SAMA7D65-Curiosity

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

Access the console

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

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).

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.
  
• 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

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

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

• 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.

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:

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

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

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

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 SD Card 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/boot-plaintextimg.bin.
The boot-plaintextimg.bin, is the boot format to be used for booting the sama7d65 !SoC.

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:

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

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

Here are the building steps for the SAMA7D65-Curiosity 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

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 sama7d65-curiosity 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

• SAMA7D65 ready-made Buildroot images &amp; BSR
• How to patch Device Tree Blob in U-boot using Overlays
• Using the SAMA5D2-compatible ADC device
• Using Systemd
• Thermal management support on SAMA7G5
• U-Boot FAQ
• How to use the Atmel KMS/DRM LCD driver
• How to use U-boot with FIT image to load overlays