.. zephyr:board:: nrf9160dk .. _nrf9160dk_nrf9160:

nRF9160 DK ##########

Overview

The nRF9160 DK (PCA10090) is a single-board development kit for evaluation and development on the nRF9160 SiP for LTE-M and NB-IoT. The nrf9160dk/nrf9160 board configuration provides support for the Nordic Semiconductor nRF9160 ARM Cortex-M33F CPU with ARMv8-M Security Extensions.

.. figure:: img/nrf9160dk_nrf9160.jpg :align: center :alt: nRF9160 DK

 nRF9160 DK (Credit: Nordic Semiconductor)

More information about the board can be found at the nRF9160 DK website. nRF9160 Product Specification contains the processor's information and the datasheet.

Hardware

nRF9160 DK has two external oscillators. The frequency of the slow clock is 32.768 kHz. The frequency of the main clock is 32 MHz.

Supported Features

.. zephyr:board-supported-hw::

.. _nrf9160dk_additional_hardware:

Additional hardware in v0.14.0+

Starting from v0.14.0, additional hardware is available on the DK:

External flash memory (MX25R6435F, 64 Mb)
I/O expander (PCAL6408A) that can be used to interface LEDs, slide switches, and buttons

To use this additional hardware, specify the revision of the board that should be used when building your application (for more information, see :ref:application_board_version). For example, to build for nRF9160 DK v1.0.0:

.. zephyr-app-commands:: :tool: all :cd-into: :board: nrf9160dk/[email protected] :goals: build :compact:

Remember to also enable routing for this additional hardware in the firmware for :ref:nrf9160dk_nrf52840 (see :ref:nrf9160dk_board_controller_firmware).

Other hardware features have not been enabled yet for this board. See nRF9160 DK website_ and nRF9160 Product Specification_ for a complete list of nRF9160 DK board hardware features.

Connections and IOs

LED

LED1 (green) = P0.2
LED2 (green) = P0.3
LED3 (green) = P0.4
LED4 (green) = P0.5

Push buttons and Switches

BUTTON1 = P0.6
BUTTON2 = P0.7
SWITCH1 = P0.8
SWITCH2 = P0.9
BOOT = SW5 = boot/reset

Security components

Implementation Defined Attribution Unit (IDAU_). The IDAU is implemented with the System Protection Unit and is used to define secure and non-secure memory maps. By default, all of the memory space (Flash, SRAM, and peripheral address space) is defined to be secure accessible only.
Secure boot.

Programming and Debugging

nrf9160dk/nrf9160 supports the Armv8m Security Extension, and by default boots in the Secure state.

Building Secure/Non-Secure Zephyr applications with Arm® TrustZone®

Applications on the nRF9160 may contain a Secure and a Non-Secure firmware image. The Secure image can be built using either Zephyr or Trusted Firmware M_ (TF-M). Non-Secure firmware images are always built using Zephyr. The two alternatives are described below.

.. note::

By default the Secure image for nRF9160 is built using TF-M.

Building the Secure firmware using Zephyr

The process requires the following steps:

Build the Secure Zephyr application using -DBOARD=nrf9160dk/nrf9160 and CONFIG_TRUSTED_EXECUTION_SECURE=y in the application project configuration file.
Build the Non-Secure Zephyr application using -DBOARD=nrf9160dk/nrf9160/ns.
Merge the two binaries together.

Building the Secure firmware with TF-M

The process to build the Secure firmware image using TF-M and the Non-Secure firmware image using Zephyr requires the following action:

Build the Non-Secure Zephyr application using -DBOARD=nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns. To invoke the building of TF-M the Zephyr build system requires the Kconfig option BUILD_WITH_TFM to be enabled, which is done by default when building Zephyr as a Non-Secure application. The Zephyr build system will perform the following steps automatically:
- Build the Non-Secure firmware image as a regular Zephyr application
- Build a TF-M (secure) firmware image
- Merge the output binaries together
- Optionally build a bootloader image (MCUboot)

.. note::

Depending on the TF-M configuration, an application DTS overlay may be required, to adjust the Non-Secure image Flash and SRAM starting address and sizes.

When building a Secure/Non-Secure application, the Secure application will have to set the IDAU (SPU) configuration to allow Non-Secure access to all CPU resources utilized by the Non-Secure application firmware. SPU configuration shall take place before jumping to the Non-Secure application.

Building a Secure only application

Build the Zephyr app in the usual way (see :ref:build_an_application and :ref:application_run), using -DBOARD=nrf9160dk/nrf9160.

Flashing

Follow the instructions in the :ref:nordic_segger page to install and configure all the necessary software. Further information can be found in :ref:nordic_segger_flashing. Then build and flash applications as usual (see :ref:build_an_application and :ref:application_run for more details).

Here is an example for the :zephyr:code-sample:hello_world application.

First, run your favorite terminal program to listen for output.

.. code-block:: console

$ minicom -D <tty_device> -b 115200

Replace :code:<tty_device> with the port where the nRF9160 DK can be found. For example, under Linux, :code:/dev/ttyACM0.

Then build and flash the application in the usual way.

.. zephyr-app-commands:: :zephyr-app: samples/hello_world :board: nrf9160dk/nrf9160 :goals: build flash

Debugging

Refer to the :ref:nordic_segger page to learn about debugging Nordic boards with a Segger IC.

Testing the LEDs and buttons in the nRF9160 DK

There are 2 samples that allow you to test that the buttons (switches) and LEDs on the board are working properly with Zephyr:

:zephyr:code-sample:blinky
:zephyr:code-sample:button

You can build and flash the examples to make sure Zephyr is running correctly on your board. The button and LED definitions can be found in :zephyr_file:boards/nordic/nrf9160dk/nrf9160dk_nrf9160_common.dtsi.

.. _nrf9160dk_nrf52840:

nRF9160 DK - nRF52840 #####################

Overview

The nRF52840 SoC on the nRF9160 DK (PCA10090) hardware provides support for the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 ARM Cortex-M4F CPU and the following devices:

CLOCK
FLASH
:abbr:GPIO (General Purpose Input Output)
:abbr:MPU (Memory Protection Unit)
:abbr:NVIC (Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller)
:abbr:PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)
RADIO (Bluetooth Low Energy and 802.15.4)
:abbr:RTC (nRF RTC System Clock)
Segger RTT (RTT Console)
:abbr:UART (Universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter)
:abbr:WDT (Watchdog Timer)

The nRF52840 SoC does not have any connection to the any of the LEDs, buttons, switches, and Arduino pin headers on the nRF9160 DK board. It is, however, possible to route some of the pins of the nRF52840 SoC to the nRF9160 SiP.

More information about the board can be found at the Nordic Low power cellular IoT_ website. nRF52840 Product Specification_ contains the processor's information and the datasheet.

Hardware

The nRF9160 DK has two external oscillators. The frequency of the slow clock is 32.768 kHz. The frequency of the main clock is 32 MHz.

Supported Features

.. zephyr:board-supported-hw::

Programming and Debugging

Applications for the nrf9160dk/nrf52840 board configuration can be built and flashed in the usual way (see :ref:build_an_application and :ref:application_run for more details).

Make sure that the PROG/DEBUG switch on the DK is set to nRF52.

Flashing

Remember to set the PROG/DEBUG switch on the DK to nRF52.

See the following example for the :zephyr:code-sample:hello_world application.

First, run your favorite terminal program to listen for output.

.. code-block:: console

$ minicom -D <tty_device> -b 115200

Replace :code:<tty_device> with the port where the nRF52840 SoC is connected to. Usually, under Linux it will be /dev/ttyACM1. The /dev/ttyACM0 port is connected to the nRF9160 SiP on the board.

Then build and flash the application in the usual way.

.. zephyr-app-commands:: :zephyr-app: samples/hello_world :board: nrf9160dk/nrf52840 :goals: build flash

Debugging

Refer to the :ref:nordic_segger page to learn about debugging Nordic boards with a Segger IC.

Remember to set the PROG/DEBUG switch on the DK to nRF52.

.. _nrf9160dk_board_controller_firmware:

Board controller firmware

The board controller firmware is a small snippet of code that takes care of routing specific pins of the nRF9160 SiP to different components on the DK, such as LEDs and buttons, UART interfaces (VCOMx) of the interface MCU, and specific nRF52840 SoC pins.

.. note:: In nRF9160 DK revisions earlier than v0.14.0, nRF9160 signals routed to other components on the DK are not simultaneously available on the DK connectors.

When compiling a project for nrf9160dk/nrf52840, the board controller firmware will be compiled and run automatically after the Kernel has been initialized.

By default, the board controller firmware will route the following:

+--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | nRF9160 pins | Routed to | +================================+==================================+ | P0.26, P0.27, P0.28, and P0.29 | VCOM0 | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.01, P0.00, P0.15, and P0.14 | VCOM2 | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.02 | LED1 | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.03 | LED2 | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.04 | LED3 | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.05 | LED4 | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.08 | Switch 1 | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.09 | Switch 2 | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.06 | Button 1 | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.07 | Button 2 | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.17, P0.18, and P0.19 | Arduino pin headers | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | P0.21, P0.22, and P0.23 | Trace interface | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+ | COEX0, COEX1, and COEX2 | COEX interface | +--------------------------------+----------------------------------+

For a complete list of all the routing options available, see the nRF9160 DK board control section in the nRF9160 DK User Guide_.

If you want to route some of the above pins differently or enable any of the other available routing options, enable or disable the devicetree node that represents the analog switch that provides the given routing.

The following devicetree nodes are defined for the analog switches present on the nRF9160 DK:

When building for the DK revision 0.14.0 or later, you can use the following additional nodes (see :ref:application_board_version for information how to build for specific revisions of the board):

For example, if you want to enable the optional routing for the nRF9160 pins P0.17, P0.18, and P0.19 so that they are routed to nRF52840 pins P0.17, P0.20, and P0.15, respectively, add the following in the devicetree overlay in your application:

.. code-block:: devicetree

&nrf_interface_pins_0_2_routing { status = "okay"; };

And if you want to, for example, disable routing for the VCOM2 pins, add the following:

.. code-block:: devicetree

&vcom2_pins_routing { status = "disabled"; };

A few helper .dtsi files are provided in the directories :zephyr_file:boards/nordic/nrf9160dk/dts/nrf52840 and :zephyr_file:boards/nordic/nrf9160dk/dts/nrf9160. They can serve as examples of how to configure and use the above routings. You can also include them from respective devicetree overlay files in your applications to conveniently configure the signal routing between nRF9160 and nRF52840 on the nRF9160 DK. For example, to use uart1 on both these chips for communication between them, add the following line in the overlays for applications on both sides, nRF52840:

.. code-block:: devicetree

#include <nrf52840/nrf9160dk_uart1_on_if0_3.dtsi>

nRF9160:

.. code-block:: devicetree

#include <nrf9160/nrf9160dk_uart1_on_if0_3.dtsi>

References

.. target-notes::

.. _IDAU: https://developer.arm.com/docs/100690/latest/attribution-units-sau-and-idau .. _nRF9160 DK website: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-Tools/Development-Kits/nRF9160-DK .. _Trusted Firmware M: https://www.trustedfirmware.org/projects/tf-m/ .. _Nordic Low power cellular IoT: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Low-power-cellular-IoT .. _nRF9160 Product Specification: https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ps_nrf9160/page/nRF9160_html5_keyfeatures.html .. _nRF52840 Product Specification: https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ps_nrf52840/page/keyfeatures_html5.html .. _J-Link Software and documentation pack: https://www.segger.com/jlink-software.html .. _nRF9160 DK board control section in the nRF9160 DK User Guide: https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ug_nrf9160_dk/page/UG/nrf91_DK/hw_description/nrf9160_board_controller.html