SAMA5D29 Curiosity
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
The SAMA5D29-Curiosity follows the Microchip MPU strategy for low-cost evaluation kits, showcasing all the features that the SAMA5D29 MPU offers.
The SAMA5D29-Curiosity board integrates a 4-Gbit LPDDR2SDRAM, one LCD RGB666 interface, one ISC Camera header, one USB Type-C™ connector, one USB Type-A connector, one μSD card interface, one SD Card / Radio Module interface, a Power Management IC (PMIC), a 64 Mb QSPI memory and
one 10/100 RMII add-on slot.
For expansion : Raspberry Pi 40-pin GPIO connector, two mikroBUS™ connectors (Hundreds of possible Click™ extensions featuring Microchip functions inside), one multipurpose 20-pin connector (Exposes NAND Flash interface) and two PIOBU/System headers.
The Kit is supported
Linux4Microchip
Kernel LTS as well as mainline Linux Kernel.
The SAMA5D29-Curiosity documents can be found on microchip website, as following:
Kit Overview
Kit User Guide
The usual serial communication parameters are
115200 8-N-1 :
|
|
| Baud rate |
115200 |
| Data |
8 bits |
| Parity |
None |
| Stop |
1 bit |
| Flow control |
None |
|
|
|
The serial console can be accessed from the DEBUG port with the help of a TTL-to-USB serial cable (marked as DEBUG J28).
Using DEBUG on TTL-to-USB connector (DEBUG J28)
- 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: http://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 (J28)
- 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
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
- 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/
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:
$ 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
Assuming you are at the AT91Bootstrap root directory, you will find a
configs folder which contains several default configuration files:
sama5d29_curiositysd_uboot_defconfig
sama5d29_curiositysd1_uboot_defconfig
sama5d29_curiosityqspi_uboot_defconfig
Tips: qspi means to read quad-SPI serial flash,
sd means to read mmc card.
You can configure AT91Bootstrap to load U-Boot binary from SD Card by doing:
$ make mrproper
$ make sama5d29_curiositysd_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/at91bootstrap.bin.
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/
Cross-compiling U-Boot
Before compiling the U-Boot, you need setup cross compile toolchain in the
section.
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 Microchip 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.
# To put environment variables in uSD card:
sama5d29_curiosity_mmc_defconfig
# To put environment variables in SD card:
sama5d29_curiosity_mmc1_defconfig
# To put environment variables in quad-SPI serial flash:
sama5d29_curiosity_qspiflash_defconfig
Here are the building steps for the SAMA5D29-Curiosity board:
# You can change the config according to your needs.
make sama5d29_curiosity_mmc_defconfig
make or make -j <num_of_cpus> or make -j $(nproc --all)
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.
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:
$ git clone https://github.com/linux4microchip/linux.git
Cloning into 'linux'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 8587836, done.
remote: Total 8587836 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 8587836
Receiving objects: 100% (8587836/8587836), 3.49 GiB | 13.44 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (7117887/7117887), done.
Updating files: 100% (70687/70687), done.
$ cd linux
The source code has been taken from the master branch which is pointing on the latest branch we use.
Note that you can also add this Linux4SAM repository as a
remote GIT repository to your usual Linux git tree. It will save you a lot of bandwidth and download time:
$ git remote add linux4microchip https://github.com/linux4microchip/linux.git
$ git remote update linux4microchip
Fetching linux4microchip
From https://github.com/linux4microchip/linux
* [new branch] linux-6.1-mchp -> linux4microchip/linux-6.1-mchp
* [new branch] linux-6.6-mchp -> linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp
* [new branch] master -> linux4microchip/master
If you want to use another branch, you can list them and use one of them by doing this:
$ git branch -r
linux4microchip/linux-5.10-mchp
linux4microchip/linux-5.15-mchp
linux4microchip/linux-5.15-mchp+fpga
linux4microchip/linux-6.1-mchp
linux4microchip/linux-6.1-mchp+fpga
linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp
linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp+fpga
linux4microchip/master
$ git checkout -b linux-6.6-mchp --track remotes/linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp
Branch linux-6.6-mchp set up to track remote branch linux-6.6-mchp from linux4microchip.
Switched to a new branch 'linux-6.6-mchp'
Setup ARM Cross Compiler
- 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/
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/zImage is ready
UIMAGE arch/arm/boot/uImage
Image Name: Linux-6.6.23-linux4microchip-202
Created: Thu May 16 14:36:06 2024
Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size: 5221704 Bytes = 5099.32 KiB = 4.98 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-sam9x60_curiosity.dtb
DTC arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x60ek.dtb
DTC arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x75_curiosity.dtb
DTC arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x75eb.dtb
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-sama5d2_ptc_ek.dtb
DTC arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d2_xplained.dtb
DTC arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama7d65_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.
Note that building an entire distribution is a long process. It also requires a big amount of free disk space.
The support for Microchip AT91 SoC family is included in a particular Yocto Project layer:
meta-atmel. The source for this layer are hosted on
Linux4SAM GitHub account:
https://github.com/linux4sam/meta-atmel
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 AT91 specific or that can facilitate your setup.
Prerequisite
Here are the reference pages for setting up a Yocto Project building environment:
What You Need and How You Get It.
add
git-lfs to the package requirement list from whichever Linux distribution you use.
For instance, on Ubuntu or debian, these packages need to be installed on your development host:
sudo apt-get install gawk wget git-core git-lfs diffstat unzip texinfo gcc-multilib \
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
Step by step build procedure
here is a copy of the
README procedure available directly in the
meta-atmel layer. This file in the meta-atmel layer repository must be considered as the reference and the following copy can be out-of-sync.
starting with
Linux4SAM 2021.04 release, the
meta-atmel layer supports Yocto Project templates, so make sure you create a new build environment using
oe-init-build-env
This layer provides support for Microchip microprocessors (aka AT91)
====================================================================
For more information about the Microchip MPU product line see:
http://www.microchip.com/design-centers/32-bit-mpus
Linux & Open Source on Microchip microprocessors:
http://www.linux4sam.org
Supported SoCs / MACHINE names
==============================
Note that most of the machine names below, have a SD Card variant that can be
built by adding an
---+ Recent FAQ
$ [[Sama5d29CuriosityMainPage][Sama5d29Curiosity]]:
• Using Atmel DRMDriver: Using Atmel KMS/DRM LCD driver. ([[LinuxKernel][Kernel]], [[LinuxKernel_3_18][linux-3.18-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_1][linux-4.1-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_4][linux-4.4-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_9][linux-4.9-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_14][linux-4.14-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_19][linux-4.19-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_4][linux-5.4-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_10][linux-5.10-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_15][linux-5.15-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_1][linux-6.1-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_6][linux-6.6-mchp]])
• U-Boot FAQ: Some U-Boot FAQ entries. ([[U-Boot][U-Boot]])
• Using FITwith Overlays: How to use U-boot with FIT image to load overlays. ([[U-Boot][U-Boot]], [[LinuxKernel][Kernel]])
• Patching DTin Uboot: How to apply DTBOs in U-boot. ([[U-Boot][U-Boot]], [[LinuxKernel][Kernel]])
• Using Systemd: Basic systemd user guide. ([[LinuxKernel_6_1][linux-6.1-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_6][linux-6.6-mchp]], BuildRoot, YoctoProject)
• Using SAMA 5 D 2 ADCDevice: Using the !SAMA5D2-compatible ADC device. ([[LinuxKernel][Kernel]], [[LinuxKernel_5_15][linux-5.15-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_1][linux-6.1-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_6][linux-6.6-mchp]])
• Connect Module From PDA: How to connect LCD module from PDA to the Boards. ([[LinuxKernel][Kernel]])
• Using Max Touch: Introduction for how to use maxTouch. ([[LinuxKernel][Kernel]], [[LinuxKernel_3_18][linux-3.18-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_1][linux-4.1-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_4][linux-4.4-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_9][linux-4.9-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_14][linux-4.14-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_19][linux-4.19-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_4][linux-5.4-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_10][linux-5.10-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_15][linux-5.15-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_1][linux-6.1-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_6][linux-6.6-mchp]])
• Crypto Config: How to configure Crypto driver. ([[LinuxKernel][Kernel]], [[LinuxKernel_3_18][linux-3.18-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_1][linux-4.1-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_4][linux-4.4-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_9][linux-4.9-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_14][linux-4.14-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_19][linux-4.19-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_4][linux-5.4-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_10][linux-5.10-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_15][linux-5.15-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_1][linux-6.1-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_6][linux-6.6-mchp]])
• USBGadget Config: Configure AT91 USB Gadget on Linux and Endpoint order management (composite USB). ([[LinuxKernel][Kernel]], [[LinuxKernel_4_4][linux-4.4-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_9][linux-4.9-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_14][linux-4.14-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_19][linux-4.19-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_4][linux-5.4-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_10][linux-5.10-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_15][linux-5.15-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_1][linux-6.1-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_6][linux-6.6-mchp]])
• Pwm Faq: PWM Driver. ([[LinuxKernel][Kernel]], [[LinuxKernel_3_10][linux-3.10-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_3_18][linux-3.18-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_1][linux-4.1-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_4][linux-4.4-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_9][linux-4.9-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_14][linux-4.14-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_4_19][linux-4.19-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_4][linux-5.4-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_10][linux-5.10-at91]], [[LinuxKernel_5_15][linux-5.15-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_1][linux-6.1-mchp]], [[LinuxKernel_6_6][linux-6.6-mchp]])
• SDCard Boot Notice: How to boot up the board from SD card. (AT91Bootstrap)
• Hasherrorwhenbooting FITimage: . ([[U-Boot][U-Boot]])
