boards/phytec/phyboard_electra/doc/index.rst
.. zephyr:board:: phyboard_electra
phyBOARD-Electra AM64x M4F Core ###############################
Overview
The AM64x phyBOARD-Electra board configuration is used by Zephyr applications that run on the TI AM64x platform. The board configuration provides support for the ARM Cortex-M4F MCU core and the following features:
The board configuration also enables support for the semihosting debugging console.
See the PHYTEC AM64x Product Page_ for details.
.. figure:: img/phyCORE-AM64x_Electra_frontside.webp :align: center :alt: phyBOARD-Electra AM64x
PHYTEC phyBOARD-Electra with the phyCORE-AM64x SoM
Hardware
The AM64x phyBOARD-Electra kit features the AM64x SoC, which is composed of a dual Cortex-A53 cluster and two dual Cortex-R5F cores in the MAIN domain as well as a single Cortex-M4 core in the MCU domain. Zephyr is ported to run on the M4F core and the following listed hardware specifications are used:
Low-power ARM Cortex-M4F
Memory
Debug
.. zephyr:board-supported-hw::
This board configuration uses a system clock frequency of 400 MHz.
The board has 2GB of DDR RAM available. This board configuration allocates Zephyr 4kB of RAM (only for resource table: 0xa4100000 to 0xa4100400).
This board configuration uses a single serial communication channel with the MCU domain UART (MCU_UART0).
The phyCORE-AM64x has a heartbeat LED connected to gpio6. It's configured
to build and run the :zephyr:code-sample:blinky sample.
SD Card
Download PHYTEC's official WIC_ as well as BMAP_ and flash the WIC file with
an etching software onto an SD-card. This will boot Linux on the A53 application
cores of the SoM. These cores will then load the zephyr binary on the M4 core
using remoteproc.
The default configuration can be found in
:zephyr_file:boards/phytec/phyboard_electra/phyboard_electra_am6442_m4_defconfig
Flashing
The Linux running on the A53 uses the remoteproc framework to manage the M4F co-processor. Therefore, the testing requires the binary to be copied to the SD card to allow the A53 cores to load it while booting using remoteproc.
To test the M4F core, we build the :zephyr:code-sample:hello_world sample with the following command.
.. zephyr-app-commands:: :board: phyboard_electra/am6442/m4 :zephyr-app: samples/hello_world :goals: build
This builds the program and the binary is present in the :file:build/zephyr directory as
:file:zephyr.elf.
We now copy this binary onto the SD card in the :file:/lib/firmware directory and name it as
:file:am64-mcu-m4f0_0-fw.
.. code-block:: console
sudo mount /dev/sdX sdcard
sudo cp --remove-destination zephyr.elf sdcard/lib/firmware/am64-mcu-m4f0_0-fw
The SD card can now be used for booting. The binary will now be loaded onto the M4F core on boot.
To allow the board to boot using the SD card, set the boot pins to the SD Card boot mode. Refer to phyBOARD SD Card Booting Essentials_.
The board should boot into Linux and the binary will run and print Hello world to the MCU_UART0 port.
.. _PHYTEC AM64x Product Page: https://www.phytec.com/product/phycore-am64x/
.. _phyBOARD SD Card Booting Essentials: https://docs.phytec.com/projects/yocto-phycore-am64x/en/bsp-yocto-ampliphy-am64x-pd23.2.1/bootingessentials/sdcard.html