LPC-LINK2 for LPC4370

[patricio]

Hi, 

I am thinking to use a LPC-LINK2 as a evaluation board of the LPC4370 microcontroller, due to its high speed ADC (80Msps). I have several questions about it and I would appreciate if you could help me with them:

1. Which software  would be the most appropriate, having in mind that I have no experience with non of them I would need to import examples to work with them: LPCXpresso or MCUXpresso?

2. NXP doesn´t recommend LPC-LINK2 for new designes, and the recommended replacement boards work with LPC55S69, which ADC only reach 1Msps. Does it mean that there will be a lack of eval boards for LPC4370 microcontrollers? What alternative do we have for those of us who want to work with the LPC4370?

Thank you in advance for your answer.

[frank_m]

> I am thinking to use a LPC-LINK2 as a evaluation board of the LPC4370 microcontroller, due to its high speed ADC (80Msps).

> 2. NXP doesn´t recommend LPC-LINK2 for new designes, and the recommended replacement boards work with LPC55S69, ...

As I understand it, you want to use the LPC4370 on the LPC-Link board for your own project evaluation.

But I think there is a misunderstanding : "LPC-Link not recommended for new designs" does not mean "LPC4370 not recommended".
The LPC-Link section is often integral part of other evaluation boards, and can be used by customers for the same purpose. This is not recommended anymore.
As long as the NRND label is not applies the the LPC4370 MCU itself, it should not be a problem.

As a side note:
... due to its high speed ADC (80Msps).

I hope you are aware that the proper circuit and PCB design for frequencies in the VHF range is far from trivial. Just saying.

[patricio]

Thank you Frank_m for your reply. 

I am aware that LPC4370 is active and with no risk of NRND for the moment. 

From you comment: ...I hope you are aware that the proper circuit and PCB design for frequencies in the VHF range is far from trivial.

I never worked with such a fast ADC and the truth is that I am quite afraid of it, as I know that it will be a  challenging design and the noise will be very hard to deal with. I thought that working with an evaluation board would be a good option to work with. 

Thank you again.

[frank_m]

To add another point, the throughput generated by a 80 MSPS ADC is not trivial to deal with either.
Cortex M devices are general-purpose MCUs, and not optimized towards such high data throughput rates. It is relatively easy to saturate even high-performance MCUs with frequent interrupt routines (or DMA endpoint handlers).
DSPs are more geared towards such applications.
Again, just saying ...

Have you considered an external ADC module specified for you desired data rate ?
Or an evaluation board ?
I would suspect a DSP / video signal application.

[patricio]

Hi frank_m,

I'm considering using an external high speed ADC, like AD9694 with serial JESD204 interface or AD9484 with parallel output. The evaluation boards of such high speed ADCs are controlled by FPGAs, that I am trying to avoid them for a beginner like me. 

I will try to explore the DSP way. I read they are fast math operator. I have to read more about it, as I have a lot of doubts: can I work with them as I do with MCU? Are them programmed similarly to MCUs? Do they have GPIOs? Could I work with a simple two line LCD?

Thank you again. 

[frank_m]

First, I am not very experienced with hardware, I did a few projects with not more than 30 components, usually less. And in the software field, I'm more at home in the lower-range embedded area (Cortex M & similiar), and Cortex A based singleboard devices.

> The evaluation boards of such high speed ADCs are controlled by FPGAs, that I am trying to avoid them for a beginner like me. 

A good idea, I think. Both because of complexity and costs. The "FPGA" is usually a proprietary unit with specialized hardware and a common processor core to control it.

> I will try to explore the DSP way. I read they are fast math operator. ...

Like with general purpose MCUs, there is a broad range of DSP, depending on the target application. I think TI and AD are relatively strong in this field. And they can get quite complex, too.
But there advantage is mostly in architecture, structure, and consequently instruction set. DSPs are  more optimised toward high data throughput rates.
Most have two separate RAM blocks at separate internal busses, allowing for simultaneous transfers either by core instructions or DMA. And most of them are VLIW architectures, encoding several instructions in each (long) instruction word. Interrupt latency is another important feature. 
But you need to consider the toolchain and debug support as well. Because of lacking experience, I can't give any recommendations here. But you could do a search, skim through a few datasheets, and check a few DSP communities.

But coming back to the LPC-Link and the LPC4370 ...
Are you aware of the Labtool board : https://www.embeddedartists.com/products/labtool/
AFAIK it uses the evaluation-feature of the LPC4370 on the LPC-Link, on a board that implements scope-like features.
And if I'm not mistaken, the LPC4370 MCU on the LPC-Link has an internal JTAG connection, i.e. can be debugged by an external debug pod.

[Pavel_Hernandez]

Hello, my name is Pavel and I will be supporting your case, 

1. Which software  would be the most appropriate, having in mind that I have no experience with non of them I would need to import examples to work with them: LPCXpresso or MCUXpresso?

The majority of the IDE is based on Eclipse, which means the features are placed the same. I recommend using MCUXpresso as the new IDE for MCUs of NXP has the SDK for LPCOpen as default.

2. NXP doesn´t recommend LPC-LINK2 for new designes, and the recommended replacement boards work with LPC55S69, which ADC only reach 1Msps. Does it mean that there will be a lack of eval boards for LPC4370 microcontrollers? What alternative do we have for those of us who want to work with the LPC4370?

Yes, the LPC-Link2 is not recommended for new designs, the other cheap alternative is the MCU-Link or if you wanted the MCU-Link Pro. If you want to buy the LPC55s69 EVK, you do not need the debugger the board has one on it. This works for both.

Let me know if have more questions.

Best regards,
Pavel

[patricio]

Hi Pavel, 

Thank you for your reply. 

What I mean in the second question is that I am really interested on LCP4370 due to its high speed ADC of 80Msps. It´s alternative, the LPC55S69 has only 1Msps ADC. So, the question is: what is the alternative for those who would like to work with LPC4370 or an MCU with such a high speed ADC?

Thank you.