Skip to Content

SAMA7D65-Curiosity

Last modified by Microchip on 2025/11/24 07:31

SoC Features

The SAMA7D65 MPU is a high-performance ARM Cortex-A7 CPU-based embedded MPU running up to 1GHz.

The board allows evaluation of powerful peripherals for connectivity, audio and user interface applications, including MIPI-DSI and LVDS w/ 2D graphics, dual Gigabit Ethernet w/ TSN and CAN-FD.

The MPUs offer advanced security functions, like tamper detection, secure boot, secure key stoarge, TRNG, PUF as well as higher-performance crypto accelerators for AES and SHA.

Kit Information

Kit Overview

The SAMA7D65-Curiosity documents can be found on microchip website, as following:

Kit Overview

sama7d65_curiosity_board_presentation.jpg

Access the console

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.Boards.__notes._board-sections-test.common-serial.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Access the console on DEBUG serial port

The serial console can be accessed from the DEBUG port with the help of a TTL-to-USB serial cable (marked as DEBUG J35).

sama7d65_uart_debug_J35.jpg

Using DEBUG on TTL-to-USB connector (DEBUG J35)

  • For Microsoft Windows users: Install the driver of your USB TTL serial cable.
  • 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 (J35)
  • 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.
    USB 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.
    usb 1-1.1.2: new full-speed USB device number 17 using ehci-pci
    usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
    usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
    usb 1-1.1.2: Product: TTL232R-3V3
    usb 1-1.1.2: Manufacturer: FTDI
    usb 1-1.1.2: SerialNumber: FTGNVZ04
    ftdi_sio 1-1.1.2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
    usb 1-1.1.2: Detected FT232RL
    usb 1-1.1.2: Number of endpoints 2
    usb 1-1.1.2: Endpoint 1 MaxPacketSize 64
    usb 1-1.1.2: Endpoint 2 MaxPacketSize 64
    usb 1-1.1.2: Setting MaxPacketSize 64
    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

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.demo-archive.archive2025_10.sama7d65curiosity.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Create a SD card with the demo

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.faq.demo-sd.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Flash the demo

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.subsections.sam-ba3.flash-demo-rootfs-nand.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

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

Run script to boot in emulation mode

  • Make sure the sd card is removed.
  • Jumper J36 NAND_BOOT should be closed.
  • Run the folowing script to boot the board in emulation mode.
  • Microsoft users: Run demo_linux_nandflash_emul.bat file
  • Linux users: Run demo_linux_nandflash_emul.sh file
  • The script writes the boot configuration packet and the board should boot from NAND flash.

Build From source code

Setup ARM Cross Compiler

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.subsections.cross-compiler.13-2-rel1.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

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.

SAM-BA tool

SAM-BA tool is required to add a header in at91bootstrap image (for both manual compilation and
through build-systems like Buildroot or Yocto Project). Download SAM-BA software with the following link:
https://github.com/atmelcorp/sam-ba/releases/tag/v3

Uncompress the tgz file in your workspace with:

$ tar xvzf sam-ba_v3.9.1-linux_x86_64.tar.gz

Make sure to add the sam-ba application to your $PATH and verify that you have the correct
version:

$ sam-ba -v
SAM-BA Command Line Interface Tool v3.9.1 (linux - x86_64-little_endian-lp64)
Copyright 2025 Microchip Technology
Information

Note: this tool was tested with distribution Ubuntu 22.04 onward.
It is known to not work on Ubuntu 20.04 and previous ones, generating such kind of issues:

sam-ba: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by sam-ba)

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:

$ git clone https://github.com/linux4sam/at91bootstrap.git
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

The source code has been taken from the master branch. You must switch to the specified tag by doing:

$ git checkout -b sama7d65 v4.0.9+sama7d65
Switched to a new branch 'sama7d65'

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

sama7d65_curiosity_bkptnone_defconfig
sama7d65_curiosity-bsrnf_uboot_defconfig
sama7d65_curiosity-bsrsd1_uboot_defconfig
sama7d65_curiositydf_qspi_uboot_defconfig
sama7d65_curiositynf_uboot_defconfig
sama7d65_curiositysd1_uboot_defconfig
Information

qspi means to read quad-SPI serial flash, sd means to read sd/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 sama7d65_curiosity-bsrsd1_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:

$ make menuconfig

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:

$ make

If the building process is successful, the final .bin image is build/binaries/boot-plaintextimg.bin.
The boot-plaintextimg.bin, is the boot format to be used for booting the sama7d65 !SoC.

Warning

Warning:this boot-plaintextimg.bin file name is different from the preceding !SoC in the Microchip MPU family, pay attention to that while re-building AT91Bootstrap.

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 Linux4SAM GitHub U-Boot repository:

Clone the Linux4sam GitHub U-Boot repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/linux4sam/u-boot-at91.git
Cloning into 'u-boot-at91'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 1011450, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (111523/111523), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (33355/33355), done.
remote: Total 1011450 (delta 77280), reused 111498 (delta 77272), pack-reused 899927 (from 1)
Receiving objects: 100% (1011450/1011450), 238.61 MiB | 24.92 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (826270/826270), done.
Updating files: 100% (19925/19925), done.
$ cd u-boot-at91/

The source code has been taken from the master branch. You must switch to the specified tag by doing:

$ git checkout -b sama7d65 linux4microchip+sama7d65-2025.02
Switched to a new branch 'sama7d65'

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, below config files can specify where to store the U-Boot environment.

   # To put environment variables in SD/MMC card:
   sama7d65_curiosity_mmc1_defconfig

Here are the building steps for the SAMA7D65-Curiosity board:

# You can change the config according to your needs.
make sama7d65_curiosity_mmc1_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

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.components.linuxkernel.linuxkernel-6-12.build-linux-sama7d65curiosity.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.components.linuxkernel.linuxkernel-6-12.build-linux-bottom.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Build Yocto Project rootfs from sources

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.faq.oebuild.oe-build.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Using SAM-BA to flash components to board

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.subsections.sam-ba3.demo-nand-map.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.subsections.sam-ba3.install-samba.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Launch SAM-BA tools

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.subsections.sam-ba3.launch-master-page.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Configure NAND ECC

Using default PMECC parameters

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.subsections.sam-ba3.ecc-config.sama7d65curiosity.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Programming components into NAND

Program AT91Bootstrap binary

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.subsections.sam-ba3.flash-nand-at91bootstrap.sama7d65curiosity.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Program U-Boot binary

Failed to execute the [display] macro. Cause: [Current user [null] doesn't have view rights on document [xwiki:Development.applications.linux4sam.subsections.sam-ba3.flash-nand-uboot.sama7d65curiosity.WebHome]]. Click on this message for details.

Recent FAQ