Sama5d2 ICP
SoC Features
The SAMA5D2 series is a high-performance, ultra-low-power ARM Cortex-A5 processor based MPU. The Cortex A5 processor runs up to 500MHz and features the ARM NEON SIMD engine a 128kB L2 cache and a floating point unit. It supports multiple memories, including latest-generation technologies such as DDR3, LPDDR3, and QSPI Flash. It integrates powerful peripherals for connectivity (EMAC, USB, dual CAN, up to 10 UARTs, etc.) and user interface applications (TFT LCD controller, embedded capacitive touch controller, class D amplifier, audio PLL, CMOS sensor interface, etc.). The devices offer advanced security functions to protect customer code and secure external data transfers. These include ARM TrustZone, tamper detection, secure data storage, hardware encryption engines including private keys, on-the-fly decryption of code stored in external DDR or QSPI memory and a secure boot loader.
Kit Information
Kit Overview
The SAMA5D2 Industrial Connectivity Platform (SAMA5D2-ICP) provides a versatile Total System Solutions platform that highlights Microchip’s MPU and connectivity ICs for industrial networking applications. The board features three mikroBUS click interface headers to support over 450 MikroElektronika Click boards and provisions to solder a Microchip ATWILC3000-MR110CA or a ATWILC3000-MR110UA WiFi/BT module
The baseboard features a wide range of peripherals, as well as a user interface. Connectors and expansion headers allows for easy customization and quick access to leading edge embedded features such as MikroElektronica Click Boards™.
The Kit is supported by mainline Linux distribution as well as bare metal software frameworks allowing you to easily get started with your development.
Access the console
The usual serial communication parameters are 115200 8-N-1 :
| Baud rate | 115200 |
| Data | 8 bits |
| Parity | None |
| Stop | 1 bit |
| Flow control | None |
Access the console on JLINK micro-A USB connector (J16)
The serial console can be accessed from the micro-A USB connector that gives access to the on-board serial-to-USB converter (marked as J10 JLINK). In fact, the ATSAM3U chip on the Evaluation Kit acts as a serial-to-USB converter and is loaded with a firmware that is able to talk USB-CDC protocol.
- For Microsoft Windows users: Install the J-Link CDC USB driver. No need to install a driver on any regular Linux distribution.
- Connect the USB cable to the board (J16 JLINK)
- For Microsoft Windows users: identify the USB connection that is established
JLINK CDC UART Port should appear in Device Manager. The COMxx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.
- For Linux users: identify the USB connection by monitoring the last lines of dmesg command. The /dev/ttyACMx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator:usb 1-1.2.2.4: new high-speed USB device number 33 using ehci-pci
usb 1-1.2.2.4: config 1 interface 1 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x83 has invalid maxpacket 64
usb 1-1.2.2.4: config 1 interface 1 altsetting 0 bulk endpoint 0x4 has invalid maxpacket 64
usb 1-1.2.2.4: New USB device found, idVendor=1366, idProduct=0105
usb 1-1.2.2.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 1-1.2.2.4: Product: J-Link
usb 1-1.2.2.4: Manufacturer: SEGGER
usb 1-1.2.2.4: SerialNumber: 000483029109
cdc_acm 1-1.2.2.4:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
- For Microsoft Windows users: identify the USB connection that is established
- Now open your favorite terminal emulator with appropriate settings
Demo
Demo archives
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Create a SD card with the demo
You need a 1 GB SD card (or more) and to download the image of the demo. The image is compressed to reduce the amount of data to download. This image contains:
- a FAT32 partition with the AT91Bootstrap, U-Boot and the Linux Kernel (zImage and dtb).
- an EXT4 partition for the rootfs.
Multi-platform procedure
To write the compressed image on the SD card, you will have to download and install balenaEtcher. This tool, which is an Open Source software, is useful since it allows to get a compressed image as input. More information and extra help available on the balenaEtcher website.
Insert your SD card and launch Etcher:
Select the demo image. They are marked as "SD Card image" in the demo table above.
Note that you can select a compressed image (like the demos available here). The tool is able to decompress files on the fly
Select the device corresponding to your SD card (Etcher proposes you the devices that are removable to avoid erasing your system disk)
Click on the Flash! button
On Linux, Etcher finally asks you to enter your root password because it needs access to the hardware (your SD card reader or USB to SD card converter)
then the flashing process begins followed by a verification phase (optional)
Once writing done, Etcher asks you if you want to burn another demo image:
Build From source code
Setup ARM Cross Compiler
- First step is to dowload the ARM GNU Toolchain:wget -c https://developer.arm.com/-/media/Files/downloads/gnu/13.2.rel1/binrel/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
- Next step is to add the ARM GNU Toolchain into your system:tar -xf arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
export CROSS_COMPILE=`pwd`/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabihf-or
tar -xf arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabihf-
export PATH=$PATH:/YOUR/PATH/TO/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.Rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/ - export PATH=${PATH/':/YOUR/PATH/TO/arm-gnu-toolchain-VERSION-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/'/}
Build AT91Bootstrap from sources
This section describes how to get source code from the git repository, how to configure with the default configuration, how to customize AT91Bootstrap based on the default configuration and finally to build AT91Bootstrap to produce the binary. take the default configuration to download U-Boot from NandFlash for example.
Get AT91Bootstrap Source Code
You can easily download AT91Bootstrap source code on the at91bootstrap git repository.
To get the source code, you should clone the repository by doing:
Cloning into 'at91bootstrap'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 17621, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (3324/3324), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1029/1029), done.
remote: Total 17621 (delta 2465), reused 3102 (delta 2285), pack-reused 14297
Receiving objects: 100% (17621/17621), 5.65 MiB | 4.65 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (13459/13459), done.
$ cd at91bootstrap/
Configure AT91Bootstrap
Assuming you are at the AT91Bootstrap root directory, you will find a configs folder which contains several default configuration files:
sama5d2_icpsd_uboot_defconfig
You can configure AT91Bootstrap to load U-Boot binary from SD Card by doing:
$ make sama5d2_icpsd_uboot_defconfig
If the configuring process is successful, the .config file can be found at AT91Bootstrap root directory.
Customize AT91Bootstrap
If the default configuration doesn't meet your need, after configuring with the default configuration, you can customize it by doing:
Now, in the menuconfig dialog, you can easily add or remove some features to/from AT91Bootstrap as the same way as kernel configuration.
Move to <Exit> with arrows and press this button hitting the Enter key to exit from this screen.
Build AT91Bootstrap
Then you can build the AT91Bootstrap binary by doing:
If the building process is successful, the final .bin image is build/binaries/at91bootstrap.bin.
Build U-Boot from sources
Getting U-Boot sources
Dedicated page on U-Boot wiki: http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot/SourceCode
You can easily download U-Boot source code from Linux4Microchip GitHub U-Boot repository:
- clone the Linux4microchip GitHub U-Boot repository$ git clone https://github.com/linux4microchip/u-boot-mchp.git
Cloning into 'u-boot-mchp'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 951876, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (17718/17718), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (5735/5735), done.
remote: Total 951876 (delta 12391), reused 15314 (delta 11846), pack-reused 934158
Receiving objects: 100% (951876/951876), 164.77 MiB | 401.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (790362/790362), done.
$ cd u-boot-mchp/
- The source code has been taken from the master branch which is pointing to the latest branch we use. If you want to use the other branch, you can list them and use one of them by doing:$ git branch -r
origin/HEAD -> origin/master
origin/dev/tony/sama7g5ek_optee
origin/master
origin/sam9x60_curiosity_early
origin/sam9x60_early
origin/sam9x60_iar
origin/sam9x7_early
origin/sama5d27wlsom1ek_ear
origin/sama7g5_early
origin/u-boot-2012.10-at91
origin/u-boot-2013.07-at91
origin/u-boot-2014.07-at91
origin/u-boot-2015.01-at91
origin/u-boot-2016.01-at91
origin/u-boot-2016.03-at91
origin/u-boot-2017.03-at91
origin/u-boot-2018.07-at91
origin/u-boot-2019.04-at91
origin/u-boot-2020.01-at91
origin/u-boot-2021.04-at91
origin/u-boot-2022.01-at91
origin/u-boot-2023.07-mchp
origin/u-boot-2024.07-mchp
origin/uboot_5series_1.x
$ git checkout origin/u-boot-2024.07-mchp -b u-boot-2024.07-mchp
Branch 'u-boot-2024.07-mchp' set up to track remote branch 'u-boot-2024.07-mchp' from 'origin'.
Switched to a new branch 'u-boot-2024.07-mchp'
Cross-compiling U-Boot
Before compiling the U-Boot, you need setup cross compile toolchain in the Setup ARM Cross Compiler section above.
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.
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.
sama5d2_icp_mmc_defconfig
Here are the building steps for the SAMA5D2-ICP board:
make sama5d2_icp_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
Build Yocto Project rootfs from sources
Note that building an entire distribution is a long process. It also requires a big amount of free disk space.
The support for Microchip MPU SoC family is included in a particular Yocto Project layer: meta-mchp. The source for this layer are hosted on Linux4Microchip GitHub account: https://github.com/linux4microchip/meta-mchp
Building environment
A step-by-step comprehensive installation is explained in the Yocto Project Quick Build. The following lines have to be considered as an add-on that is MPU specific or that can facilitate your setup.
Step by step build procedure
here is the README procedure available directly in the meta-mchp-common layer. This file in the meta-mchp layer repository must be considered as the reference and the following copy can be out-of-sync.
starting with Linux4Microchip 2025.04 release, the meta-mchp layer supports Yocto Project templates, so make sure you create a new build environment using oe-init-build-env
OpenEmbedded/Yocto Project BSP layer for Microchip's SoCs
Description
The meta-mchp-common layer consolidates common Board Support Package (BSP) components and metadata for Microchip platforms, streamlining development across various Microchip devices for use with OpenEmbedded and/or Yocto Project.
Supported Machines
The meta-mchp-common layer provides support for various Microchip platforms. For detailed information about supported machines, please refer to the documentation in the relevant sub-layers:
Prerequisites
Before starting, please refer to the Required Packages for Build Host section in the Yocto Project Documentation to install required dependencies for the build environment:
For instance, on Ubuntu or Debian, these packages need to be installed on your development host:
build-essential chrpath socat cpio python3 python3-pip python3-pexpect \
xz-utils debianutils iputils-ping python3-git python3-jinja2 libegl1-mesa libsdl1.2-dev \
pylint3 xterm repo
Usage
To integrate this layer into your Yocto Project build environment:
Clone the necessary repositories:
Create an empty directory to hold the workspace:
cd yocto-dev
Use the repo tool to fetch all the required repositories
Make sure to install the repo utility first.
Replace and with the Yocto release branch and the manifest required. For example:
Fetch all the required repositories using the following repo command:
Initialize the build environment:
The meta-mchp repository provides sample configuration templates that help set up BitBake layers and key configuration files in the Yocto build directory.
Set the TEMPLATECONF environment variable to point to the appropriate configuration template before initializing the build environment:
Replace meta-layer above with the desired layer based on your target platform. For example:
Note: Setting TEMPLATECONF is only needed the first time you will run the source command.
Then initialize the Yocto build environment:
Set the target machine and build the image:
Each sub-layer provides several images that include demos and applications tailored for its respective platform.
For more information on the supported images, please refer to the README:
Layer Dependencies
This layer depends on the following layers:
- URI: git://git.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded
- Layers: meta-oe, meta-networking, meta-python
- openembedded-core
- URI: git://git.openembedded.org/openembedded-core
- Layers: meta
For information on the specific revisions used, refer to the meta-mchp manifest repository.
Licensing
The contents of this layer are licensed under the MIT License. See COPYING.MIT for details.
Contributing
If you want to contribute changes, you can send Github pull requests at https://github.com/linux4microchip/meta-mchp/pulls.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for additional information about contribution guidelines.
Maintainers
- Hari Prasath G E <hari.prasathge@microchip.com>
- Valentina Fernandez Alanis <valentina.fernandezalanis@microchip.com>
- Dharma Balasubiramani <dharma.b@microchip.com>
Recent FAQ
- Unable to build gst1-at91-gstreamer plug-in in Buildroot
- Unable to build OpenWrt with Ubuntu 20.04/21.04
- Compiling Linux Kernel fails looking at OpenSSL header files
- Crypto hardware acceleration
- Hash Error When Booting FIT Image
- How to patch Device Tree Blob in U-boot using Overlays
- Using the SAMA5D2-compatible ADC device
- SD card boot for AT91SAM SoC
- Using Systemd
- U-Boot FAQ
- Using Ultra Low Power mode 1 (ULP1) on SAMA5D2
- USB Gadget Configuration
- Using FIT Image and Device Tree Overlays
- How to use WILC3000 on SAM development boards