytes now that it carries one.

Verified: the exhaustive matrix on all 37 chips (every clock x every baud x
every backend, non-standard rates included, plus the autobaud build) —
8174 size checks, no failures, tightest fit the 1284s' autobaud at 510 of 512.
Behavioral suites green on every chip class: t13a 10/10, t85 11/11, m8 13/13,
m16a 13/13, m48pa 13/13, 328P 23/23, 644A 17/17, 1284P 17/17. Data-space
round trip through --peek/--poke and the autobaud handshake are both red-green
proven.

The two prototype sources and their findings file go; the README carries the
protocol and dev/done.md in libavr carries the reasoning.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

CMakeLists.txt

@@ -153,7 +153,10 @@ if(PROJECT_IS_TOP_LEVEL)
 	if(Python3_FOUND)
 		add_test(NAME pureboot.pi
 		         COMMAND ${Python3_EXECUTABLE} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/test/check_pi.py
-		                 ${CMAKE_OBJDUMP} ${CMAKE_NM} $<TARGET_FILE:pureboot> ${PUREBOOT_BASE_HEX})
+		                 ${CMAKE_OBJDUMP} ${CMAKE_OBJCOPY} ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER} ${LIBAVR_MCU}
+		                 $<TARGET_FILE:pureboot>
+		                 ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/CMakeFiles/pureboot.dir/pureboot/pureboot.cpp.obj
+		                 ${PUREBOOT_BASE_HEX})
 		add_test(NAME pureboot.planner
 		         COMMAND ${Python3_EXECUTABLE} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/test/test_planner.py
 		                 ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/pureboot/pureboot.py)
@@ -248,6 +251,15 @@ if(PROJECT_IS_TOP_LEVEL)
 		                 -DLIMIT=${PUREBOOT_LIMIT} -P ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/test/check_size.cmake)
 	endfunction()
 
+	# The autobaud loader: one clock-agnostic image per chip, so it has no
+	# clock x baud axis of its own — the matrix below sweeps those for the
+	# fixed-baud builds, and this one binary has to serve all of them at run
+	# time. Size-tested against the same per-chip budget as every other variant.
+	pureboot_add_loader(pureboot_autobaud SERIAL autobaud)
+	add_test(NAME pureboot_autobaud.size
+	         COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -DSIZE_TOOL=${CMAKE_SIZE} -DELF=$<TARGET_FILE:pureboot_autobaud>
+	                 -DLIMIT=${PUREBOOT_LIMIT} -P ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/test/check_size.cmake)
+
 	# One point of the exhaustive matrix, named from its resolved parameters
 	# so the enumeration cannot collide with itself. Unreachable rates drop
 	# out here rather than aborting the configure.
@@ -287,16 +299,15 @@ if(PROJECT_IS_TOP_LEVEL)
 	# sites), the largest image the space produces and a shape the ladder
 	# default — always the *fastest* rate a clock reaches — never picks.
 	#
-	# Bounded to one chip per size-bearing class: flash addressing (the
-	# word-addressed 1284), hand-over shape (the patched vector on the tinies
-	# and m48s), page size, and USART inventory. Everything else in the image
-	# is chip-independent code, so a further chip buys builds and no
-	# coverage; every chip outside the set carries the compact matrix.
+	# Every chip runs the full cross product: the size-bearing classes (flash
+	# addressing, hand-over shape, page size, USART inventory) are what make
+	# the image differ, and a chip outside them is expected to match its class
+	# — but "expected" is what a matrix is for, and the whole sweep is cheap
+	# enough to run rather than reason about. PUREBOOT_FULL_MATRIX is what
+	# selects it; the compact matrix below is the per-commit default.
 	get_property(_full_bauds GLOBAL PROPERTY PUREBOOT_BAUD_LADDER)
 	list(APPEND _full_bauds 16000 4800 2400 1200)
-	set(_matrix_spot attiny13a attiny85 atmega48pa atmega8a atmega168pa
-	                 atmega328p atmega164a atmega644a atmega1284p)
-	if(DEFINED ENV{PUREBOOT_FULL_MATRIX} AND LIBAVR_MCU IN_LIST _matrix_spot)
+	if(DEFINED ENV{PUREBOOT_FULL_MATRIX})
 		foreach(_matrix_hz IN LISTS _full_clocks)
 			foreach(_matrix_baud IN LISTS _full_bauds)
 				pureboot_matrix_point(${_matrix_hz} ${_matrix_baud} software)
@@ -378,4 +389,28 @@ if(PROJECT_IS_TOP_LEVEL)
 		                 ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/pbusart1-work usart1)
 		set_tests_properties(pureboot.usart1 PROPERTIES TIMEOUT 180)
 	endif()
+
+	# The autobaud variants driven end to end over the software-UART bridge (both
+	# under review — pureboot/autobaud.md): the host sends the 0xC0 calibration
+	# pulse, the loader times it, locks, and programs. Run on the near-flash 328P
+	# and the word-addressed 1284P — the two flash-addressing classes — and each
+	# at two clocks with the one binary, which is the clock-agnostic property
+	# autobaud exists for (test/pbautobaud.py). The fixture application banners
+	# over the same software link at the first clock's rate.
+	if(LIBAVR_MCU MATCHES "^atmega(328p|1284p)$" AND DEFINED PB_DEVICE)
+		add_executable(pbapp_autobaud test/pbapp.cpp)
+		target_link_libraries(pbapp_autobaud PRIVATE libavr)
+		target_compile_definitions(pbapp_autobaud PRIVATE PUREBOOT_CLOCK_HZ=1000000
+		                           PUREBOOT_BAUD=9600 PUREBOOT_SOFT_SERIAL PUREBOOT_TX=pb1)
+		add_custom_command(TARGET pbapp_autobaud POST_BUILD
+		                   COMMAND ${CMAKE_OBJCOPY} -O binary
+		                           $<TARGET_FILE:pbapp_autobaud> $<TARGET_FILE:pbapp_autobaud>.bin)
+		add_test(NAME pureboot.autobaud
+		         COMMAND ${Python3_EXECUTABLE} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/test/pbautobaud.py
+		                 ${PB_DEVICE} $<TARGET_FILE:pureboot_autobaud> ${PUREBOOT_SIM_MCU}
+		                 ${PUREBOOT_BASE_HEX} ${PUREBOOT_PAGE} $<TARGET_FILE:pbapp_autobaud>.bin
+		                 1000000 9600 ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/pureboot/pureboot.py
+		                 ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/pbautobaud-work)
+		set_tests_properties(pureboot.autobaud PROPERTIES TIMEOUT 240)
+	endif()
 endif()

pureboot/CMakeLists.txt

@@ -194,13 +194,19 @@ function(pureboot_default_baud clock software outvar)
 endfunction()
 
 # pureboot_add_loader(<name> [CLOCK <hz>] [BAUD <bd>]
-#                     [SERIAL auto|hardware|software] [USART <n>]
+#                     [SERIAL auto|hardware|software|autobaud] [USART <n>]
 #                     [RX <pin>] [TX <pin>] [TIMEOUT <s>])
 #
 # The loader target plus its flashable images (<name>.hex for a programmer,
 # <name>.bin for --update-loader). The resolved deployment is stamped on the
 # target as PUREBOOT_HZ / PUREBOOT_BAUD / PUREBOOT_LINK (the link spelled
 # usart0, usart1 or sw:<RX>,<TX>) — what a test harness speaks to it with.
+#
+# SERIAL autobaud measures the host's bit timing at run time, so the image
+# carries no clock and no baud: CLOCK and BAUD are not build parameters there,
+# and one binary per chip serves every F_CPU and every rate. The stamped
+# PUREBOOT_HZ/PUREBOOT_BAUD then record what a harness should *drive* it at,
+# not what it was built for.
 function(pureboot_add_loader name)
 	cmake_parse_arguments(PB "" "CLOCK;BAUD;SERIAL;USART;RX;TX;TIMEOUT" "" ${ARGN})
 	if(PB_UNPARSED_ARGUMENTS)
@@ -222,8 +228,8 @@ function(pureboot_add_loader name)
 	if(NOT PB_SERIAL)
 		set(PB_SERIAL auto)
 	endif()
-	if(DEFINED PB_USART AND PB_SERIAL STREQUAL "software")
-		message(FATAL_ERROR "pureboot_add_loader(${name}): USART ${PB_USART} contradicts SERIAL software")
+	if(DEFINED PB_USART AND NOT PB_SERIAL MATCHES "^(auto|hardware)$")
+		message(FATAL_ERROR "pureboot_add_loader(${name}): USART ${PB_USART} contradicts SERIAL ${PB_SERIAL}")
 	endif()
 	if(DEFINED PB_USART)
 		set(PB_SERIAL hardware)
@@ -252,7 +258,7 @@ function(pureboot_add_loader name)
 				set(PB_SERIAL software)
 			endif()
 		endif()
-		if(PB_SERIAL STREQUAL "software")
+		if(PB_SERIAL MATCHES "^(software|autobaud)$")
 			if(NOT PB_RX)
 				set(PB_RX pb0)
 			endif()
@@ -264,7 +270,11 @@ function(pureboot_add_loader name)
 					message(FATAL_ERROR "pureboot_add_loader(${name}): pin '${_pin}' is not of the form pb1")
 				endif()
 			endforeach()
-			set(_serial_defines PUREBOOT_SOFT_SERIAL PUREBOOT_RX=${PB_RX} PUREBOOT_TX=${PB_TX})
+			if(PB_SERIAL STREQUAL "autobaud")
+				set(_serial_defines PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD PUREBOOT_RX=${PB_RX} PUREBOOT_TX=${PB_TX})
+			else()
+				set(_serial_defines PUREBOOT_SOFT_SERIAL PUREBOOT_RX=${PB_RX} PUREBOOT_TX=${PB_TX})
+			endif()
 			# sw:<RX>,<TX> as port letter and bit, upcased.
 			string(SUBSTRING ${PB_RX} 1 2 _rx_pin)
 			string(SUBSTRING ${PB_TX} 1 2 _tx_pin)
@@ -280,23 +290,29 @@ function(pureboot_add_loader name)
 		endif()
 	endif()
 
-	set(_defines PUREBOOT_CLOCK_HZ=${PB_CLOCK} PUREBOOT_BAUD=${PB_BAUD} PUREBOOT_TIMEOUT=${PB_TIMEOUT}
-	    ${_serial_defines})
+	if(PB_SERIAL STREQUAL "autobaud")
+		# No clock and no baud reach the image; the window is a poll budget.
+		set(_defines ${_serial_defines})
+	else()
+		set(_defines PUREBOOT_CLOCK_HZ=${PB_CLOCK} PUREBOOT_BAUD=${PB_BAUD} PUREBOOT_TIMEOUT=${PB_TIMEOUT}
+		    ${_serial_defines})
+	endif()
 
 	add_executable(${name} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_FUNCTION_LIST_DIR}/pureboot.cpp)
 	target_link_libraries(${name} PRIVATE libavr)
 	target_compile_definitions(${name} PRIVATE ${_defines})
-	# Codegen shaping for the loader TU only, worth 14–36 B depending on the
-	# chip. At -Os GCC otherwise rewrites the byte-stream loops' counters into
-	# end-pointer forms that cost registers (-fno-ivopts,
-	# -fno-split-wide-types), leaves register pressure on the table with the
-	# default allocator (-fira-algorithm=priority), and keeps loop-invariant
-	# immediates and expression temporaries in registers
-	# (-fno-move-loop-invariants, -fno-tree-ter) — but every loop body here
-	# contains a call, so a register held across it costs more than the
-	# load-immediate it saves.
+	# Codegen shaping for the loader TU only. At -Os GCC otherwise rewrites the
+	# byte-stream loops' counters into end-pointer forms that cost registers
+	# (-fno-ivopts, -fno-split-wide-types), leaves register pressure on the
+	# table with the default allocator (-fira-algorithm=priority), and keeps
+	# expression temporaries in registers (-fno-tree-ter) — but every loop body
+	# here contains a call, so a register held across it costs more than the
+	# load-immediate it saves. The set is fitted to the loader's body and has to
+	# be re-measured when that body changes: -fno-move-loop-invariants belonged
+	# here while the command loop carried four transfer bodies and costs bytes
+	# now that it carries one.
 	target_compile_options(${name} PRIVATE
-	    -fno-ivopts -fira-algorithm=priority -fno-move-loop-invariants -fno-tree-ter -fno-split-wide-types)
+	    -fno-ivopts -fira-algorithm=priority -fno-tree-ter -fno-split-wide-types)
 	target_link_options(${name} PRIVATE -nostartfiles -Wl,--section-start=.text=${_base_hex}
 	                    -Wl,--defsym=pureboot_app=${_app} ${_wrap})
 	add_custom_command(TARGET ${name} POST_BUILD COMMAND ${CMAKE_SIZE} $<TARGET_FILE:${name}>)
@@ -310,3 +326,4 @@ function(pureboot_add_loader name)
 	set_target_properties(${name} PROPERTIES PUREBOOT_HZ ${PB_CLOCK} PUREBOOT_BAUD ${PB_BAUD}
 	                      PUREBOOT_LINK ${_link})
 endfunction()
+

pureboot/README.md

@@ -8,46 +8,51 @@ erase, reset-vector surgery, updating the loader itself — lives in the host
 tool (`pureboot.py`).
 
 The image is **position-independent**: control flow is PC-relative, the
-read/write paths take wire addresses, the write guard protects the slot the
-code is *running* in (from the runtime return address), the info block is
-addressed from that same anchor, and the application jump is an indirect call
+transfer paths take wire addresses, the write guard protects the slot the code
+is *running* in (from the runtime return address), nothing else is
+flash-resident to address at all, and the application jump is an indirect call
 to an absolute entry. The identical binary therefore runs from any slot with
-every command intact, which makes pureboot **its own staging loader**: the
-host installs the same binary one slot below the resident, jumps into it, and
-lets it rewrite the resident.
+every command intact, which makes pureboot **its own staging loader**: the host
+installs the same binary one slot below the resident, jumps into it, and lets
+it rewrite the resident. The lint holds it to that literally — the image must
+come out byte-identical linked at a different base.
 
 ## Chips
 
 Sizes are the default configuration: the hardware USART0 at 115200 8N1 on a
 16 MHz crystal, or the software UART on RX = PB0 / TX = PB1 at 57600 8N1 on
 the tinies' RC oscillator (9.6 MHz on the t13s, 8 MHz above). Every axis moves
-per build — see *Configuration*; the largest image any of them produces is a
-software UART at a slow baud, which on the 1284s is 494 B, the tightest fit in
-the whole matrix at 18 B spare.
+per build — see *Configuration*. The autobaud column is the clock-free build,
+which is the largest the space produces and the tightest fit in the matrix;
+it carries the calibration machinery and no clock at all.
 
-| Chip | Flash | Loader at | Link | Size |
-|---|---|---|---|---|
-| ATtiny13, ATtiny13A † | 1 KiB | 0x0200 | software | 416 B |
-| ATtiny25 † | 2 KiB | 0x0600 | software | 420 B |
-| ATtiny45 † | 4 KiB | 0x0e00 | software | 424 B |
-| ATtiny85 † | 8 KiB | 0x1e00 | software | 424 B |
-| ATmega8, 8A | 8 KiB | 0x1e00 | USART0 | 396 B |
-| ATmega16, 16A | 16 KiB | 0x3e00 | USART0 | 400 B |
-| ATmega32, 32A | 32 KiB | 0x7e00 | USART0 | 400 B |
-| ATmega48, 48A, 48P, 48PA † | 4 KiB | 0x0e00 | USART0 | 414 B |
-| ATmega88, 88A, 88P, 88PA | 8 KiB | 0x1e00 | USART0 | 434 B |
-| ATmega168, 168A, 168P, 168PA | 16 KiB | 0x3e00 | USART0 | 438 B |
-| ATmega328, 328P | 32 KiB | 0x7e00 | USART0 | 438 B |
-| ATmega164A, 164P, 164PA | 16 KiB | 0x3e00 | USART0 | 438 B |
-| ATmega324A, 324P, 324PA | 32 KiB | 0x7e00 | USART0 | 438 B |
-| ATmega644, 644A, 644P, 644PA | 64 KiB | 0xfe00 | USART0 | 432 B |
-| ATmega1284, 1284P | 128 KiB | 0x1fe00 | USART0 | 478 B |
+| Chip | Flash | Loader at | Link | Stock | Autobaud |
+|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| ATtiny13, ATtiny13A † | 1 KiB | 0x0200 | software | 402 B | 472 B |
+| ATtiny25 † | 2 KiB | 0x0600 | software | 406 B | 476 B |
+| ATtiny45 † | 4 KiB | 0x0e00 | software | 410 B | 480 B |
+| ATtiny85 † | 8 KiB | 0x1e00 | software | 410 B | 480 B |
+| ATmega8, 8A | 8 KiB | 0x1e00 | USART0 | 372 B | 486 B |
+| ATmega16, 16A | 16 KiB | 0x3e00 | USART0 | 374 B | 490 B |
+| ATmega32, 32A | 32 KiB | 0x7e00 | USART0 | 374 B | 490 B |
+| ATmega48, 48A, 48P, 48PA † | 4 KiB | 0x0e00 | USART0 | 400 B | 476 B |
+| ATmega88, 88A, 88P, 88PA | 8 KiB | 0x1e00 | USART0 | 410 B | 486 B |
+| ATmega168, 168A, 168P, 168PA | 16 KiB | 0x3e00 | USART0 | 412 B | 490 B |
+| ATmega328, 328P | 32 KiB | 0x7e00 | USART0 | 412 B | 490 B |
+| ATmega164A, 164P, 164PA | 16 KiB | 0x3e00 | USART0 | 412 B | 490 B |
+| ATmega324A, 324P, 324PA | 32 KiB | 0x7e00 | USART0 | 412 B | 490 B |
+| ATmega644, 644A, 644P, 644PA | 64 KiB | 0xfe00 | USART0 | 406 B | 484 B |
+| ATmega1284, 1284P | 128 KiB | 0x1fe00 | USART0 | 432 B | 510 B |
 
 † No hardware boot section: the host patches the reset vector, and the budget
 is 510 bytes, since the slot's last word is the trampoline.
 
-The 1284s are the heaviest because they alone carry the far-flash machinery —
-ELPM reads, RAMPZ page commands, a word-addressed wire.
+The tightest fit in the whole space is the 1284s' autobaud build, 510 of its
+512 — they alone carry the far-flash machinery (ELPM reads, RAMPZ page
+commands) and autobaud alone carries the calibration loop. Everything else has
+20 B of headroom or more. The flash bank riding in a transfer's selector byte
+keeps even those chips' addressing the same 16-bit form every other chip uses,
+which is why they are no longer the outlier they were.
 
 The software UART enables the RX pull-up; TX idles high. All multi-byte wire
 quantities are little-endian.
@@ -62,7 +67,7 @@ repo's build and by a downstream project alike:
 |---|---|---|
 | `CLOCK <hz>` | the clock the board runs | 16 MHz megas, 8 MHz t25/45/85, 9.6 MHz t13s |
 | `BAUD <bd>` | the wire rate | the ladder below |
-| `SERIAL auto\|hardware\|software` | the link backend | `auto`: the hardware USART where the chip has one |
+| `SERIAL auto\|hardware\|software\|autobaud` | the link backend | `auto`: the hardware USART where the chip has one |
 | `USART <n>` | the USART instance (x4 megas carry two) | 0 |
 | `RX <pin>`, `TX <pin>` | software-UART pins | `pb0`, `pb1` |
 | `TIMEOUT <s>` | the activation window | 8 |
@@ -74,6 +79,17 @@ receiver's 100-cycles-a-bit floor. Whatever is picked or overridden is
 re-checked in the compile: an infeasible combination, or a USART the chip does
 not have, fails with a named static assert.
 
+`SERIAL autobaud` takes neither: the loader **measures** the host's bit timing
+at run time, so `CLOCK` and `BAUD` are not build parameters there and one
+binary per chip serves every clock and every rate. It is for the deployments
+whose clock is not known at build time and does not hold still — the internal
+RC oscillator, ±10 % from the factory and moving with supply and temperature —
+where a fixed-baud software build has to be rebuilt per clock and still drifts
+out of tolerance. The cost is that it is software-serial only (a hardware USART
+needs its divisor programmed) and that activation counts poll iterations rather
+than seconds, since there is no clock to convert them against
+(`PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD_POLLS`, default 4,000,000).
+
 A downstream project brings its usual libavr setup (the `libavr` target, the
 chip via the `LIBAVR_MCU` toolchain preset), consumes this directory, and
 states its deployment — an ATmega328P on its shipped 1 MHz fuses with the
@@ -98,17 +114,35 @@ speak to the build. This exact deployment runs the full protocol suite in CI
 
 Reset enters the loader (BOOTRST on the boot-sectioned megas, the patched
 reset vector elsewhere) — except a watchdog reset, which hands straight to the
-application, since the application owns its watchdog and must clear WDRF
-itself.
+application with no activation window, since the application owns its watchdog.
+This is deliberate: it lets an application reboot itself instantly rather than
+sit through the window. The application must clear WDRF itself (libavr's
+`watchdog::disable()` does). **Gotcha:** WDRF is sticky (cleared only by
+software, not by a later reset), so an application that watchdog-resets and
+never clears it diverts *every* subsequent reset — external ones included —
+past the window too, and the loader becomes reachable only through an external
+programmer until the flag is cleared. A serial recovery path therefore assumes
+the application clears WDRF on its own reset path.
 
 The host then knocks `p` then `b`, each awaited byte under a fresh activation
 window; any other byte is discarded and awaited again, so line noise can delay
 the loader but never lock it. A window expiring on an idle line boots the
 application.
 
+An autobaud build opens differently, because it has to learn the rate before it
+can read a byte at all: the host sends the **calibration byte 0xC0** — a start
+bit plus six zero data bits form one low pulse of seven bit-times — and the
+loader times that pulse into its bit period. A single `p` then activates; the
+pulse has already proven a host is present, which the two-byte knock exists to
+establish elsewhere. Both waits are bounded, so a stray low pulse with no host
+behind it costs one window and then boots the application rather than holding
+the loader.
+
 The window is a compile-time constant (`TIMEOUT`, 8 s by default), so the whole
 EEPROM belongs to the application — pureboot keeps no state of its own.
-Re-timing a deployed loader is a self-update with a re-timed build.
+Re-timing a deployed loader is a self-update with a re-timed build. An autobaud
+build counts poll iterations instead (`PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD_POLLS`), there being
+no clock to turn into seconds.
 
 ## Session
 
@@ -118,68 +152,116 @@ write and sends the prompt `+` (0x2b), which is therefore also the previous
 command's completion ack. A session is: await `+`, send a command, read its
 reply, repeat.
 
-On chips whose flash exceeds 64 KiB (the 1284s — info-block flag bit 1) the
-`R`/`W` flash addresses are **word** addresses; everywhere else they are byte
-addresses (the 644s' 64 KiB is exactly the 16-bit byte space). EEPROM
-addresses and all counts are bytes.
+Addresses are **byte addresses within a 64 KiB bank**, and the bank rides in
+the command's selector byte, so no command has to speak word addresses. `J` is
+the exception: it takes a word address, because that is what the hardware's own
+jump takes. EEPROM and data-space addresses and all counts are bytes.
+
+The loader trusts the host to keep addresses in range: it does not bound them
+against the chip. **Gotcha:** a write (or read) that runs past `E2END` wraps —
+EEAR is only as wide as the array, so an address past the end truncates onto
+low EEPROM and the write silently overwrites it. Keeping transfers within the
+real sizes is the host's job (the shipped tool does); the flash budget is
+better spent on features than on re-checking a bound the host already holds.
 
 | Cmd | Arguments | Reply |
 |---|---|---|
-| `b` | — | the 12-byte info block |
-| `R` | addr16, n8 | n flash bytes (n = 0 means 256) |
-| `W` | addr16 (any address in the page), then one page of data | — (completion = next prompt) |
-| `r` | addr16, n8 | n EEPROM bytes (n = 0 means 256) |
-| `w` | addr16, n8, then n data bytes | `+` per byte, sent once its write has begun |
-| `F` | — | 4 bytes: low fuse, lock, extended fuse, high fuse |
+| `b` | — | 4 bytes: the pureboot version, then the three signature bytes |
+| `G` | sel8, addr16, n8 | n bytes from the selected space (n = 0 means 256) |
+| `g` | sel8, addr16, n8, then n data bytes | `+` per byte, sent once its write has begun |
+| `W` | sel8, addr16, then one page of data | — (completion = next prompt) |
 | `J` | word address (16-bit) | `+`, then execution continues there |
 | other | — | ignored; the loop re-prompts (send a junk byte, await `+`, to resync) |
 
-`W` streams exactly one SPM page (size from the info block) into the buffer,
-then erases and programs — except pages inside the 512-byte slot
-the loader is *running* in, which are drained and left alone, so a broken host
-cannot brick the running copy and a staged copy may rewrite the resident.
+`G` and `g` are one letter in two cases, which is the whole command set for
+every memory: the **selector** byte's low nibble names the space and its high
+nibble carries the flash bank.
+
+| Space | | |
+|---|---|---|
+| 0 | flash | read-only here; it is written through `W` and the SPM space |
+| 1 | EEPROM | |
+| 2 | data | SRAM — and with it the register file and every I/O register, which share the data address space on AVR |
+| 3 | fuse and lock | index 0..3 in the hardware's own Z order: low, lock, extended, high |
+| 4 | SPM | write-only: the byte goes to SPMCSR and fires the instruction at the address |
+
+The data space is worth more than it looks. pureboot keeps **zero static RAM**
+and pushes no register, so at loader entry an application's SRAM is still
+whatever the application left there, bar the handful of bytes of return-address
+stack — which makes `G` over space 2 a post-mortem of a running application,
+not just a poke hole. The same address space carries the register file and the
+I/O registers, so peripheral state is readable too; reading some of those has
+side effects (reading UDR clears its flags), which is the host's business to
+know.
+
+Programming a page is therefore `W` to fill the buffer, then a `g` to the SPM
+space for the erase, another for the write, and on a boot-sectioned chip a
+third to re-enable the RWW section — `0x03`, `0x05` and `0x11`, the SPMCSR
+encodings every part pureboot targets shares. The loader carries no page-commit
+logic of its own, and the same primitive reaches every other SPM operation,
+lock bits included.
+
+The SPM store and the SPM instruction must issue within four cycles of each
+other (§26.2), which no host can hit across a serial link — so this one
+primitive is *fused* rather than being a poke of SPMCSR followed by a poke of
+something else. That four-cycle window is the floor on how low-level a
+bootloader's primitives can go; it is not a byte-count decision.
+
+An SPM command aimed at the 512-byte slot the loader is **running in** is
+dropped, so a broken host cannot brick the running copy, while a staged copy
+one slot lower may rewrite the resident — which is what a self-update is.
 
 The loader never clears the SPM buffer before a fill, so **one `W` may program
 the wrong bytes, and the host is what fixes it**. The buffer is write-once per
 word until cleared, and two things leave words in it: a refused page, and —
 where SPM runs from anywhere, the tinies and the m48s — an application that
-self-programmed before entering. The next `W` takes those stale words and
-clears them, since a page write auto-erases the buffer (§26.2.1; §19.2 on the
-tinies), so repeating it programs correctly. The host therefore verifies every
-page it writes and rewrites what comes back wrong (three retries, then it
+self-programmed before entering. The next page write takes those stale words
+and clears them, since a page write auto-erases the buffer (§26.2.1; §19.2 on
+the tinies), so repeating it programs correctly. The host therefore verifies
+every page it writes and rewrites what comes back wrong (three retries, then it
 stops).
 
-`w` is host-paced: send the next byte only after the previous byte's `+`. `F`
-returns the bytes in the hardware's Z order; on a chip without an extended
-fuse byte that slot carries no meaning. Fuse *writing* does not exist — SPM
-reaches flash and boot lock bits only.
+`g` is host-paced: send the next byte only after the previous byte's `+`. Fuse
+*writing* does not exist — SPM reaches flash and boot lock bits only.
 
 `J` is the one control-transfer primitive: it runs the application (word 0 or
-the trampoline word, both known from the info block) and moves between loader
+the trampoline word, both derived from the chip) and moves between loader
 copies during a self-update. A jump to a slot's base re-enters that copy's own
 startup, which must then be knocked afresh.
 
-The info block (`b`):
+`b` answers with the loader's identity — its version and the chip's signature —
+and nothing else. Everything else the host needs (page size, loader base,
+EEPROM size, whether the reset vector must be patched, how many flash banks)
+follows from the signature, and the host holds that table; the loader derived
+the same facts from its own chip database at build time, so nothing is guessed,
+it is simply not sent twice.
 
-| Offset | Content |
-|---|---|
-| 0–2 | `'P'`, `'B'`, pureboot version (3) |
-| 3–5 | device signature |
-| 6 | SPM page size in bytes (0 means 256) |
-| 7–8 | loader base — application flash ends here (a word address when bit 1 is set) |
-| 9–10 | EEPROM size |
-| 11 | bit 0: host must patch the reset vector (no hardware boot section); bit 1: flash wire addresses are word addresses |
+An update image, though, is a bare 512-byte slot with no device to ask, and
+installing one built for another chip bricks the target. Every loader image
+therefore carries a six-byte **stamp** — `'P'`, `'B'`, the version, the three
+signature bytes — which the loader itself never reads and the host tool refuses
+to install a mismatch against.
 
 ## Version
 
-The info block's third byte is the **pureboot version** — the loader's one
-identity number, and the only way to tell what a deployed loader is. Nothing
-else is numbered: the wire protocol has no version, a pureboot version implies
-it, and the host tool holds that map. The tool states the window of loader
-versions it speaks (`OLDEST_LOADER`/`NEWEST_LOADER` in `pureboot.py`), and a
-version that changes the protocol becomes the new floor there. None has so
-far: 1 through 3 speak the identical session. A loader newer than the tool is
-refused by name rather than decoded on the assumption that nothing moved.
+`b`'s first byte is the **pureboot version** — the loader's one identity
+number, and the only way to tell what a deployed loader is. Nothing else is
+numbered: the wire protocol has no version, a pureboot version implies it, and
+the host tool holds that map. The tool states the window of loader versions it
+speaks (`OLDEST_LOADER`/`NEWEST_LOADER` in `pureboot.py`), and a version that
+changes the protocol becomes the new floor there. A loader newer than the tool
+is refused by name rather than decoded on the assumption that nothing moved.
+
+Two generations exist. **1 through 4** speak one session — a 12-byte info block
+from `b`, and a command per memory (`R`/`W` flash, `r`/`w` EEPROM, `F` fuses).
+**5** replaced those with the single `G`/`g` pair over selector-named spaces
+above; the shipped tool speaks both, choosing on the version it reads, so a
+deployed pureboot 4 stays drivable and self-updatable to 5.
+
+Collapsing four command bodies into one transfer loop is what paid for the
+version: the data space, the host-issued SPM operations and the fuses now share
+the loop, the cursor and the argument decode that `R`/`r`/`w` each carried a
+copy of. The loader shrank while gaining all three.
 
 The tool carries its own version, free to drift; `--version` prints it and the
 window.
@@ -238,11 +320,10 @@ with any pureboot build — a re-timed window, a newer version — using the
 loader itself as its own staging loader. The image is the loader's own 512
 bytes as a raw binary, or the Intel HEX the build emits beside it.
 
-The preflight refuses an image built for another chip: the info block embedded
-in every pureboot binary (signature, page size, loader base, EEPROM size,
-flags) must match the device's own, and the error names both. Die revisions
-share their base signature and geometry, so their images are interchangeable —
-as the silicon is.
+The preflight refuses an image built for another chip: the stamp every pureboot
+binary carries must resolve to the device's own geometry, and the error names
+both. Die revisions share their base signature and geometry, so their images
+are interchangeable — as the silicon is.
 
 1. The staging slot `[base−512, base)` is saved to a host-side state file (on
    the 1 KB tiny13s that is the whole application, vectors included).
@@ -279,8 +360,8 @@ to reset gets its reset pulse and opens the activation window by itself.
         --info --fuses --flash app.hex
 
 Operations run in a fixed order within one session: info, fuses, loader
-update, flash (erase / program / read / verify), EEPROM (the same) — then the
-loader hands over to the application. `--stay` keeps the session alive
+update, flash (erase / program / read / verify), EEPROM (the same), then
+`--peek`/`--poke` — then the loader hands over to the application. `--stay` keeps the session alive
 instead, and a later invocation reconnects into it. `--flash` and `--eeprom`
 verify by read-back unless `--no-verify`, and a flash page that reads back
 wrong is rewritten up to three times before the run stops (see `W` above).
@@ -288,9 +369,18 @@ wrong is rewritten up to three times before the run stops (see `W` above).
 extension. `--force` overrides the refusable safety checks — today, flashing
 application data into a mega's reset walk region.
 
-Readouts come one fact per line: `--info` decodes the info block field by
-field, `--fuses` each fuse byte plus, on a boot-sectioned mega, its decoded
-meaning. Transfers that take wire time draw a transient progress bar on stderr
+`--autobaud` opens with the calibration pulse instead of the plain knock, for a
+loader built `SERIAL autobaud`; the rest of the session is identical, at
+whatever `--baud` the host chose.
+
+`--peek ADDR[:N]` and `--poke ADDR:HEX` reach the data space (pureboot 5) —
+SRAM, and through the same address space the register file and every I/O
+register. Reading an I/O register can have side effects (reading UDR clears its
+flags), which is the caller's business to know.
+
+Readouts come one fact per line: `--info` prints the device's version and
+signature and the geometry that follows from them, `--fuses` each fuse byte
+plus, on a boot-sectioned mega, its decoded meaning. Transfers that take wire time draw a transient progress bar on stderr
 when it is a tty. `-v`/`--verbose` adds the decisions as they happen: knock
 counts, the programming plan, update state handling and per-phase page counts.
 
@@ -309,15 +399,19 @@ Per chip preset, `ctest` runs:
   the configuration space produces, and a shape the ladder default (always the
   *fastest* rate a clock reaches) never picks. Pins are immediate operands and
   the timeout is a constant: neither is an axis;
-- `pbm_*.size` — under `--full`, the exhaustive cross product replacing that
-  compact matrix: every plausible oscillator (the internal ones, the CKDIV8
-  floor, the plain and the UART crystals) × every rate reachable from it ×
-  every backend, unreachable combinations dropping out rather than aborting
-  the configure. Bounded to one chip per size-bearing class — flash
-  addressing, hand-over shape, page size, USART inventory — since everything
-  else in the image is chip-independent code;
-- `pureboot.pi` — the position-independence lint: no absolute `jmp`/`call`, the
-  info block within the image's first 256 bytes;
+- `pureboot_autobaud.size` — the clock-free build, which has no clock or baud
+  axis of its own: one binary per chip has to serve every point the matrix
+  below sweeps;
+- `pbm_*.size` — with `PUREBOOT_FULL_MATRIX=1`, the exhaustive cross product
+  replacing that compact matrix, on **every** chip: every plausible oscillator
+  (the internal ones, the CKDIV8 floor, the plain and the UART crystals) ×
+  every rate reachable from it × every backend, unreachable combinations
+  dropping out rather than aborting the configure. Thousands of points per
+  chip, and cheap enough to run rather than reason about;
+- `pureboot.pi` — the position-independence lint: no absolute `jmp`/`call`, no
+  flash-resident section but `.text`, and the image byte-identical when linked
+  at a different base — which is position independence itself rather than a
+  proxy for it;
 - `pureboot.planner` — the host tool's pure logic: programming orders and their
   recovery properties, the surgery, the staging composition, the boot-fuse
   decode, the update preflight over synthetic fuse bytes, and the repairing
@@ -347,7 +441,13 @@ Per chip preset, `ctest` runs:
   anywhere, which is what makes the path constructible;
 - `pureboot.update` — the full `--update-loader` flow, then every power-fail
   phase: the device is killed mid-write, restarted from its flash dump, and a
-  re-run must complete the update with the application intact.
+  re-run must complete the update with the application intact;
+- `pureboot.autobaud` (328P, 1284P) — the clock-free build over the GPIO⇄pty
+  bridge: the calibration handshake, a flash + EEPROM + fuse round trip against
+  the simulator's own memory, a data-space round trip, the hand-over — then the
+  same binary again at double the clock, which is the property the backend
+  exists for. A lone calibration pulse with no knock behind it must still let
+  the application boot, so no wait in activation can be unbounded.
 
 `size`, `pi` and `planner` are host logic and run anywhere; the
 simulator-driven targets need simavr and a pty, so they are POSIX-only.

pureboot/pureboot.cpp

@@ -26,14 +26,17 @@ constexpr std::uint8_t ack = '+';
 
 // Deployment parameters come from the build (pureboot_add_loader()). The
 // signature is not one of them: the chip database is the only universal
-// source — a tiny13A cannot read its own signature row from code.
-#if !defined(PUREBOOT_CLOCK_HZ) || !defined(PUREBOOT_BAUD)
+// source — a tiny13A cannot read its own signature row from code. An autobaud
+// build carries no clock and no baud at all; it measures both.
+#if !defined(PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD) && (!defined(PUREBOOT_CLOCK_HZ) || !defined(PUREBOOT_BAUD))
 #error \
-    "PUREBOOT_CLOCK_HZ and PUREBOOT_BAUD select this build's clock and baud — create loader targets with pureboot_add_loader() (README.md)"
+    "PUREBOOT_CLOCK_HZ and PUREBOOT_BAUD select this build's clock and baud — create loader targets with pureboot_add_loader(), or PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD for a clock-free one (README.md)"
 #endif
 
+#if !defined(PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD)
 using dev = avr::device<{.clock = avr::hertz_t{PUREBOOT_CLOCK_HZ}}>;
 constexpr avr::baud_t wire_baud{PUREBOOT_BAUD};
+#endif
 
 // The watchdog reset flag's home: MCUSR, or the classic megas' MCUCSR.
 consteval std::int16_t wdrf_field()
@@ -47,49 +50,110 @@ consteval std::int16_t wdrf_field()
 // runs from anywhere (Atmel-8271 §26) — keep the application's relocated
 // reset vector in the word under the slot.
 constexpr std::uint16_t slot_bytes = 512;
-constexpr std::uint32_t base = spm::flash_bytes - slot_bytes;
 constexpr std::uint16_t page = spm::page_bytes;
 constexpr bool boot_section = avr::hw::curated::has_boot_section();
 
-// Past 64 KiB a byte address no longer fits the wire's 16 bits, so flash
-// addresses there are word addresses ('J' always was one). A slot is 256 of
-// those — one value of a wire address's high byte, where 512 bytes span two.
-constexpr bool word_flash = spm::flash_bytes > 65536;
-constexpr std::uint16_t wire_base =
-    word_flash ? static_cast<std::uint16_t>(base / 2) : static_cast<std::uint16_t>(base);
+// Past 64 KiB one bank of flash does not cover the chip, so a transfer's
+// selector byte carries the bank and the wire address stays a byte address
+// within it. 'J' is the exception: it is a word address everywhere, because
+// that is what the hardware's own jump takes.
+constexpr bool banked_flash = spm::flash_bytes > 65536;
 
 // A compile-time window, so the whole EEPROM belongs to the application;
-// re-timing a deployed loader is a self-update with a re-timed build.
+// re-timing a deployed loader is a self-update with a re-timed build. An
+// autobaud build has no clock to convert seconds against and counts polls.
 #if !defined(PUREBOOT_TIMEOUT)
 #define PUREBOOT_TIMEOUT 8
 #endif
 constexpr std::uint8_t timeout_seconds = PUREBOOT_TIMEOUT;
 
+#if !defined(PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD_POLLS)
+#define PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD_POLLS 4000000
+#endif
+constexpr avr::uint24_t autobaud_budget = PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD_POLLS;
+
 // The loader's one identity number. The protocol carries none of its own —
 // a version implies it, and the host tool holds that map (README.md).
-constexpr std::uint8_t version = 3;
+constexpr std::uint8_t version = 5;
 
-// The 'b' reply, byte for byte (layout: README.md). Flash-resident because
-// no crt copies a .data image — and flash_table's storage carries the word
-// alignment 'b' needs to halve the address on the large chips.
-inline constexpr avr::flash_table<std::array<std::uint8_t, 12>{
-    'P', 'B', version, avr::hw::db.signature[0], avr::hw::db.signature[1], avr::hw::db.signature[2],
-    static_cast<std::uint8_t>(page), // 0 means 256
-    wire_base & 0xff, wire_base >> 8, avr::hw::db.mem.eeprom_size & 0xff, avr::hw::db.mem.eeprom_size >> 8,
-    static_cast<std::uint8_t>((boot_section ? 0 : 1) | (word_flash ? 2 : 0)), // patch-vector, word-addressed
-}>
-    info_data;
+// The image's identity stamp, for the host tool rather than for the wire: an
+// update image is a bare 512-byte slot, and without this nothing in it says
+// which chip it was built for. The tool refuses to install an image whose
+// stamp does not match the device — flashing a foreign loader bricks the
+// target, and the loader itself cannot check what has already replaced it.
+//
+// Never read from flash by the loader — 'b' answers out of this array, but at
+// constant indices, so those fold to immediates and no runtime address of it
+// is ever formed. `used` keeps the compiler from dropping the copy the host
+// needs and `retain` keeps --gc-sections from collecting it.
+// clang-format off
+[[gnu::used, gnu::retain, gnu::section(".text.stamp")]]
+inline constexpr std::uint8_t identity_stamp[]{
+    'P', 'B',                      // the magic the host scans an image for
+    version,                       // and from here on, exactly what 'b' answers
+    avr::hw::db.signature[0],
+    avr::hw::db.signature[1],
+    avr::hw::db.signature[2],
+};
+// clang-format on
+// Where the identity proper starts: past the magic the host scans for.
+constexpr std::uint8_t stamp_identity = 2;
 
-// The serial link, per the build's PUREBOOT_USART / PUREBOOT_SOFT_SERIAL,
-// defaulting to the chip's USART0 where it has one. The software receiver is
-// the polled one: the vector table belongs to the application. Templates on
-// the clock, so only the selected backend instantiates. pending() is the
-// cheap line test the activation window polls; drain() holds until the last
-// frame is off the wire, so a hand-over cannot let the target's re-init clip
-// the ack.
+// The address spaces a transfer can name, in a selector byte's low nibble.
+// Flash is 0 so it is the cheapest to select.
+//
+// spm_ops is the one that is not memory: a write there hands its byte to
+// SPMCSR and fires the instruction at the transfer's address, which is how
+// page erase, page write and RWW re-enable reach the wire without the loader
+// carrying a command for each. The hardware's four-cycle store-to-SPM window
+// is why this is one fused primitive and not a poke of SPMCSR — no host can
+// hit that window across a serial link.
+enum : std::uint8_t { sp_flash = 0, sp_eeprom = 1, sp_data = 2, sp_fuse = 3, sp_spm = 4 };
+
+// A selector's high nibble is the flash bank — the address bits above the
+// 16-bit wire address, RAMPZ on the chips that have one. Keeping it here
+// rather than widening the wire address is what lets one 16-bit cursor serve
+// every space: a 24-bit cursor would pay its extra byte on EEPROM and data
+// reads that can never need it.
+[[gnu::always_inline]] inline std::uint8_t space_of(std::uint8_t selector)
+{
+	return selector & 0x0f;
+}
+
+[[gnu::always_inline]] inline std::uint8_t bank_of(std::uint8_t selector)
+{
+	return static_cast<std::uint8_t>(selector >> 4);
+}
+
+// The slot a flash address falls in, as one byte. A slot is half as many words
+// as bytes, so the word address's high byte is exactly this index — which is
+// what lets the write guard compare a single byte, and what the running copy's
+// own return address yields for free.
+constexpr std::uint8_t slot_shift = std::countr_zero(slot_bytes);
+constexpr std::uint8_t bank_shift = 16 - slot_shift;
+
+[[gnu::always_inline]] inline std::uint8_t slot_of([[maybe_unused]] std::uint8_t bank, std::uint16_t at)
+{
+	const auto within = static_cast<std::uint8_t>(at >> slot_shift);
+	if constexpr (banked_flash)
+		return static_cast<std::uint8_t>((bank << bank_shift) | within);
+	else
+		return within;
+}
+
+// The serial link, per the build's PUREBOOT_USART / PUREBOOT_SOFT_SERIAL /
+// PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD, defaulting to the chip's USART0 where it has one. The
+// software receiver is the polled one: the vector table belongs to the
+// application. Templates on the clock, so only the selected backend
+// instantiates. pending() is the cheap line test the activation window polls;
+// drain() holds until the last frame is off the wire, so a hand-over cannot
+// let the target's re-init clip the ack.
 #if defined(PUREBOOT_SOFT_SERIAL) && defined(PUREBOOT_USART)
 #error "PUREBOOT_SOFT_SERIAL and PUREBOOT_USART select opposing serial backends"
 #endif
+#if defined(PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD) && defined(PUREBOOT_USART)
+#error "PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD measures a software link; it cannot drive a hardware USART"
+#endif
 #if !defined(PUREBOOT_RX)
 #define PUREBOOT_RX pb0
 #endif
@@ -102,9 +166,9 @@ constexpr char usart_digit = '0' + PUREBOOT_USART;
 constexpr char usart_digit = '0';
 #endif
 
-template <avr::hertz_t C>
+template <avr::hertz_t C, avr::baud_t B>
 struct hardware_link {
-	using uart = avr::uart::usart<usart_digit, C, {.baud = wire_baud, .max_baud_error = 2.5_pct}>;
+	using uart = avr::uart::usart<usart_digit, C, {.baud = B, .max_baud_error = 2.5_pct}>;
 
 	// The compiled idle poll: lds UCSR0A (2), sbrc skipping the exit (2),
 	// sbiw + sbci + sbci + brne (6).
@@ -136,10 +200,10 @@ struct hardware_link {
 	}
 };
 
-template <avr::hertz_t C>
+template <avr::hertz_t C, avr::baud_t B>
 struct software_link {
-	using rx_t = avr::uart::software_rx_polled<C, avr::PUREBOOT_RX, wire_baud>;
-	using tx_t = avr::uart::software_tx<C, avr::PUREBOOT_TX, wire_baud>;
+	using rx_t = avr::uart::software_rx_polled<C, avr::PUREBOOT_RX, B>;
+	using tx_t = avr::uart::software_tx<C, avr::PUREBOOT_TX, B>;
 
 	// The compiled idle poll: sbis skipping the exit (2), sbiw + sbci +
 	// sbci + brne (6).
@@ -171,14 +235,44 @@ struct software_link {
 	}
 };
 
-#if defined(PUREBOOT_USART)
+// The clock-free link: the bit period is measured from the host's calibration
+// pulse instead of derived from a clock, so one image serves every F_CPU and
+// every rate. Activation differs in kind from the other two — there is no
+// clock to time a window against — so this backend brings its own, below.
+struct autobaud_link {
+	using uart = avr::uart::software_autobaud<avr::PUREBOOT_RX, avr::PUREBOOT_TX>;
+
+	static void init()
+	{
+		avr::init<uart>();
+	}
+
+	static std::uint8_t rx()
+	{
+		return uart::template read<off>();
+	}
+
+	static void tx(std::uint8_t byte)
+	{
+		uart::template write<off>(byte);
+	}
+
+	static void drain()
+	{
+		uart::drain();
+	}
+};
+
+#if defined(PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD)
+using link = autobaud_link;
+#elif defined(PUREBOOT_USART)
 static_assert(avr::uart::has_usart<usart_digit>(), "PUREBOOT_USART selects a hardware USART this chip does not have");
-using link = hardware_link<dev::clock>;
+using link = hardware_link<dev::clock, wire_baud>;
 #elif defined(PUREBOOT_SOFT_SERIAL)
-using link = software_link<dev::clock>;
+using link = software_link<dev::clock, wire_baud>;
 #else
-using link =
-    std::conditional_t<avr::uart::has_usart<usart_digit>(), hardware_link<dev::clock>, software_link<dev::clock>>;
+using link = std::conditional_t<avr::uart::has_usart<usart_digit>(), hardware_link<dev::clock, wire_baud>,
+                                software_link<dev::clock, wire_baud>>;
 #endif
 
 // The application's entry, pinned by the linker (--defsym): word 0 on a
@@ -198,6 +292,27 @@ extern "C" [[noreturn]] void pureboot_app();
 	jump(pureboot_app);
 }
 
+// Activation: a bounded wait for the host, then the knock. Both forms boot the
+// application when the window closes on an idle line, and both bound *every*
+// wait — a knock awaited without a deadline would let one stray edge hold an
+// unattended device in the loader forever.
+#if defined(PUREBOOT_AUTOBAUD)
+// The window is a fixed poll budget: with no clock, whole seconds cannot be
+// timed. A uint24_t holds it — a fourth byte would cost two words at every
+// countdown step for range never used.
+void await_host()
+{
+	for (;;) {
+		if (!link::uart::calibrate(autobaud_budget))
+			run_app();
+		// The calibration pulse has already proven a host is there, so one
+		// byte activates. A knock that never arrives falls back to calibrate(),
+		// whose own budget then boots the application.
+		if (link::uart::template read<off>(autobaud_budget) == 'p')
+			return;
+	}
+}
+#else
 // The window as one 32-bit countdown, divided by the backend's counted
 // poll-loop cycles. Whole seconds is all it promises.
 consteval std::uint32_t window_polls()
@@ -224,6 +339,14 @@ std::uint8_t rx_deadline()
 	return link::rx();
 }
 
+void await_host()
+{
+	// 'p' then 'b', each under a fresh window; anything else is line noise.
+	while (rx_deadline() != 'p' || rx_deadline() != 'b') {
+	}
+}
+#endif
+
 // Inlined: read across a call, the first byte strands in a call-saved
 // register the caller has to push and pop.
 [[gnu::always_inline]] inline std::uint16_t rx16()
@@ -241,133 +364,92 @@ std::uint8_t rx_deadline()
 	return std::bit_cast<std::uint16_t>(pair);
 }
 
-// Counts arrive in the wire's 8-bit form: 0 means 256. Both streamers fold
-// into the one command that reads flash, which is what lets the far one's
-// 24-bit cursor sit in the command loop's own call-saved registers.
-[[maybe_unused, gnu::always_inline]] inline void send_flash_near(std::uint16_t address, std::uint8_t count)
-{
-	do
-		link::tx(avr::flash_load(reinterpret_cast<const std::uint8_t *>(address++)));
-	while (--count);
-}
-
-// The 24-bit cursor as the machine holds it — the RAMPZ byte and a 16-bit Z,
-// carried apart; the reassembled address folds away inside the far load.
-[[maybe_unused, gnu::always_inline]] inline void send_flash_far(std::uint16_t address, std::uint8_t count)
-{
-	std::uint8_t rampz = static_cast<std::uint8_t>(address >> 15);
-	std::uint16_t z = static_cast<std::uint16_t>(address << 1);
-	do {
-		link::tx(avr::flash_load_far<std::uint8_t>((static_cast<std::uint32_t>(rampz) << 16) | z));
-		// Carrying the wrap is smaller than the flat 32-bit cursor GCC
-		// builds without it.
-		if (++z == 0)
-			++rampz;
-	} while (--count);
-}
-
-[[gnu::always_inline]] inline void send_flash(std::uint16_t address, std::uint8_t count)
-{
-	if constexpr (word_flash)
-		send_flash_far(address, count);
-	else
-		send_flash_near(address, count);
-}
-
-// Out of line: three sites send it, and a call is shorter than three
-// load-immediates.
+// Out of line: several sites send it, and a call is shorter than a
+// load-immediate at each.
 [[gnu::noinline]] void tx_ack()
 {
 	link::tx(ack);
 }
 
-void send_eeprom(std::uint16_t address, std::uint8_t count)
+// A wire address and its selector's bank as the flash address they name.
+[[gnu::always_inline]] inline spm::flash_address_t flash_address([[maybe_unused]] std::uint8_t bank, std::uint16_t at)
 {
-	do
-		link::tx(ee::read(address++));
-	while (--count);
+	if constexpr (banked_flash)
+		return (static_cast<spm::flash_address_t>(bank) << 16) | at;
+	else
+		return at;
 }
 
-// Host-paced: the ack goes out once the write has begun, so the next byte
-// arrives while it completes and nothing is missed without a buffer.
-void store_eeprom(std::uint16_t address, std::uint8_t count)
+// One byte out of any space. Every accessor shares the transfer's cursor, its
+// loop and its call site, so a space costs only its own instruction rather
+// than a body, a loop and a dispatch arm of its own.
+[[gnu::always_inline]] inline std::uint8_t load(std::uint8_t space, [[maybe_unused]] std::uint8_t bank,
+                                                std::uint16_t at)
 {
-	do {
-		ee::write<off>(address++, link::rx());
-		tx_ack();
-	} while (--count);
+	if (space == sp_eeprom)
+		return ee::read(at);
+	if (space == sp_data)
+		return *reinterpret_cast<volatile std::uint8_t *>(at);
+	if (space == sp_fuse)
+		return spm::read_fuse<off>(static_cast<spm::fuse>(at));
+	if constexpr (banked_flash)
+		return avr::flash_load_far<std::uint8_t>(flash_address(bank, at));
+	else
+		return avr::flash_load(reinterpret_cast<const std::uint8_t *>(at));
 }
 
-// One page into the SPM buffer, then erase and program — except the slot
-// this code is running in (`slot_high`, from run()), which is drained and
-// left alone. A broken host therefore cannot brick the running loader, and a
-// copy one slot lower may rewrite the resident one.
+// One byte into a writable space. Flash is not one of them — it arrives a
+// page at a time through 'W' and is committed through sp_spm — and the fuses
+// are not writable at all: SPM reaches flash and boot lock bits only.
+[[gnu::always_inline]] inline void store(std::uint8_t space, std::uint8_t bank, std::uint16_t at, std::uint8_t value,
+                                         std::uint8_t slot_high)
+{
+	if (space == sp_data) {
+		*reinterpret_cast<volatile std::uint8_t *>(at) = value;
+		return;
+	}
+	if (space == sp_spm) {
+		// The running-slot write guard. An SPM command aimed at the slot this
+		// code executes from is dropped, so a broken host cannot brick the
+		// running loader — while a copy one slot lower may still rewrite the
+		// resident one, which is what a self-update is. Guarding the commit
+		// rather than the page fill covers erase and write both, and leaves a
+		// refused page's words in the buffer: harmless, since the next page
+		// write auto-erases it (§26.2.1).
+		if (slot_of(bank, at) != slot_high)
+			spm::command<off>(value, flash_address(bank, at));
+		// Only a boot-sectioned mega runs on while its RWW section programs;
+		// everywhere else the CPU halts through erase and write, so the wait
+		// is already over by the time it returns.
+		if constexpr (boot_section)
+			spm::wait();
+		return;
+	}
+	// Host-paced: the ack goes out once the write has begun, so the next byte
+	// arrives while it completes and nothing is missed without a buffer.
+	ee::write<off>(at, value);
+}
+
+// One page into the SPM buffer, and only that: the erase and the write that
+// commit it are host-issued sp_spm stores, which reach the same fused
+// store-and-SPM pair through the transfer path's own address and data.
 //
 // Nothing discards the buffer first: it is write-once per word (§26.2.1), so
 // filling over a refused page or an application's leavings programs stale
 // words — but a page write auto-erases it (§26.2.1; §19.2 on the tinies), so
 // that write clears the condition and the host's read-back rewrites the page.
-void program_flash(std::uint16_t wire_address, std::uint8_t slot_high)
+void fill_page(std::uint8_t bank, std::uint16_t at)
 {
 	// The address names a page, so its in-page bits are dropped and the walk
-	// starts at the page base — one induction either way: a byte-addressed
-	// wire address walks the page itself (the offset bits wrap back to zero),
-	// while a word one becomes a byte cursor once. The slot index is the wire
-	// address's high byte — on byte-addressed chips the byte address's, with
-	// the low bit dropped, since a slot is two of those.
-	spm::flash_address_t address;
-	std::uint8_t page_high;
-	if constexpr (word_flash) {
-		// A page is aligned, so it never crosses 64 KiB: RAMPZ is a per-page
-		// constant and the 16-bit Z's low byte is the whole in-page offset.
-		const std::uint8_t rampz = static_cast<std::uint8_t>(wire_address >> 15);
-		const std::uint16_t z0 =
-		    static_cast<std::uint16_t>(wire_address << 1) & ~static_cast<std::uint16_t>(page - 1);
-		std::uint16_t z = z0;
-		do {
-			std::uint8_t low = link::rx();
-			std::uint8_t high = link::rx();
-			spm::fill<off>((static_cast<spm::flash_address_t>(rampz) << 16) | z, word_of({low, high}));
-			z += 2;
-		} while (static_cast<std::uint8_t>(z));
-		address = (static_cast<spm::flash_address_t>(rampz) << 16) | z0;
-		page_high = static_cast<std::uint8_t>(wire_address >> 8);
-	} else {
-		address = static_cast<spm::flash_address_t>(wire_address & ~static_cast<std::uint16_t>(page - 1));
-		do {
-			std::uint8_t low = link::rx();
-			std::uint8_t high = link::rx();
-			spm::fill<off>(address, word_of({low, high}));
-			address += 2;
-		} while (static_cast<std::uint8_t>(address) & (page - 1));
-		address -= 2; // back inside the page — erase and write ignore the word bits
-		page_high = static_cast<std::uint8_t>(address >> 8) & 0xfe;
-	}
-	if (page_high != slot_high) {
-		// Only a boot-sectioned mega runs on while its RWW section programs;
-		// everywhere else the CPU halts through erase and write.
-		spm::erase_page<off>(address);
-		if constexpr (boot_section)
-			spm::wait();
-		spm::write_page<off>(address);
-		if constexpr (boot_section)
-			spm::wait();
-	}
-	// Programming leaves the RWW section disabled; reads need it back on. The
-	// same store discards the buffer (§26.2.2), so a boot-sectioned mega never
-	// meets the stale-word case above.
-	if constexpr (boot_section)
-		spm::rww_enable<off>();
-}
-
-// The four fuse and lock bytes in the hardware's own Z order: low, lock,
-// extended, high.
-void send_fuses()
-{
-	std::uint8_t which = 0;
-	do
-		link::tx(spm::read_fuse<off>(static_cast<spm::fuse>(which)));
-	while (++which != 4);
+	// starts at the page base; the low byte of the cursor is the whole in-page
+	// offset, since a page is aligned and never crosses a bank.
+	std::uint16_t z = at & ~static_cast<std::uint16_t>(page - 1);
+	do {
+		std::uint8_t low = link::rx();
+		std::uint8_t high = link::rx();
+		spm::fill<off>(flash_address(bank, z), word_of({low, high}));
+		z += 2;
+	} while (static_cast<std::uint8_t>(z) & (page - 1));
 }
 
 [[noreturn]] void run()
@@ -379,19 +461,14 @@ void send_fuses()
 
 	link::init();
 
-	// The high byte of the slot this copy runs at, which the write guard and
-	// the info block both follow: the return address is a word address, so its
-	// high byte is the 256-word slot index, doubled back into byte terms where
-	// the wire counts bytes. Taken as byteswap's low byte — the builtin already
-	// swaps the two stacked bytes, and the double swap folds away, where `>> 8`
-	// would leave the swap materialized.
-	const std::uint16_t ra_words = reinterpret_cast<std::uint16_t>(__builtin_return_address(0));
-	const std::uint8_t ra_high = static_cast<std::uint8_t>(std::byteswap(ra_words));
-	const std::uint8_t slot_high = word_flash ? ra_high : static_cast<std::uint8_t>(ra_high << 1);
+	// The slot this copy runs in, which the write guard follows: the return
+	// address is a word address and a slot is half as many words as bytes, so
+	// its high byte is the slot index outright. No absolute address is ever
+	// formed, so the image stays position-independent.
+	const auto return_words = reinterpret_cast<std::uint16_t>(__builtin_return_address(0));
+	const auto slot_high = static_cast<std::uint8_t>(return_words >> 8);
 
-	// 'p' then 'b', each under a fresh window; anything else is line noise.
-	while (rx_deadline() != 'p' || rx_deadline() != 'b') {
-	}
+	await_host();
 
 	for (;;) {
 		// No prompt while an EEPROM write runs: it blocks SPM and fuse reads
@@ -406,47 +483,43 @@ void send_fuses()
 			link::drain();
 			jump(target);
 		}
-		case 'b':   // info block, read relative to the running slot
-		case 'R':   // read flash: addr16, n8 (0 = 256)
-		case 'r':   // read EEPROM: addr16, n8
-		case 'w': { // write EEPROM: addr16, n8, then n bytes each acked
-			// One address-and-count path for all four: 'b' is a flash read
-			// whose arguments the loader already knows, so it joins the
-			// wire-argument three rather than streaming from a call site of its
-			// own. That leaves one flash streamer in the image, and lets its
-			// cursor live in this never-returning loop's own call-saved
-			// registers instead of being saved and restored around a call.
-			std::uint16_t address;
-			std::uint8_t count;
-			if (command == 'b') {
-				// The block sits in the image's first 256 bytes (check_pi.py
-				// asserts it) and slots are 512-aligned, so the low byte of its
-				// link address is its offset in any slot — halved where wire
-				// units are words. The high byte is runtime data, so no
-				// absolute address is ever materialized.
-				const auto link_byte =
-				    static_cast<std::uint8_t>(reinterpret_cast<std::uint16_t>(info_data.storage.data()));
-				const std::uint8_t low = word_flash ? static_cast<std::uint8_t>(link_byte >> 1) : link_byte;
-				address = static_cast<std::uint16_t>(low | (slot_high << 8));
-				count = static_cast<std::uint8_t>(info_data.size());
-			} else {
-				address = rx16();
-				count = link::rx();
+		case 'b': // identity: the version, then the three signature bytes
+			// Straight out of the stamp, so the wire and the image can never
+			// disagree about what this loader is. The indices are constant and
+			// the array is constexpr, so these are immediates, not flash reads:
+			// nothing here needs the stamp's runtime address.
+			for (std::uint8_t at = stamp_identity; at != sizeof identity_stamp; ++at)
+				link::tx(identity_stamp[at]);
+			break;
+		case 'W':   // fill one flash page buffer: sel8, addr16, then page bytes
+		case 'G':   // read:  sel8, addr16, n8 (0 = 256)
+		case 'g': { // write: sel8, addr16, n8, then n bytes, each acked
+			// One decode, one cursor and one loop for every space and both
+			// directions: a command per memory would carry a copy of all three
+			// each. 'W' joins the same decode rather than keeping an address
+			// form of its own, so flash addressing is uniform across every
+			// command that names it.
+			const std::uint8_t selector = link::rx();
+			const std::uint8_t space = space_of(selector);
+			const std::uint8_t bank = bank_of(selector);
+			std::uint16_t at = rx16();
+			if (command == 'W') {
+				fill_page(bank, at);
+				break;
 			}
-			if (command == 'r')
-				send_eeprom(address, count);
-			else if (command == 'w')
-				store_eeprom(address, count);
-			else
-				send_flash(address, count);
+			std::uint8_t count = link::rx();
+			do {
+				// Read and write are one letter apart in case, so the direction
+				// is a single bit and the loop picks it with a one-word skip.
+				if (command & 0x20) {
+					store(space, bank, at, link::rx(), slot_high);
+					tx_ack();
+				} else
+					link::tx(load(space, bank, at));
+				++at;
+			} while (--count);
 			break;
 		}
-		case 'W': // program one flash page: addr16, page bytes
-			program_flash(rx16(), slot_high);
-			break;
-		case 'F': // fuse and lock bytes
-			send_fuses();
-			break;
 		default: // unknown bytes are ignored; the loop re-acks
 			break;
 		}

pureboot/pureboot.py

@@ -24,16 +24,75 @@ else:
     import termios
 
 PROMPT = b"+"
-VERSION = 2  # this tool's own version — free to drift from a loader's
+VERSION = 4  # this tool's own version — free to drift from a loader's
 # The loader versions this tool speaks. A pureboot version implies its wire
 # protocol, which carries no number of its own, so this window is where that
 # map lives: every version so far speaks the same protocol, and one that
 # changes it becomes the new floor here.
 OLDEST_LOADER = 1
-NEWEST_LOADER = 3
+NEWEST_LOADER = 5
 SLOT = 512  # the loader slot, on every chip
 RETRIES = 3  # rewrites of a page that reads back wrong, before the run stops
 
+# pureboot 5 replaced the four per-memory commands with one pair: 'G' reads and
+# 'g' writes, each taking a selector byte, a 16-bit address and a count, over
+# the spaces below. The loader carries one transfer loop instead of four bodies
+# — which is what buys the data space and the host-issued SPM operations.
+UNIFIED_LOADER = 5
+SP_FLASH, SP_EEPROM, SP_RAM, SP_FUSE, SP_SPM = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4
+
+# A selector's high nibble is the flash bank — the address bits above the 16-bit
+# wire address — so a transfer names a byte address within one 64 KiB bank and
+# no command has to speak word addresses. No single transfer may cross a bank
+# boundary; the host chunks to keep that true.
+def selector(space, address):
+    return space | ((address >> 16) << 4)
+
+
+# The SPM operations pureboot 5 leaves to the host: a write to SP_SPM hands its
+# byte to SPMCSR and fires the instruction at the selected flash address. Every
+# part pureboot targets agrees on these encodings.
+SPM_ERASE, SPM_WRITE, SPM_RWWSRE = 0x03, 0x05, 0x11
+
+# Calibration byte for an autobaud loader: 0xC0 is a start bit plus six zero
+# data bits — one low pulse of seven bit-times, which the loader times into its
+# per-bit unit. Sent at whatever baud the host chose; the loader locks to it.
+CALIBRATE = 0xC0
+
+# pureboot 5 answers 'b' with its version and the chip signature; the host
+# derives the rest of the geometry from the signature rather than reading a
+# table off the device. flash, page, eeprom, patch-vector per distinct
+# signature, over every chip pureboot targets (the loader computes the same
+# from its chip database at build time). Die revisions that share a signature
+# share this row, as they share the silicon.
+CHIP_GEOMETRY = {
+    #  signature  : (flash, page, eeprom, patch_vector)
+    (0x1E, 0x90, 0x07): (1024, 32, 64, True),      # ATtiny13/13A
+    (0x1E, 0x91, 0x08): (2048, 32, 128, True),     # ATtiny25
+    (0x1E, 0x92, 0x06): (4096, 64, 256, True),     # ATtiny45
+    (0x1E, 0x93, 0x0B): (8192, 64, 512, True),     # ATtiny85
+    (0x1E, 0x92, 0x05): (4096, 64, 256, True),     # ATmega48/48A
+    (0x1E, 0x92, 0x0A): (4096, 64, 256, True),     # ATmega48P/48PA
+    (0x1E, 0x93, 0x07): (8192, 64, 512, False),    # ATmega8/8A
+    (0x1E, 0x93, 0x0A): (8192, 64, 512, False),    # ATmega88/88A
+    (0x1E, 0x93, 0x0F): (8192, 64, 512, False),    # ATmega88P/88PA
+    (0x1E, 0x94, 0x03): (16384, 128, 512, False),  # ATmega16/16A
+    (0x1E, 0x94, 0x06): (16384, 128, 512, False),  # ATmega168/168A
+    (0x1E, 0x94, 0x0B): (16384, 128, 512, False),  # ATmega168P/168PA
+    (0x1E, 0x94, 0x0A): (16384, 128, 512, False),  # ATmega164P/164PA
+    (0x1E, 0x94, 0x0F): (16384, 128, 512, False),  # ATmega164A
+    (0x1E, 0x95, 0x02): (32768, 128, 1024, False), # ATmega32/32A
+    (0x1E, 0x95, 0x0F): (32768, 128, 1024, False), # ATmega328P
+    (0x1E, 0x95, 0x14): (32768, 128, 1024, False), # ATmega328
+    (0x1E, 0x95, 0x08): (32768, 128, 1024, False), # ATmega324P
+    (0x1E, 0x95, 0x11): (32768, 128, 1024, False), # ATmega324PA
+    (0x1E, 0x95, 0x15): (32768, 128, 1024, False), # ATmega324A
+    (0x1E, 0x96, 0x09): (65536, 256, 2048, False), # ATmega644/644A
+    (0x1E, 0x96, 0x0A): (65536, 256, 2048, False), # ATmega644P/644PA
+    (0x1E, 0x97, 0x05): (131072, 256, 4096, False),# ATmega1284P
+    (0x1E, 0x97, 0x06): (131072, 256, 4096, False),# ATmega1284
+}
+
 VERBOSE = False
 
 
@@ -301,6 +360,36 @@ Port = WindowsPort if os.name == "nt" else PosixPort
 class Info:
     """The 12-byte info block."""
 
+    @classmethod
+    def from_identity(cls, raw):
+        """pureboot 5's reply: the version and the chip signature. The rest of
+        the geometry is looked up from the signature — the loader derived the
+        same facts from its chip database at build time, so nothing is guessed,
+        it is simply not sent. Reconstructs a block in the older layout, so
+        every derived attribute below is shared with the loaders that do send
+        one.
+
+        The base is where application flash ends, which is a property of the
+        chip and not of the copy answering: a loader staged one slot lower
+        reports the same geometry the resident one does, exactly as the loaders
+        that send a block do. Which slot a copy runs in matters only to its own
+        write guard, which is the loader's business."""
+        if len(raw) != 4:
+            raise Error(f"bad identity reply: {raw.hex()}")
+        version, signature = raw[0], tuple(raw[1:4])
+        geometry = CHIP_GEOMETRY.get(signature)
+        if geometry is None:
+            sig = " ".join(f"{b:02x}" for b in signature)
+            raise Error(f"unknown signature {sig} — this tool has no geometry for it")
+        flash, page, eeprom, patch = geometry
+        base = flash - SLOT
+        word_flash = flash > 0x10000
+        wire_base = base // 2 if word_flash else base
+        flags = (1 if patch else 0) | (2 if word_flash else 0)
+        raw12 = bytes((ord("P"), ord("B"), version, *signature, page & 0xFF,
+                       wire_base & 0xFF, wire_base >> 8, eeprom & 0xFF, eeprom >> 8, flags))
+        return cls(raw12)
+
     def __init__(self, raw):
         if len(raw) != 12 or raw[0:2] != b"PB":
             raise Error(f"bad info block: {raw.hex()}")
@@ -314,8 +403,11 @@ class Info:
         self.signature = raw[3:6]
         self.page = raw[6] or 256  # the wire count convention: 0 means 256
         self.patch_vector = bool(raw[11] & 1)
-        # Bit 1: flash addresses are words on the wire. Every address here
-        # stays a byte address and converts at the wire.
+        # Bit 1: the flash runs past what one 16-bit address covers. Through
+        # pureboot 4 that made flash addresses words on the wire; pureboot 5
+        # keeps them bytes and carries the bank in the selector instead. Every
+        # address in this tool stays a byte address either way and converts at
+        # the wire.
         self.word_flash = bool(raw[11] & 2)
         scale = 2 if self.word_flash else 1
         self.base = (raw[7] | (raw[8] << 8)) * scale
@@ -345,7 +437,7 @@ class Info:
             f"version      pureboot {self.version}",
             f"signature    {' '.join(f'{b:02x}' for b in self.signature)}",
             f"flash        {self.flash_size} B, {self.page} B pages"
-            + (", word-addressed wire" if self.word_flash else ""),
+            + (", past one 16-bit bank" if self.word_flash else ""),
             f"application  0x0000..{self.base - 1:#06x} ({self.base} B)",
             f"loader       {self.base:#06x} ({SLOT} B slot)",
             f"staging      {self.stage:#06x}",
@@ -362,40 +454,70 @@ class Loader:
     def __init__(self, port):
         self.port = port
         self.info = None
+        # Set once a session is established over an autobaud link, so a
+        # re-entry after 'J' repeats the handshake that worked.
+        self.autobaud = False
 
-    def connect(self, wait):
-        """Knock until the info block comes back. The block is what proves the
-        loader is listening — a prompt byte alone does not, since one left over
-        from a previous session can still be in the pipeline while the port
-        opening resets the device into a fresh activation window, where a
-        command without its knock is discarded. Each attempt is therefore the
-        whole handshake, retried until it produces the block or the window
-        closes. Also converges into a live session: the knock bytes are ignored
-        there and the drain absorbs whatever they produced."""
+    def _read_identity(self):
+        """The 'b' reply, in either of the two layouts a loader may send.
+        pureboot 5 answers with its version and the signature; older loaders
+        answer with a 12-byte block. The version byte cannot be mistaken for
+        the older block's 'P', so four bytes are enough to tell them apart."""
+        head = self.port.read_exact(4, 2.0)
+        if head[0:2] == b"PB":
+            return Info(head + self.port.read_exact(8, 2.0))
+        return Info.from_identity(head)
+
+    def _handshake(self, wait, knock, what):
+        """One activation, retried until the loader answers or the window
+        closes. The identity reply is what proves the loader is listening — a
+        prompt byte alone does not, since one left over from a previous session
+        can still be in the pipeline while the port opening resets the device
+        into a fresh window, where a command without its knock is discarded.
+        Each attempt is therefore the whole handshake. This also converges into
+        an already-live session: the knock bytes are ignored there and the
+        drain absorbs whatever they produced."""
         deadline = time.monotonic() + wait
         knocks = 0
         while True:
             self.port.flush_input()
-            self.port.write(b"pb")
+            self.port.write(knock)
             knocks += 1
             if PROMPT in self.port.read_available(0.4):
                 while self.port.read_available(0.3):
                     pass
                 self.port.write(b"b")
                 try:
-                    block = self.port.read_exact(12, 2.0)
-                except Error:
-                    block = b""
-                # A version the tool cannot speak is the loader's own answer,
-                # not a failed knock: Info reports it rather than retrying.
-                if block[0:2] == b"PB":
-                    self.info = Info(block)
+                    # A version the tool cannot speak is the loader's own
+                    # answer, not a failed knock: Info reports it rather than
+                    # sending the tool round the loop again.
+                    self.info = self._read_identity()
+                except Error as failed:
+                    if "pureboot" in str(failed):
+                        raise
+                    self.info = None
+                if self.info is not None:
                     self._expect_prompt()
-                    verbose(f"loader answered knock {knocks}; info block read")
+                    verbose(f"loader answered {what} {knocks}; identity read")
                     return self.info
             if time.monotonic() > deadline:
                 raise Error("no answer — reset the device within its activation window")
 
+    def connect(self, wait):
+        """Knock 'p' then 'b' and read the identity."""
+        return self._handshake(wait, b"pb", "knock")
+
+    def connect_autobaud(self, wait):
+        """The autobaud handshake. In place of the p+b knock the host sends the
+        calibration pulse — one seven-bit-time low pulse at the host's chosen
+        baud, which the loader times into its per-bit unit — then a single 'p'
+        the loader decodes at the rate it just measured. A lost pulse, or a
+        knock landing while the loader is mid-frame, simply fails to answer and
+        leaves the measurement loop waiting for the next pulse, so the retry in
+        _handshake covers it."""
+        self.autobaud = True
+        return self._handshake(wait, bytes((CALIBRATE, ord("p"))), "calibration")
+
     def _expect_prompt(self, timeout=2.0):
         byte = self.port.read_exact(1, timeout)
         if byte != PROMPT:
@@ -418,7 +540,58 @@ class Loader:
             count -= chunk
         return data
 
+    @property
+    def unified(self):
+        """pureboot 5 and later: one 'G'/'g' pair over selector-named spaces."""
+        return self.info is not None and self.info.version >= UNIFIED_LOADER
+
+    def _read_space(self, space, address, count):
+        """A run out of any space, chunked to 256 bytes and to bank bounds."""
+        data = b""
+        while count:
+            chunk = min(count, 256, 0x10000 - (address & 0xFFFF))
+            head = bytes((ord("G"), selector(space, address), address & 0xFF,
+                          (address >> 8) & 0xFF, chunk & 0xFF))
+            data += self._command(head, chunk, 5.0)
+            address += chunk
+            count -= chunk
+        return data
+
+    def _write_space(self, space, address, data, progress=None):
+        """A run into any space. Each byte is acked as its write begins — an
+        EEPROM cell and an SPM operation both need that pacing, and the ack is
+        what the loader sends in place of a completion status."""
+        offset = 0
+        while offset < len(data):
+            chunk = data[offset : offset + min(256, 0x10000 - (address & 0xFFFF))]
+            head = bytes((ord("g"), selector(space, address), address & 0xFF,
+                          (address >> 8) & 0xFF, len(chunk) & 0xFF))
+            self.port.write(head)
+            for byte in chunk:
+                self.port.write(bytes((byte,)))
+                self._expect_prompt()
+                if progress:
+                    progress.step()
+            self._expect_prompt()  # the next command prompt
+            address += len(chunk)
+            offset += len(chunk)
+
+    def spm(self, operation, address):
+        """One SPM operation at a flash address — the erase, write and RWW
+        re-enable that pureboot 4 ran inside 'W' and pureboot 5 leaves here."""
+        self._write_space(SP_SPM, address, bytes((operation,)))
+
+    def read_ram(self, address, count):
+        """Data space: SRAM, and with it the register file and every I/O
+        register, which share the address space on AVR. New in pureboot 5."""
+        return self._read_space(SP_RAM, address, count)
+
+    def write_ram(self, address, data):
+        self._write_space(SP_RAM, address, data)
+
     def read_flash(self, address, count):
+        if self.unified:
+            return self._read_space(SP_FLASH, address, count)
         if not self.info.word_flash:
             return self._stream_read("R", address, count)
         # Word-addressed wire: widen to even bounds and never let one read
@@ -436,15 +609,32 @@ class Loader:
         return data[address - start : address - start + count]
 
     def read_eeprom(self, address, count):
+        if self.unified:
+            return self._read_space(SP_EEPROM, address, count)
         return self._stream_read("r", address, count)
 
     def write_page(self, address, data):
         assert len(data) == self.info.page and address % self.info.page == 0
+        if self.unified:
+            # 'W' fills the page buffer and stops there; the erase and the write
+            # are host-issued SPM operations. Only a chip with a boot section
+            # has RWW to re-enable — on the others bit 4 of SPMCSR means
+            # something else entirely, so it must not be sent.
+            head = bytes((ord("W"), selector(SP_FLASH, address), address & 0xFF, (address >> 8) & 0xFF))
+            self._command(head + data, 0, 2.0)
+            self.spm(SPM_ERASE, address)
+            self.spm(SPM_WRITE, address)
+            if not self.info.patch_vector:
+                self.spm(SPM_RWWSRE, address)
+            return
         wire = address // (2 if self.info.word_flash else 1)
         head = bytes((ord("W"), wire & 0xFF, wire >> 8))
         self._command(head + data, 0, 2.0)
 
     def write_eeprom(self, address, data, progress=None):
+        if self.unified:
+            self._write_space(SP_EEPROM, address, data, progress)
+            return
         offset = 0
         while offset < len(data):
             chunk = data[offset : offset + 256]
@@ -460,6 +650,8 @@ class Loader:
             offset += len(chunk)
 
     def read_fuses(self):
+        if self.unified:
+            return self._read_space(SP_FUSE, 0, 4)
         return self._command(b"F", 4, 2.0)
 
     def jump(self, word_address):
@@ -470,8 +662,9 @@ class Loader:
     def enter_copy(self, byte_address, wait):
         """Jump into the loader copy at `byte_address` and knock it — a slot
         base is that copy's entry stub, so it can only land there."""
+        autobaud = self.autobaud
         self.jump(byte_address // 2)
-        return self.connect(wait)
+        return self.connect_autobaud(wait) if autobaud else self.connect(wait)
 
     def run_application(self):
         self.jump(self.info.app_entry_word)
@@ -638,12 +831,26 @@ def mega_boot(info, fuse_bytes):
 
 
 def image_info(image):
-    """The info block embedded in a pureboot binary, or None. Searched once
-    per known version, so the magic stays three selective bytes rather than
-    two that code could carry by chance."""
+    """What a pureboot binary says about itself, or None.
+
+    An update image is a bare slot: nothing about it names the chip it was
+    built for, and installing a foreign one bricks the target — so every
+    loader carries a stamp for this. Through pureboot 4 the stamp is the
+    12-byte info block the device also serves; pureboot 5 serves its identity
+    from immediates and carries a 6-byte stamp (magic, version, signature)
+    that only this exists for, from which the geometry is looked up exactly as
+    it is for a live device.
+
+    Searched once per known version, so the magic stays three selective bytes
+    rather than two that code could carry by chance."""
     for version in range(OLDEST_LOADER, NEWEST_LOADER + 1):
         at = image.find(b"PB" + bytes((version,)))
-        if 0 <= at <= len(image) - 12:
+        if at < 0:
+            continue
+        if version >= UNIFIED_LOADER:
+            if at <= len(image) - 6:
+                return Info.from_identity(image[at + 2 : at + 6])
+        elif at <= len(image) - 12:
             return Info(image[at : at + 12])
     return None
 
@@ -833,7 +1040,10 @@ def op_update_loader(loader, wait, path, state_path, fuse_bytes):
     # it and matching byte for byte, and the slot unchanged since this update
     # began, so a half-written install takes the path below instead.
     current = loader.read_flash(info.stage, SLOT)
-    staged_loader = image_info(current[:268])
+    # The whole slot is searched: a loader's stamp sits wherever its image put
+    # it, which is the end of the code on pureboot 5 and the front of it
+    # before that.
+    staged_loader = image_info(current)
     if staged_loader is not None and staged_loader.raw == info.raw and current == state.staging:
         print("staging slot already holds a loader — left in place")
     else:
@@ -1016,6 +1226,37 @@ def op_read_eeprom(loader, path):
     print(f"read EEPROM: {len(data)} B -> {path}")
 
 
+def _require_unified(loader, what):
+    if not loader.unified:
+        raise Error(f"{what} needs pureboot {UNIFIED_LOADER} or later; this loader is {loader.info.version}")
+
+
+def _peek_spec(spec):
+    """ADDR[:N] — addresses and counts in any Python integer base."""
+    address, _, count = spec.partition(":")
+    return int(address, 0), int(count, 0) if count else 1
+
+
+def op_peek(loader, spec):
+    _require_unified(loader, "--peek")
+    address, count = _peek_spec(spec)
+    data = loader.read_ram(address, count)
+    for offset in range(0, len(data), 16):
+        row = data[offset : offset + 16]
+        text = "".join(chr(b) if 0x20 <= b < 0x7F else "." for b in row)
+        print(f"{address + offset:#06x}  {row.hex(' '):<47}  {text}")
+
+
+def op_poke(loader, spec):
+    _require_unified(loader, "--poke")
+    address, _, payload = spec.partition(":")
+    if not payload:
+        raise Error("--poke needs ADDR:HEX, for example 0x200:deadbeef")
+    data = bytes.fromhex(payload.replace(" ", ""))
+    loader.write_ram(int(address, 0), data)
+    print(f"poke: {len(data)} B at {int(address, 0):#06x}")
+
+
 def op_fuses(loader):
     low, lock, extended, high = loader.read_fuses()
     print("fuses:")
@@ -1049,6 +1290,9 @@ def main():
     parser.add_argument("--port", required=True, help="serial device: COM6, /dev/ttyUSB0, or a simavr pty")
     parser.add_argument("--baud", type=int, default=115200, help="115200 mega, 57600 tinies")
     parser.add_argument("--wait", type=float, default=30.0, help="seconds to keep knocking")
+    parser.add_argument("--autobaud", action="store_true",
+                        help="drive an autobaud loader: send the 0xC0 calibration pulse and a single "
+                             "knock, and take geometry from the signature (no clock/baud baked in)")
     parser.add_argument("--info", action="store_true", help="print the device info block")
     parser.add_argument("--fuses", action="store_true", help="read the fuse and lock bytes")
     parser.add_argument("--update-loader", metavar="FILE", help="replace the loader with this pureboot binary")
@@ -1064,6 +1308,10 @@ def main():
     parser.add_argument("--eeprom", metavar="FILE", help="program the EEPROM (bin or ihex)")
     parser.add_argument("--read-eeprom", metavar="FILE", help="dump the EEPROM")
     parser.add_argument("--verify-eeprom", metavar="FILE", help="compare EEPROM against an image")
+    parser.add_argument("--peek", metavar="ADDR[:N]", help="read N bytes of data space (SRAM, registers, "
+                                                          "I/O) — pureboot 5 and later")
+    parser.add_argument("--poke", metavar="ADDR:HEX", help="write hex bytes into data space — "
+                                                          "pureboot 5 and later")
     parser.add_argument("--force", action="store_true", help="override refusable safety checks")
     parser.add_argument("--stay", action="store_true", help="leave the loader in its session")
     parser.add_argument("-v", "--verbose", action="store_true",
@@ -1086,7 +1334,7 @@ def main():
     verbose(f"{args.port}: {args.baud} Bd 8N1, DTR/RTS asserted")
     try:
         loader = Loader(port)
-        info = loader.connect(args.wait)
+        info = loader.connect_autobaud(args.wait) if args.autobaud else loader.connect(args.wait)
         if args.info:
             print("device:")
             for line in info.lines():
@@ -1115,6 +1363,10 @@ def main():
             op_read_eeprom(loader, args.read_eeprom)
         if args.verify_eeprom:
             op_verify_eeprom(loader, args.verify_eeprom)
+        if args.poke:
+            op_poke(loader, args.poke)
+        if args.peek:
+            op_peek(loader, args.peek)
         if args.stay:
             print("loader stays in its session (reset to leave)")
         else:

test/check_pi.py

@@ -1,47 +1,75 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
-"""Position-independence lint: the two link-time facts that let the identical
-image run from any slot, asserted from the built ELF.
+"""Position-independence lint: the property that lets the identical image run
+from any slot, asserted from the built ELF and its object.
 
   1. No absolute jmp/call — -mrelax normally guarantees it, but a branch that
      grows out of relaxation range would break it silently.
-  2. The info block within the image's first 256 bytes: 'b' rebuilds its
-     address as (running slot high byte : link address low byte).
+  2. Nothing flash-resident to address: the image is .text alone, so there is
+     no table whose runtime address has to be reconstructed.
+  3. The image is byte-identical when linked at a different base. This is
+     position independence itself rather than a proxy for it — an absolute
+     address anywhere in the image would move with the link and show up as a
+     differing byte.
 
-Usage: check_pi.py <objdump> <nm> <elf> <text_start_hex>
+Usage: check_pi.py <objdump> <objcopy> <cxx> <mcu> <elf> <object> <text_start_hex>
 """
 
+import os
 import re
 import subprocess
 import sys
+import tempfile
+
+
+def fail(message):
+    print(f"FAIL: {message}")
+    sys.exit(1)
 
 
 def main():
-    objdump, nm, elf, text_start = sys.argv[1:]
+    objdump, objcopy, cxx, mcu, elf, obj, text_start = sys.argv[1:]
     text_start = int(text_start, 0)
 
     listing = subprocess.run([objdump, "-d", elf], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True).stdout
-    absolute = [
-        line
-        for line in listing.splitlines()
-        if re.search(r"\t(jmp|call)\t", line)
-    ]
+    absolute = [line for line in listing.splitlines() if re.search(r"\t(jmp|call)\t", line)]
     if absolute:
-        print("FAIL: absolute control flow in the image:")
-        print("\n".join(absolute))
-        sys.exit(1)
+        fail("absolute control flow in the image:\n" + "\n".join(absolute))
 
-    symbols = subprocess.run([nm, "-C", elf], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True).stdout
-    info = [line for line in symbols.splitlines() if "flash_table" in line and "::storage" in line]
-    if len(info) != 1:
-        print(f"FAIL: expected one info-block storage symbol, found {len(info)}")
-        sys.exit(1)
-    address = int(info[0].split()[0], 16)
-    offset = address - text_start
-    if not 0 <= offset < 256:
-        print(f"FAIL: info block at image offset {offset:#x}, must sit in the first 256 bytes")
-        sys.exit(1)
+    # Allocated flash beyond .text would be data the running copy has to find.
+    # Only ALLOC sections reach the device at all; .comment and the debug
+    # sections ride along in the ELF container and are never flashed. objdump
+    # prints each section's flags on the line following its header.
+    headers = subprocess.run([objdump, "-h", elf], capture_output=True, text=True, check=True).stdout.splitlines()
+    for index, line in enumerate(headers):
+        fields = line.split()
+        if len(fields) < 6 or not fields[0].isdigit():
+            continue
+        name, size = fields[1], int(fields[2], 16)
+        flags = headers[index + 1] if index + 1 < len(headers) else ""
+        if "ALLOC" not in flags or not size:
+            continue
+        if name not in (".text", ".noinit", ".bss"):
+            fail(f"flash-resident section {name} ({size} bytes): the image must be .text alone")
 
-    print(f"PI lint: control flow PC-relative, info block at offset {offset:#x}")
+    # Relink at a different base and compare the bytes.
+    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as work:
+        elsewhere = text_start - 0x200 if text_start >= 0x200 else text_start + 0x200
+        images = []
+        for base, tag in ((text_start, "here"), (elsewhere, "there")):
+            relinked = os.path.join(work, f"{tag}.elf")
+            binary = os.path.join(work, f"{tag}.bin")
+            subprocess.run(
+                [cxx, f"-mmcu={mcu}", "-nostartfiles", f"-Wl,--section-start=.text={base:#x}",
+                 "-Wl,--defsym=pureboot_app=0", "-mrelax", obj, "-o", relinked],
+                check=True, capture_output=True)
+            subprocess.run([objcopy, "-O", "binary", relinked, binary], check=True)
+            images.append(open(binary, "rb").read())
+        if images[0] != images[1]:
+            differing = [i for i, (a, b) in enumerate(zip(*images)) if a != b]
+            fail(f"the image changes when linked at {elsewhere:#x} instead of {text_start:#x}: "
+                 f"{len(differing)} byte(s) differ, first at offset {differing[0]:#x}")
+
+    print(f"PI lint: control flow PC-relative, .text only, identical linked at {text_start:#x} and {elsewhere:#x}")
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":

test/pbautobaud.py

@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""End-to-end autobaud test: drive an autobaud loader in simavr through the
+calibration handshake and a flash + EEPROM + fuse round-trip, cross-checked
+against the simulator's ground-truth memory — then repeat at a second F_CPU with
+the *same* loader binary, which is the property autobaud exists for: one
+clock-agnostic image that locks onto whatever rate the host sends.
+
+Usage: pbautobaud.py <device_bin> <loader_elf> <mcu> <base_hex> <page>
+                     <app_bin> <app_hz> <app_baud> <tool_py> <workdir>
+
+The loader is a software-serial build on PB0/PB1 (pureboot_add_autobaud's
+default), so the runner drives it over the GPIO⇄pty bridge (-l sw:B0,B1). The
+app fixture is built for (app_hz, app_baud); the hand-over is checked at that
+point, and a second point at half the clock proves the lock is measured, not
+baked in.
+"""
+
+import os
+import sys
+import time
+
+
+def fail(message):
+    print(f"FAIL: {message}")
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+
+def main():
+    (device_bin, elf, mcu, base_hex, page, app_bin, app_hz, app_baud, tool, workdir) = sys.argv[1:]
+    base, page, app_hz, app_baud = int(base_hex, 0), int(page), int(app_hz), int(app_baud)
+    sys.path.insert(0, os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(tool)))
+    sys.path.insert(0, os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
+    import pbsim
+    import pureboot as pb
+
+    os.makedirs(workdir, exist_ok=True)
+    ee_image = bytes(range(0xA0, 0xB0))
+    ee_path = os.path.join(workdir, "ee.bin")
+    open(ee_path, "wb").write(ee_image)
+
+    # The geometry the surgery planner needs, from the chip class the runner is
+    # told — the same derivation pbtest.py makes: the boot-sectioned megas need
+    # no vector surgery, the tinies and the boot-section-less m48s do, and the
+    # large chips speak word addresses.
+    mega = mcu.startswith("atmega")
+    patch = not mega or mcu.startswith("atmega48")
+    word_flash = base + pb.SLOT > 0x10000
+    wire_base = base // 2 if word_flash else base
+    flags = (1 if patch else 0) | (2 if word_flash else 0)
+    ground_truth = pb.Info(bytes([ord("P"), ord("B"), pb.NEWEST_LOADER, 0, 0, 0, page & 0xFF,
+                                  wire_base & 0xFF, wire_base >> 8, 0, 0, flags]))
+
+    def round_trip(hz, baud, label, hand_over):
+        """One clock point: reset, calibrate + knock, program, verify against the
+        simulator's own flash, and (at the app's point) hand over to the fixture."""
+        dump = os.path.join(workdir, f"flash_{label}.bin")
+        device = pbsim.Device(device_bin, elf, mcu, str(hz), base_hex, page, baud, dump, link="sw:B0,B1")
+        try:
+            # The host tool, in autobaud mode, sends the 0xC0 calibration pulse
+            # and a single knock at `baud`; the loader locks to it.
+            out = pbsim.run_tool(tool, device.pty, baud, "--autobaud", "--info", "--fuses",
+                                 "--flash", app_bin, "--eeprom", ee_path, "--stay")
+            for needed in ("version", "signature", "fuses", "verify:", "stays"):
+                if needed not in out:
+                    fail(f"{label}: session output lacks {needed!r}\n{out}")
+            # Read both memories back over the locked link and check them.
+            read_flash = os.path.join(workdir, f"rf_{label}.bin")
+            read_eeprom = os.path.join(workdir, f"re_{label}.bin")
+            out = pbsim.run_tool(tool, device.pty, baud, "--autobaud", "--verify-flash", app_bin,
+                                 "--verify-eeprom", ee_path, "--read-flash", read_flash,
+                                 "--read-eeprom", read_eeprom, "--stay")
+            if out.count("verify:") != 2:
+                fail(f"{label}: did not verify both memories\n{out}")
+            if open(read_eeprom, "rb").read()[: len(ee_image)] != ee_image:
+                fail(f"{label}: EEPROM read-back mismatch")
+
+            if hand_over:
+                # Regression: a calibration pulse with no knock behind it must
+                # not wedge the loader. The knock's edge wait used to be
+                # unbudgeted, so one stray low pulse — EMI, or a host that opens
+                # the port and never knocks — held the loader forever and the
+                # application never ran. The whole activation is bounded now, so
+                # the window closes and the app boots; the banner is the proof.
+                # (The pause lets the loader reach its measurement loop, so the
+                # pulse is genuinely seen and the test cannot pass vacuously.)
+                device.reset()
+                port = pb.Port(device.pty, baud)
+                try:
+                    time.sleep(0.2)
+                    port.write(bytes((pb.CALIBRATE,)))
+                    # Accumulate rather than match exactly: the reset leaves the
+                    # idle line a framing artefact ahead of the banner, which is
+                    # noise here — the question is only whether the app ran.
+                    seen = b""
+                    deadline = time.monotonic() + 180.0
+                    while b"APP" not in seen and time.monotonic() < deadline:
+                        seen += port.read_available(1.0)
+                    if b"APP" not in seen:
+                        fail(f"{label}: lone calibration pulse wedged the loader — app never bannered, saw {seen!r}")
+                    print(f"  {label}: lone calibration pulse does not wedge the loader")
+                finally:
+                    port.close()
+
+                device.reset()
+                port = pb.Port(device.pty, baud)
+                try:
+                    loader = pb.Loader(port)
+                    live = loader.connect_autobaud(15)
+                    if not pb.OLDEST_LOADER <= live.version <= pb.NEWEST_LOADER:
+                        fail(f"{label}: loader reports pureboot {live.version}")
+                    if loader.unified:
+                        # pureboot 5's data space. 0x0200 is clear of the
+                        # loader's own .noinit unit at the bottom of SRAM and of
+                        # the stack at the top. Reading it back over the same
+                        # locked link proves both directions of the new space.
+                        probe = bytes(range(0x30, 0x40))
+                        loader.write_ram(0x0200, probe)
+                        if loader.read_ram(0x0200, len(probe)) != probe:
+                            fail(f"{label}: RAM round-trip mismatch")
+                        # The register file and the I/O space share the data
+                        # address space on AVR, so the same command reaches a
+                        # peripheral register. SPMCSR reads back as idle here.
+                        verbose_ram = loader.read_ram(0x0200, 4)
+                        print(f"  {label}: RAM read/write ok ({verbose_ram.hex()})")
+                    loader.run_application()
+                    banner = port.read_exact(3, 5.0)
+                    if banner != b"APP":
+                        fail(f"{label}: application banner was {banner!r}")
+                finally:
+                    port.close()
+        finally:
+            device.stop()
+
+        # Ground truth (read after the runner exits and writes its dump): what
+        # the tool programmed must be what the simulator actually holds.
+        pages = pb.plan_flash(open(app_bin, "rb").read(), ground_truth)
+        flash_true = open(dump, "rb").read()
+        for address, data in pages.items():
+            if flash_true[address : address + page] != data:
+                fail(f"{label}: simulator flash differs from the programmed image at {address:#06x}")
+        print(f"  {label}: locked at {hz} Hz / {baud} Bd, flash+EEPROM verified"
+              + (", hand-over ok" if hand_over else ""))
+
+    # The app fixture is built for one clock; the hand-over banners there. A
+    # second point at double that clock, same loader binary, proves the lock is
+    # measured, not baked in — the whole point of autobaud. (Doubling keeps the
+    # bit period healthy; halving would drop it below the software UART's floor.)
+    round_trip(app_hz, app_baud, "clock-a", hand_over=True)
+    round_trip(app_hz * 2, app_baud, "clock-b", hand_over=False)
+    print("pbautobaud: calibration lock and flash/EEPROM/fuse round-trip pass at both clocks")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()

test/pbtest.py

@@ -55,6 +55,12 @@ def main():
     # the page byte is the wire's 0-means-256.
     mega = mcu.startswith("atmega")
     patch = not mega or mcu.startswith("atmega48")
+    # Where SRAM begins: the x8 and x4 megas push it past their extended I/O
+    # space, everything else starts right after the plain I/O registers. The
+    # loader keeps no statics and its stack sits at RAMEND, so the first SRAM
+    # byte is free for the data-space probe below.
+    classic = mcu in ("atmega8", "atmega8a", "atmega16", "atmega16a", "atmega32", "atmega32a")
+    ram_base = 0x0100 if mega and not classic else 0x0060
     word_flash = base + pb.SLOT > 0x10000
     wire_base = base // 2 if word_flash else base
     flags = (1 if patch else 0) | (2 if word_flash else 0)
@@ -73,12 +79,20 @@ def main():
             if needed not in out:
                 fail(f"session 1 output lacks {needed!r}")
 
-        # Session 2: reconnect into the live session, verify, dump, hand over
-        # is deferred — the pty must be reopened for the APP banner first.
+        # Session 2: reconnect into the live session, verify, dump, exercise
+        # the data space; hand over is deferred — the pty must be reopened for
+        # the APP banner first.
+        probe = "c0ffee"
         out = pbsim.run_tool(tool, device.pty, baud, "--verify-flash", app_bin, "--verify-eeprom", ee_path,
-                             "--read-flash", read_flash, "--read-eeprom", read_eeprom, "--stay")
+                             "--read-flash", read_flash, "--read-eeprom", read_eeprom,
+                             "--poke", f"{ram_base:#x}:{probe}", "--peek", f"{ram_base:#x}:3", "--stay")
         if out.count("verify:") != 2:
             fail("session 2 did not verify both memories")
+        # What went into SRAM must come back out of it: the data space is one
+        # more selector on the same transfer as flash and EEPROM, so a wrong
+        # selector decode would show up here and nowhere else.
+        if probe not in out.replace(" ", ""):
+            fail(f"data-space round trip at {ram_base:#x} did not read back {probe}\n{out}")
 
         eeprom_back = open(read_eeprom, "rb").read()
         if eeprom_back[: len(ee_image)] != ee_image:
@@ -100,19 +114,26 @@ def main():
         try:
             loader = pb.Loader(port)
             live = loader.connect(15)
-            # The loader built from this tree and the tool beside it must
-            # agree on where the version numbering stands: a bump the tool
-            # was never told about is a loader it would refuse to speak to.
-            if live.version != pb.NEWEST_LOADER:
-                fail(f"loader reports pureboot {live.version}, the tool's newest is {pb.NEWEST_LOADER}")
+            # The loader built from this tree must report a version the tool
+            # beside it speaks — a bump the tool was never told about is a
+            # loader it would refuse to talk to. Not equality with the newest:
+            # the tool now spans two loader generations, the fixed-baud one
+            # here and the unified autobaud loader that follows it.
+            if not pb.OLDEST_LOADER <= live.version <= pb.NEWEST_LOADER:
+                fail(f"loader reports pureboot {live.version}, the tool speaks "
+                     f"{pb.OLDEST_LOADER}..{pb.NEWEST_LOADER}")
 
             # A W addressed inside a page rather than at its base must still
-            # consume exactly one page and prompt. The loader's own slot is
-            # the target — it is drained and never programmed — and the
-            # payload is erased-state bytes, so the probe can disturb neither
-            # the image nor the page buffer it leaves behind.
-            wire = wire_base + 1
-            port.write(bytes((ord("W"), wire & 0xFF, wire >> 8)) + b"\xff" * page)
+            # consume exactly one page and prompt. The loader's own slot is the
+            # target — the guard refuses to commit it — and the payload is
+            # erased-state bytes, so the probe can disturb neither the image nor
+            # the page buffer it leaves behind. Hand-built rather than through
+            # write_page(), which would follow the fill with its erase and
+            # write; the point here is that the fill alone consumes exactly one
+            # page whatever the address's low bits say.
+            wire = base + 1
+            port.write(bytes((ord("W"), pb.selector(pb.SP_FLASH, wire), wire & 0xFF, (wire >> 8) & 0xFF))
+                       + b"\xff" * page)
             if port.read_exact(1, 5.0) != pb.PROMPT:
                 fail("unaligned W did not return to the prompt")
 

test/pureboot_device.c

@@ -182,9 +182,16 @@ static avr_cycle_count_t tx_sample(avr_t *mcu, avr_cycle_count_t when, void *par
 {
 	(void)mcu;
 	(void)param;
-	tx_shift = (uint8_t)((tx_shift >> 1) | (tx_level ? 0x80 : 0));
-	if (++tx_bit < 8)
+	if (tx_bit < 8) {
+		tx_shift = (uint8_t)((tx_shift >> 1) | (tx_level ? 0x80 : 0));
+		if (++tx_bit < 8)
+			return when + bit_cycles;
+		/* The byte is not delivered until its stop bit has passed. A real
+		 * receiver cannot answer sooner, and a host that did would put its
+		 * start bit on the wire while the device is still driving the stop
+		 * bit — which the device, transmitting, is not watching for. */
 		return when + bit_cycles;
+	}
 	if (write(pty_master, &tx_shift, 1) != 1)
 		fprintf(stderr, "device: pty write lost a byte\n");
 	tx_active = 0;

test/test_planner.py

@@ -30,8 +30,14 @@ def info_of(pb, base, page, patch, flash, signature=(0x1E, 0x93, 0x0B), word_fla
     scale = 2 if word_flash else 1
     wire_base = base // scale
     flags = (1 if patch else 0) | (2 if word_flash else 0)
+    # The EEPROM size comes from the signature, as it must: pureboot 5 derives
+    # the whole geometry from the signature rather than sending it, so a
+    # synthetic block that disagreed with its own signature would describe a
+    # chip that cannot exist.
+    eeprom = pb.CHIP_GEOMETRY[signature][2]
     raw = bytes((0x50, 0x42, pb.NEWEST_LOADER if version is None else version,
-                 *signature, page & 0xFF, wire_base & 0xFF, wire_base >> 8, 0, 2, flags))
+                 *signature, page & 0xFF, wire_base & 0xFF, wire_base >> 8,
+                 eeprom & 0xFF, eeprom >> 8, flags))
     info = pb.Info(raw)
     if info.flash_size != flash:
         fail(f"info_of({base:#x}) decodes to {info.flash_size:#x} of flash, not {flash:#x}")
@@ -162,11 +168,16 @@ def main():
         fail("mega staging content should be the bare image")
     expect_error("mega staging size", lambda: pb.staging_content(image + b"!", mega), "512")
 
-    # The embedded info block: found in a synthetic binary, absent in noise.
-    binary = bytes((0xAA,)) * 10 + tiny.raw + bytes((0xBB,)) * 10
+    # The image stamp: found in a synthetic binary, absent in noise. pureboot
+    # 5 stamps the magic, its version and the signature, and the geometry is
+    # looked up from there — so what comes back must equal what a live device
+    # of the same chip reports.
+    stamp = bytes((0x50, 0x42, pb.NEWEST_LOADER)) + bytes(tiny.signature)
+    binary = bytes((0xAA,)) * 10 + stamp + bytes((0xBB,)) * 10
     found = pb.image_info(binary)
     if found is None or found.raw != tiny.raw:
-        fail("image_info misses the embedded block")
+        fail(f"image_info misreads the v{pb.NEWEST_LOADER} stamp: "
+             f"{found.raw.hex() if found else None} != {tiny.raw.hex()}")
     if pb.image_info(bytes((0xAA,)) * 40) is not None:
         fail("image_info invents a block")
     # An older loader's image stays readable, so a deployed build can be