RedBoot & U-Boot ?

RedBoot, the Red Hat Embedded Debug and Bootstrap firmware, is a complete bootstrap environment for embedded systems.

RedBoot was originally developed by Red Hat, but is now developed and maintained on the net alongside eCos as an open source project. All sources and documentation for RedBoot, and the eCos operating system
on which it is based, are freely available without license or royalties.

RedBoot allows download and execution of embedded applications via serial or ethernet, including embedded Linux and eCos applications. It can be used for both product development (debug support) and in deplayed products in the field (Flash update and network booting).

U-Boot is a universal boot loader for embedded boards based on PowerPC, ARM, MIPS and several other processors, which can be installed in a boot ROM and used to initialize and test the hardware or to download and run OS and application code.

Sample features are:

    * serial console support
    * integrated shell alike setup interface
    * optional password protectection and timeout for acces to setup interface on boot
    * editable configuration space
    * downloads software trough tftp servers
    * flash routines for EEPROMS of misc technology including NANDs
    * runs test applications directly
    * boots Linux