.. zephyr:board:: imx8mp_var_dart

Overview

Variscite's DART-MX8M-PLUS System on Module (SoM) is based on the i.MX 8M Plus family, which is a set of NXP products built to achieve both high performance and low power consumption and relies on a powerful, fully coherent core complex based on a quad Cortex®-A53 cluster and Cortex®-M7 low-power coprocessor, audio digital signal processor, machine learning and graphics accelerators.

Zephyr OS is ported to run on either the Cortex®-A53 or the Cortex®-M7.

Specs Summary

CPU
- NXP i.MX8M Plus:
- Up to 4x Cortex®-A53 @ 1.8GHz
- 1x Cortex®-M7 @ 800 MHz
- 1x NPU 2.3 TOPS
Memory
- Up to 8GB LPDDR4 RAM @ 2000MHz
- 8-bit up to 128GB eMMC boot and storage
GPU
- 3D: Vivante™ GC7000UltraLite (2 shaders) OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL1.2, Vulkan
- 2D: Vivante™ GC520L
NPU (Neural Processing Unit)
- 2.3 TOPS Neural Network performance
Display
- 2x LVDS interface 4-lane each up to 1080p60
- HDMI 2.0a up to 4Kp30
- 1x MIPI DSI with up to 4 data lanes 1080p60
Network
- 2x 10/100/1000 Mbit/s Ethernet Interface
- Certified Wi-Fi 6 dual-band 802.11ax/ac/a/b/g/n with optional 802.15.4
- Bluetooth/BLE 5.4
Camera
- Up to 2x MIPI CSI – CMOS Serial camera Interface 4 lanes
- 375 Mpixel/s HDR ISP (Image Sensor Processor)
Audio
- Headphones
- Microphone: Digital, Analog (stereo)
- 6x I2S(SAI), S/PDIF RX TX, PDM 8CH, Line In/Out
USB
- 2x USB 3.0/2.0 Host/Device
Serial interfaces
- SPI: x3
- I2C: x5
- UART: x4, up to 5 Mbps
- CAN: x2
Temperature range
- -40 °C to 85 °C

More information about the SoM can be found at the Variscite Wiki_ and Variscite website_.

Supported Features

.. zephyr:board-supported-hw::

.. note::

It is recommended to disable peripherals used by the M7 core on the Linux host.

Devices

System Clock

This board configuration uses a system clock frequency of 8 MHz.

The M7 core is configured to run at an 800 MHz clock speed.

Serial Port

This board configuration uses a single serial communication channel with the CPU's UART3.

Programming and Debugging (A53)

Copy the compiled zephyr.bin to the boot directory of the SD card and plug the SD card into the board. Power it up and stop the U-Boot execution at prompt.

Use U-Boot to load and run zephyr.bin on the Cortex-A53:

.. code-block:: console

load mmc $mmcdev:$mmcpart $loadaddr /boot/zephyr.bin dcache flush; icache flush; go $loadaddr

Use this configuration to run basic Zephyr applications and kernel tests, for example, with the :zephyr:code-sample:hello_world sample:

.. zephyr-app-commands:: :zephyr-app: samples/hello_world :host-os: unix :board: imx8mp_var_dart/mimx8ml8/a53 :goals: build

This will build an image with the hello_world sample app. When loaded and executed it will display the following ram console output:

.. code-block:: console

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v4.0.0-3113-g5aeda6fe7dfa *** Hello World! imx8mp_var_dart/mimx8ml8/a53

Programming and Debugging (M7)

.. zephyr:board-supported-runners::

The DART-MX8M-PLUS doesn't have QSPI flash for the M7, and it needs to be started by the A53 core. The A53 core is responsible to load the M7 binary application into the RAM, put the M7 in reset, set the M7 Program Counter and Stack Pointer, and get the M7 out of reset. The A53 can perform these steps at bootloader level or after the Linux system has booted.

The M7 can use up to 3 different RAMs (currently, only two configurations are supported: ITCM and DDR). These are the memory mapping for A53 and M7:

For more information about memory mapping see the i.MX 8M Applications Processor Reference Manual_ (section 2.1 to 2.3)

At compilation time you have to choose which RAM will be used. This configuration is done based on board name (e.g. imx8mp_var_dart/mimx8ml8/m7 for ITCM and imx8mp_var_dart/mimx8ml8/m7/ddr for DDR).

There are two methods to load M7 Core images: U-Boot command and Linux remoteproc.

Load and Run M7 Zephyr Image from U-Boot

Load and run Zephyr on M7 from A53 using U-Boot by copying the compiled zephyr.bin to the boot directory of the SD card and plug the SD card into the board. Power it up and stop the U-Boot execution at prompt.

Load the M7 binary onto the desired memory and start its execution using:

ITCM

.. code-block:: console

load mmc 1:1 0x48000000 /boot/zephyr.bin cp.b 0x48000000 0x7e0000 20000 bootaux 0x7e0000

DDR

.. code-block:: console

load mmc 1:1 0x7b000000 /boot/zephyr.bin dcache flush bootaux 0x7b000000

Load and Run M7 Zephyr Image by using Linux remoteproc

Transfer built binaries zephyr.bin and zephyr.elf to the SoM's /boot and /lib/firmware respectively using scp or through an USB drive.

It is possible to execute Zephyr binaries using Variscite remoteproc scripts made for MCUXpresso binaries:

.. code-block:: console

root@imx8mp-var-dart:~# /etc/remoteproc/variscite-rproc-linux -f /lib/firmware/zephyr.elf [ 212.888118] remoteproc remoteproc0: powering up imx-rproc [ 212.899215] remoteproc remoteproc0: Booting fw image zephyr.elf, size 515836 [ 212.912070] remoteproc remoteproc0: No resource table in elf [ 213.444675] remoteproc remoteproc0: remote processor imx-rproc is now up

Which should yield the following result on the UART3 serial console:

.. code-block:: console

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v4.0.0-3113-g5aeda6fe7dfa *** Hello World! imx8mp_var_dart/mimx8ml8/m7

If the device tree dedicated to be used with Cortex-M7 applications is not being currently used, the script will give instructions on how to do so:

.. code-block:: console

Error: /sys/class/remoteproc/remoteproc0 not found. Please enable remoteproc driver. Most likely you need to use the correct device tree, for example: fw_setenv fdt_file imx8mp-var-dart-dt8mcustomboard-m7.dtb && reboot

You can also configure U-Boot to load firmware on boot:

.. code-block:: console

root@imx8mp-var-dart:~# /etc/remoteproc/variscite-rproc-u-boot -f /boot/zephyr.bin Configuring for TCM memory

fw_setenv m7_addr 0x7E0000
fw_setenv fdt_file imx8mp-var-dart-dt8mcustomboard-m7.dtb
fw_setenv use_m7 yes
fw_setenv m7_bin zephyr.bin

Finished: Please reboot, the m7 firmware will run during U-Boot

For more information about Variscite remoteproc scripts and general Cortex-M7 support, visit Variscite Wiki_.

Debugging

DART-MX8M-PLUS board can be debugged by connecting an external JLink JTAG debugger to the J29 of the DT8MCustomBoard and to the PC. Then the application can be debugged using the usual way.

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

.. zephyr-app-commands:: :zephyr-app: samples/hello_world :board: imx8mp_var_dart/mimx8ml8/m7 :goals: debug

Open a serial terminal, step through the application in your debugger, and you should see the following message in the terminal:

.. code-block:: console

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v4.0.0-3113-g5aeda6fe7dfa *** Hello World! imx8mp_var_dart/mimx8ml8/m7

References

Variscite Wiki_
Variscite website_
i.MX 8M Applications Processor Reference Manual_

.. _Variscite Wiki: https://variwiki.com/index.php?title=DART-MX8M-PLUS

.. _Variscite website: https://www.variscite.com/product/system-on-module-som/cortex-a53-krait/dart-mx8m-plus-nxp-i-mx-8m-plus

.. _i.MX 8M Applications Processor Reference Manual: https://www.nxp.com/webapp/Download?colCode=IMX8MPRM