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ARC EM Software Development Platform

ARC EM Software Development Platform

Overview

The DesignWare® ARC® EM Software Development Platform (SDP) is a flexible platform for rapid software development on ARC EM processors and subsystems. It is intended to accelerate software development and debug of ARC EM processor-based systems for a wide range of ultra-low power embedded applications such as IoT, sensor fusion, and voice applications.

The EM SDP includes an FPGA-based hardware board with commonly used peripherals and interfaces for extensibility. Downloadable platform packages containing different hardware configurations enable the board to be programmed with different ARC EM processors and subsystems. The packages also contain the necessary software configuration information for the toolchain and embARC Open Software Platform. The development platform is supported by Synopsys’ ARC MetaWare Development Toolkit, which includes a compiler, debugger and libraries optimized for maximum performance with minimal code size. The embARC Open Software Platform (OSP), available online from embARC.org, gives developers online access to device drivers, FreeRTOS, middleware and examples that enables them to quickly start software development for their ARC-based embedded systems.

Key Features

  • Xilinx Kintex-7 XC7K325T-2FBG676C
  • 32 MByte Quad-SPI Flash memory (for configuration and operation)
  • USB-JTAG bridge FT2232H
  • FPGA configuration through:
    • JTAG
    • SPI Flash memory
  • SPI Flash configuration through:
    • JTAG
    • USB
  • Connectors
    • Arduino compatible pin headers
    • MicroBUS compatible pin headers
    • 3x Pmod compatible pin headers
    • 50 pin header 2.54mm (40 single-ended IO, 20 differential lanes, variable VCCIO)
    • Mictor Debug connector
    • 10 pin Debug connector 2mm
  • 2 x 8 MByte PSRAM IS66WVC4M16EALL
  • 32 MByte User Quad-SPI Flash memory
  • Micro SDcard Socket
  • Wireless module RS9113-NBZ-D1C (Wi-Fi/BT/BLE)
  • 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis magnetometer MPU-9250
  • Stereo Audio Codec MAX9880A
  • 2 x PDM Microphones SPK0641HT4H-1
  • 2 x 3.5mm RCA audio jacks (input/output)
  • 100MHz User Clock Oscillator SiT8008
  • Status LEDs
  • Power LED
  • 8 x User LEDs
  • Reset Buttons
  • User Button
  • 2 x 4bit User DIP switches
  • 12V Power Supply
  • 12V fan

Block Diagram

ARC EM SDP block diagram

Connecting to the Serial Terminal

Warning

On Linux machines it may be necessary for a user to be in dialout group to successfully connect to a serial terminal. In case of "Permission denied" error try to add a user to the group:

sudo usermod -aG dialout username

Connecting to the board using USB data port allows to connect to the serial terminal over UART. You need to configure these parameters of a serial terminal to interact with the serial port:

  • baud-rate 115200
  • 8 data bits
  • 1 stop Bit

On Windows Putty or any similar software may be used for connecting to the serial terminal. You can find the port number in Device Manager in Ports (COM & LPT) section: USB Serial Port (COMx) where COMx is a value for Serial line field in Putty's. Other parameters may be set Connection → Serial menu.

On Linux minicom or other similar utilities may be used. Here is an example of command line for minicom:

minicom -8 -b 115200 -D /dev/ttyUSB1

After resetting the EM SDP you will see this output of the bootloader:

U-Boot 2020.04 (Sep 09 2022 - 08:54:58 +0200)

CPU:   ARC EM11D v5.6 at 40 MHz
Subsys:ARC Data Fusion IP Subsystem
Model: snps,emsdp
Board: ARC EM Software Development Platform v1.2
DRAM:  16 MiB
PSRAM initialized.
MMC:   mmc0@f0010000: 0
Loading Environment from FAT... MMC: no card present
In:    serial0@f0004000
Out:   serial0@f0004000
Err:   serial0@f0004000
emsdp#

How to Manually Flash a Firmware

You can flash a firmware of ARC CPU manually using Digilent Adept utilities. Firstly, ensure that EM SDP in connected to the host:

$ djtgcfg enum
Found 1 device(s)

Device: JtagSmt1
    Device Transport Type: 00020001 (USB)
    Product Name:          Digilent JTAG-SMT1
    User Name:             JtagSmt1
    Serial Number:         210203826102

Device name for EM SDP is JtagSmt1. Then get a firmware from EM SDP bundle (for example, emsdp_em11d_dfss.bit for EM11D), init the board using init command and program board's FPGA:

$ djtgcfg -d JtagSmt1 init
Initializing scan chain...
Found Device ID: 43651093

Found 1 device(s):
    Device 0: XC7K325T

$ djtgcfg -d JtagSmt1 prog -i 0 -f emsdp_em11d_dfss.bit
Programming device. Do not touch your board. This may take a few minutes...
Programming succeeded.

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