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SAM9X75 Curiosity

Last modified by Microchip on 2025/11/24 07:21

SoC Features

The SAM9X7 Series microprocessors are high-performance and cost-optimized Arm926EJ-S CPU-based embedded microprocessors (MPU) running up to 800 MHz. The devices integrate powerful peripherals for connectivity and user interface applications, including MIPI-DSI, LVDS, RGB and 2D graphics, MIPI-CSI-2 camera , Gigabit Ethernet with TSN and CAN-FD. Advanced security functions are offered, such as tamper detection, secure boot, secure key storage, TRNG, PUF as well as high-performance crypto accelerators for AES and SHA. The SAM9X7 Series is supported by Microchip MPLAB®-X development tools, Harmony, Linux® distributions and the Ensemble Graphics Toolkit.

Microchip offers for different supply configurations, fully tested power management solutions respecting the SAM9X7 power sequencing specifications that are referenced in the product specification.

Kit Information

Kit Overview

The SAM9X75-Curiosity documents can be found on microchip website, as following:

Kit Overview

Kit User Guide

sam9x75_curiosity_connectors.png

Access the console

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Access the console on DEBUG serial port

The serial console can be accessed from two connectors. One is from the DEBUG port with the help of a TTL-to-USB serial cable (marked as DEBUG J11), another is from micro-A USB connector that gives access to the on-board serial-to-USB converter (marked as J1 USB_A).

Using DEBUG on TTL-to-USB connector (DEBUG J11)

  • For Microsoft Windows users: Install the driver of your USB TTL serial cable. FTDI-based ones are the most popular, have a look to this page to get the driver: https://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm
  • Be sure to connect a 3.3V compatible cable and identify its GND pin. Place it properly according to the silkscreen and connect the cable to the board (J11)
  • Make sure the jumpers J14 and J15 are closed on the side marked as DBGU for the UART to work as Debug console.
  • For Microsoft Windows users: Identify the USB connection that is established, USB Serial Port should appear in Device Manager. The COMxx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.
    ftdi serial line
  • For Linux users: Identify the serial USB connection by monitoring the last lines of dmesg command. The /dev/ttyUSBx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.
    [605576.562740] usb 1-1.1.2: new full-speed USB device number 17 using ehci-pci
    [605576.660920] usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
    [605576.660933] usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
    [605576.660939] usb 1-1.1.2: Product: TTL232R-3V3
    [605576.660944] usb 1-1.1.2: Manufacturer: FTDI
    [605576.660958] usb 1-1.1.2: SerialNumber: FTGNVZ04
    [605576.663092] ftdi_sio 1-1.1.2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
    [605576.663120] usb 1-1.1.2: Detected FT232RL [605576.663122] usb 1-1.1.2: Number of endpoints 2
    [605576.663124] usb 1-1.1.2: Endpoint 1 MaxPacketSize 64
    [605576.663126] usb 1-1.1.2: Endpoint 2 MaxPacketSize 64 [605576.663128] usb 1-1.1.2: Setting MaxPacketSize 64
    [605576.663483] usb 1-1.1.2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0 
    A /dev/ttyUSB0 node has been created.
  • Now open your favorite terminal emulator with appropriate settings

Demo

Demo archives

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Flash the demo

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Run script to flash the demo

  • download the demo package for the board. They are marked as "Media type: NAND Flash " in the table above
  • extract the demo package
  • run your usual terminal emulator and enter the demo directory
  • make sure that the sam-ba application is in your Operating System path so that you can reach it from your demo package directory
  • for Microsoft Windows users: Launch the demo_linux_nandflash.bat file
  • for Linux users: Launch the demo_linux_nandflash.sh file
  • this script runs SAM-BA 3 and the associated QML sam-ba script (demo_linux_nandflash_usb.qml) with proper parameters
  • when you reach the end of the flashing process (this will take a few minutes), the following line is written:
    -I- === Done. === 
  • connect a serial link on DBGU and open the terminal emulator program as explained just above
  • power cycle the board
  • monitor the system while it's booting on the LCD screen or through the serial line

Build From source code

Setup ARM Cross Compiler

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Build AT91Bootstrap from sources

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Assuming you are at the AT91Bootstrap root directory, you will find a configs folder which contains several default configuration files:

sam9x75_curiositynf_uboot_defconfig
sam9x75_curiositysd_uboot_defconfig
sam9x75_curiositydf_qspi_uboot_defconfig
Information

 Tips: qspi means to read quad-SPI serial flash, sd means to read mmc card, nf means to read nand flash

You can configure AT91Bootstrap to load U-Boot binary from SD Card by doing:

$ make mrproper
$ make sam9x75_curiositysd_uboot_defconfig

If the configuring process is successful, the .config file can be found at AT91Bootstrap root directory.

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Build U-Boot from sources

Getting U-Boot sources

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Cross-compiling U-Boot

Before compiling the U-Boot, you need setup cross compile toolchain in the Setup ARM Cross Compiler above.

Warning

Latest versions of U-boot (2018.07 and newer) have a minimum requirement of 6.0 version of the GCC toolchain. We always recommend to use the latest versions.

Once the AT91 U-Boot sources available, cross-compile U-Boot is made in two steps: configuration and compiling. Check the Configuration chapter in U-Boot reference manual.

Information

Go to the configs/ to find the exact target when invoking make.

The U-Boot environment variables can be stored in different media, above config files can specify where to store the U-Boot environment.

  # To put environment variables in nand flash:
   sam9x75_curiosity_nandflash_defconfig
  # To put environment variables in SD/MMC card:
   sam9x75_curiosity_mmc_defconfig

Here are the building steps for the SAM9X75-Curiosity board:

  # You can change the config according to your needs.
make sam9x75_curiosity_mmc_defconfig
make

The result of these operations is a fresh U-Boot binary called u-boot.bin corresponding to the binary ELF file u-boot.

  • u-boot.bin is the file you should store on the board
  • u-boot is the ELF format binary file you may use to debug U-Boot through a JTag link for instance.

Build Kernel from sources

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Build Yocto Project rootfs from sources

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Using SAM-BA to flash components to board

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Launch SAM-BA tools

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Configure NAND ECC

Using default PMECC parameters

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Programming components into NAND

Program AT91Bootstrap binary

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Program U-Boot binary

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