Sama5d4 Xplained

SoC Features

The SAMA5D4 MPU is ideal for any high-performance, secure, and cost-sensitive industrial application. High-speed computing needs are supported by ARM Neon and 128kB L2 cache which increases the overall system performance. The SAMA5D4 is an ideal fit for low-cost user interface applications that require video playback. The high-grade security features allows you to protect any system against counterfeiting and software theft, and allows you to securely store and transfer data.

Kit Information

Kit Overview

Access the console

The usual serial communication parameters are 115200 8-N-1 :

Access the console on DBGU serial port

The DBGU serial console can be accessed from two connectors. One is from the DBGU port with the help of a TTL-to-USB serial cable (marked as DEBUG J1), another is from micro-A USB connector that gives access to the on-board serial-to-USB converter (marked as J20 EDBG-USB).

Using DBGU on TTL-to-USB connector (DEBUG J1)

• 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 (J1)
  • 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.
    
  • 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

Using the micro-A USB connector (J20 EDBG-USB)

You can also access the serial console through the on-board serial-to-USB converter. In fact, the Atmel EDBG (Embedded Debugger) 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 USB drivers for Atmel and Segger tools. No need to install a driver on any regular Linux distribution.
• Open JP1 to enable EDBG
• Connect the USB cable to the board (J20 EDBG-USB)
  • For Microsoft Windows users: identify the USB connection that is established
    EDBG Virtual COM 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.
    [172677.700868] usb 2-1.4.4: new full-speed USB device number 31 using ehci-pci
    [172677.792677] usb 2-1.4.4: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
    [172677.793418] usb 2-1.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=03eb, idProduct=6124
    [172677.793424] usb 2-1.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
    [172677.793897] cdc_acm 2-1.4.4:1.0: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.
    [172677.793924] cdc_acm 2-1.4.4:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
    idVendor=03eb, idProduct=6124: from this message you can see it's Microchip board USB connection.

• Now open your favorite terminal emulator with appropriate settings

Demo

Demo archives

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.

Flash the demo

Connect the USB to the board before launching SAM-BA

• Short the JP7 (BOOT_DIS) to prevents booting from Nand or serial Flash by disabling Flash Chip Selects
• Connect a USB micro-A cable to the board (J11 5V-USB-A) to power up the board
• Open the JP7 (BOOT_DIS) to enable booting from Nand or serial Flash by enabling Flash Chip Selects
• check whether the board is found in your PC as a USB device:
  • For Microsoft Windows users:* verify that the USB connection is well established
    AT91 USB to Serial Converter should appear in Device Manager. If it shows a unknown device you need to download and install the driver: AT91SAM USB CDC driver
    
  • For Linux users: check /dev/ttyACMx by monitoring the last lines of dmesg command:
    [172677.700868] usb 2-1.4.4: new full-speed USB device number 31 using ehci-pci
    [172677.792677] usb 2-1.4.4: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
    [172677.793418] usb 2-1.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=03eb, idProduct=6124
    [172677.793424] usb 2-1.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
    [172677.793897] cdc_acm 2-1.4.4:1.0: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.
    [172677.793924] cdc_acm 2-1.4.4:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device

    idVendor=03eb, idProduct=6124: from this message you can see it's Microchip board USB connection.

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

• 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:

Configure AT91Bootstrap

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

You can configure AT91Bootstrap to load U-Boot binary from NAND flash by doing:

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 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.

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

Here are the building steps for the SAMA5D4-Xplained board:

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

Required packages

You must install essential host packages on your build host. These requirements are listed in the Linux kernel documentation with the chapter Install build requirements. You must follow this process which includes, but not limited to, the following packages:

• build-essential
• flex
• bison
• git
• perl-base
• libssl-dev
• libncurses5-dev
• libncursesw5-dev
• ncurses-dev

Getting Kernel sources

To get the source code, you have to clone the repository:

The source code has been taken from the master branch which is pointing on the latest branch we use.

If you want to use another branch, you can list them and use one of them by doing this:

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/

  • Information

     If you already have an old ARM GNU Toolchain need to clean up the PATH with:

    export PATH=${PATH/':/YOUR/PATH/TO/arm-gnu-toolchain-VERSION-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/'/}
        

  Configure and Build the Linux kernel

  Now you have to configure the Linux kernel according to your hardware. We have two default configuration at91 SoC in arch/arm/configs

  arch/arm/configs/at91_dt_defconfig
  arch/arm/configs/sama5_defconfig
  arch/arm/configs/sama7_defconfig

  • at91_dt_defconfig: for SAM9 (ARM926) series chips
  • sama5_defconfig: for SAMA5 series chips
  • sama7_defconfig: for SAMA7 series chips

   

At this step, you can modify default configuration using the menuconfig

• $ make ARCH=arm menuconfig

  Now, in the menuconfig dialog, you can easily add or remove some features. Once done, Move to <Exit> with arrows and press this button hitting the Enter key to exit from this screen.

  Build the Linux kernel image, before you build you need set up the cross compile toolchain, check this section.

  $ make ARCH=arm
  
  [..]
  
    Kernel: arch/arm/boot/Image is ready
    Kernel: arch/arm/boot/zImage is ready

  Now you have an usable compressed kernel image zImage.

  If you need an uImage you can run this additional step:

  make ARCH=arm uImage LOADADDR=0x20008000
  
  [..]
  
  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/Image is ready
  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/zImage is ready
  UIMAGE  arch/arm/boot/uImage
  Image Name:   Linux-6.12.22-linux4microchip-20
  Created:      Thu May 22 18:05:21 2025
  Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
  Data Size:    5688984 Bytes = 5555.65 KiB = 5.43 MiB
  Load Address: 20008000
  Entry Point:  20008000
  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/uImage is ready
  

  make ARCH=arm dtbs
  
  [..]
  
    DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d27_som1_ek.dtb
    DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d27_wlsom1_ek.dtb
    DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d29_curiosity.dtb
    DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d2_icp.dtb
    DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d3_eds.dtb
    DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama7d65_curiosity.dtb
    DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama7g54_curiosity.dtb
    DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama7g5ek.dtb
  
  [..]

  If the building process is successful, the final images can be found under arch/arm/boot/ directory.

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:

• MPU layer README

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:

Usage

To integrate this layer into your Yocto Project build environment:

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>

Using SAM-BA to flash components to board

NAND Flash demo - Memory map

Install SAM-BA software in your PC

In addition to the official SAM-BA pages on http://www.microchip.com, we maintain information about SAM-BA in the SoftwareTools page.

Launch SAM-BA tools

• According to the Connect the USB to the board before launching SAM-BA section of this page make sure that the chip can execute the SAM-BA Monitor.

In addition to the Qt5 QML language for scripting used for flashing the demos, most common SAM-BA action can be done using SAM-BA command line.

For browsing information on the SAM-BA command line usage, please see the Command Line Documentation that is available in the SAM-BA installation directory: doc/index.html or doc/cmdline.html .

SAM-BA includes command line interface that provides support for the most common actions:

• reading / writing to arbitrary memory addresses and/or peripherals
• uploading applets and using them to erase/read/write external memories

The command line interface is designed to be self-documenting.

The main commands can be listed using the "sam-ba --help" command:

If you get the following error, it indicates a symbol mismatch or unresolved symbol when the sam-ba executable is being loaded

Check for Qt libraries inside the extracted SAM-BA directory.

Additional help can be obtained for most commands by supplying a "help" parameter that will display their usage.

For example "sam-ba --port help" will display:

Command that take an argument with options (port, monitor, applet) will display even more documentation when called with "help" as option value.

For example "sam-ba --port serial:help" will display:

Configure NAND ECC

Using default PMECC parameters

You can figure out that the default PMECC parameter for this sama5d4-xplained board is 0xc1e04e07.

If you want to change the default PMECC parameters you can simply specify another value on the SAM-BA command line with the -a nandflash argument as shown below:

By reading this in-line documentation we can specify the NAND PMECC parameter with this command:

Programming components into NAND

Program AT91Bootstrap binary

Run SAM-BA with USB connection (equivalent to serial) and erase the beginning of the NAND flash and then write AT91Bootstrap binary:

Program U-Boot binary

Run SAM-BA with USB connection (equivalent to serial) and erase the U-Boot section in the NAND flash memory map and then write U-Boot binary:

Recent FAQ

• AT91Bootstrap Debugging with Eclipse for Linux
• Compiling Linux Kernel fails looking at OpenSSL header files
• Connect Module From PDA
• Convert SAM-BA Scripts
• Crypto hardware acceleration
• Hash error when booting FIT image
• Use of the AT91 ADC driver
• How to patch Device Tree Blob in U-boot using Overlays
• PDA Detection at Boot Time
• Enable and Configure PMECC (Programmable Multibit ECC) in AT91SAM SoC
• How to use Pulse Width Modulation driver
• SD card boot for AT91SAM SoC
• U-Boot FAQ
• USB Gadget Configuration
• How to use the Atmel KMS/DRM LCD driver
• Using FIT Image and Device Tree Overlays
• External Component on External Bus Interface