Microchip Software Package

Overview

This softpack comes as an early delivery and all presented APIs are subject to change.

Each software module is provided with full source code, example of usage, and ready-to-use projects.

This softpack is hosted on GitHub.

Supported Platforms

Windows and Linux with the gnu GCC ARM Embedded toolchain

It is downloadable at this address: launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded (Mac OS X should also work but as not been tested yet).

As it is announced all new binary and source packages will not be released on Launchpad, toolchains can also be downloaded at these address: developer.arm.com/open-source/gnu-toolchain/gnu-rm/downloads and developer.arm.com/open-source/gnu-toolchain/gnu-a/downloads

Suggested version of toolchain: gcc-arm-none-eabi-8-2018-q4-major

Here a few tips that may prove useful in resolving compatibility issues met with other toolchain versions:

• link error of "uses VFP register arguments" for SAMA5: replace "-mcpu=cortex-a5" with "-march=armv7-a" in file scripts/Makefile.vars.sama5d*
• link error of "cannot find -lc_nano": remove "--specs=nano.specs" from scripts/Makefile.vars

Dependencies:

• GNU make (from MinGW, Cygwin or GnuWin32 for Windows architectures)
• bash (from MinGW, Cygwin for Windows architectures)
• recommended on Windows architectures: winpty (from MSYS2's package manager)

Windows with IAR Embedded Workbench

Dependencies:

• IAR Embedded Workbench (Tested on version 7.80)
• bash (from MinGW, Cygwin or GnuWin32) for IAR project generation
• GNU make (from MinGW, Cygwin or GnuWin32) for IAR project generation
• mktemp (from MinGW, Cygwin or GnuWin32) for IAR project generation

Windows and Linux with the MPLAB MPLAB X IDE toolchain

Dependencies:

• MPLAB X IDE (Tested on version 5.50)
• bash (from MinGW, Cygwin or GnuWin32) for MPLAB project generation
• GNU make (from MinGW, Cygwin or GnuWin32) for MPLAB project generation
• mktemp (from MinGW, Cygwin or GnuWin32) for MPLAB project generation

Contents

Directory Architecture

• target/xxx All chip and board specific source files for xxx devices

• target/xxx/toolchain/ Linker and debugger scripts for xxx devices

• scripts/ generators and build script templates (Makefiles)

• arch/ CPU Core driver source files

• drivers/ Driver source files

• examples/ All examples

• samba_applets/ Source code for SAM-BA 3.x applets

• flash_loader/ Source code for IAR flash loader

Examples

The examples are listed in softpack.md.

Usage (GCC ARM Embedded)

Environment Variable

TARGET: Name of the target (sama5d2-xplained for SAMA5D2 XPLAINED ULTRA boards).

VARIANT: Build variant, for example "sram","ddram" or "qspi".

DEBUG: Build with debug flags (default).

TRACE_LEVEL: Log level, 5 correspond to full, 0 to none (default to 5)

RELEASE: Build for release, otherwise build for debug.

V=1: Verbose build

All these variables are optional except for TARGET that must be provided or set at each make invocation.

Build

Run:

make TARGET=target

Run and Debug (with GDB)

To run examples with gdb, JLinkGDBServer must be started. It can be downloaded for each platform at www.segger.com

A make target is provided to launch the test with the correct gdb command arguments, run:

make TARGET=target debug

Usage (IAR)

The Win version of this softpack release comes with pregenerated IAR projects compatible with IAR Systems Embedded Workbench for ARM version 7.80.

The C-SPY device description files and device selections files are not included and must be installed manually.

IAR Project generation

An IAR project can be generated with GNU make, run in the example directory:

make TARGET=target iar

All needed IAR project files will be put in the example directory, including a default workspace one. Each IAR project is configured to JLINK as default debugger driver, as for other setting, you can set up in IAR IDE to suit your connection such as cmsis-dap driver. IAR flash loader is an agent that is downloaded to the target, more flash loaders are provided in this software package, each build variant, for example "sram","ddram", "flash" or "qspi", have it's dedicated flash loader.

Notice: GNU make may fail on Windows platforms if the Makefile contains UNIX line endings. You can use unix2dos on all Makefile files in scripts/ directory to fix this issue.

Usage (MPLAB)

The pregenerated MPLAB X IDE projects of softpack are compatible with version v5.50.

MPLAB X IDE Project generation

A MPLAB X IDE project can be generated with GNU make, run in the example directory:

make TARGET=target mplab

All needed MPLAB X IDE project files will be put in a folder named with the target under the example directory. Users may configure the debugger, DFP and toolchains before build, debug and run the examples. For configuration "sram" no bootstrap is needed, and for ddram configurations a bootstrap (at91bootstrap may be used) is needed to debug or run the example properly (Configured in Project Properties -> Conf -> Bootstrap).

The GNU toolchain is also supported in MPLAB X IDE, tested with the version of toolchain: gcc-arm-none-eabi-10-2020-q4-major

Notice: GNU make may fail on Windows platforms if the Makefile contains UNIX line endings. You can use unix2dos on all Makefile files in scripts/ directory to fix this issue.

Please visit README for FreeRTOS to use examples/freertos_*.