The programming interface and the bootloader in rom setup is more-or-less standard in the ARM microcontroller world. For programming the RP2040 you can use any

The programming interface and the bootloader in rom setup is more-or-less standard in the ARM microcontroller world. For programming the RP2040 you can use any SWD debugging probes (which you can also use to debug the chip, single stepping, setting breakpoints and more). Many like the Segger J-Link (the EDU Mini might be an option), while I prefer to use daplink based probes, of which there many available. The RP2040 is especially egregious with it's RAM caching, but many ARM Cortex chips, especially the faster ones, utilize some sort of caching, since internal flash might not be fast enough. Often dedicated peripherals are used (the PIOs for the RP2040) and/or critical routines are copied into RAM (but usually not everything).