Introduction i.MX6SoloX and i.MX7D SoC contain embedded Cortex-M4 core. In a common use-case, this core runs a firmware loaded by u-boot bootloader. If you however want to debug your application for the Cortex-M4 core, you may need to reload the firmware in the secondary core without restarting Linux running on the Cortex-A core. For this reason, a tool was created: imx-m4fwloader. The project is released as open source under GPL-2.0 licence here: GitHub - NXPmicro/imx-m4fwloader: Tool for loading firmware to M4 core on i.MX6SX and 7D  I hope this tool will help to bring up faster your application for i.MX6SoloX and i.MX7D SoC! How to use this Either use the pre-built version Or use the environment provided to you by Yocto: For example: source /opt/poky/1.8/environment-setup-cortexa9hf-vfp-neon-poky-linux-gnueabi $CC m4fwloader.c -o m4fwloader You get m4fwloader binary... Then you need to build your M4 application and link it to some address. (e.g 0x00910000, try: https://github.com/EmbeddedRPC/erpc-imx-demos/tree/master/MCU/example_rpmsg) Load it using m4fwloader: ./m4fwloader myapp.bin 0x00910000 Optionally use --verbose parameter to see what is written to each registers Warning: Use this tool for debugging only, since it accesses directly the registers from the user space and requires therefore root priviledges! You have been warned... 🙂 Optionally, you can trigger an interrupt using message unit (MU) to the M4 core to get RPMsg started - this is normally done by Linux Kernel during startup: ./m4fwloader kick 0 Whole usage is here: m4fwloader [filename.bin] [0xLOADADDR] [--verbose] # loads new firmware or: m4fwloader stop # holds the auxiliary core in reset or: m4fwloader start # releases the auxiliary core from reset or: m4fwloader kick [n] # triggers interrupt on RPMsg virtqueue n

Hi, check out this video that demonstrates software making use of power savings capabilities on the i.MX28:  http://go.mentor.com/low-power

Hi NXP expert : Deaufult iMX8M apply 3GB DRAM density with the system, How to modify DRAM configration that could cutdowm density to 1GB DRAM ? 

Timesys can help you build your custom BSP/SDK in minutes with FREE LinuxLink web edition   Use LinuxLink Web Edition to build a custom BSP/SDK for your board within a few minutes. Start your application development with the free version of our Eclipse-based TimeStorm IDE. Browse a sub-set of our vast documentation library. Get notified via email of any updates to the Linux kernel and middleware/packages for your BSP/SDK   Click here to start building your custom BSP/SDK.  

With last LTIB - BSP release there was an interesting and very usefull document (attached here) """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" i.MX 6Dual/6Quad BSP Porting Guide Document Number: IMX6DQBSPPG Rev. L3.0.35_1.1.0, 01/2013 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" In this document there were the most used needed steps to port the BSP from a reference board (i will take as example the IMX6q sabresd) to a Custom board. Infact the usual project path , is starting from a reference board , but a t the end i need to use a custom board (for costs , space and any other reason). So the Idea is o make a new document to do the same on the new Yocto enviroment. Infact the step and the stuff to change are ecxatly the same, but they are to be done in different way. When you want to make your custom board what can be different from a reference one: 1) DDR memory 2) IO usage 3) on board peripheral 4) boot source I think these are the main issue that could change from a board to another one (with the same processor Imx6q). Following the "Yocto Project best practice guide" we need to create a new "layer" where we can fit the customized thing: uboot, dts, drivers for pheriperal, maybe customized kernel .... So this document is intended to be a starting point where customer and freescale expert can work togheter to make this "aplication note " that is really the final step for every project based on imx6Q Yocto Project development. Omar *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Following I will try to examine the single step that needs to be configured in every board. First a brief summary then each step will be detailed with files and paths , and example modification. I will use as example the board IMX6QsabreSD. So all the path will be referred to that board. *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** I)                                                                                                                Porting Bootloader *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** 1) They first program loaded and executed from your boot source (NAND, emmc, SD etc..) is the bootloader. In our case u-boot. this program perform some basic initialization, those intializations are related to the board. But the very first thing is DDR initialization, this mean to inizialize IOMUX and DDR controller registers (Timing geometry etcc...). This initialization is done in the DCD part of the uboot image. the once we initialized the DDR the bootloader can work, than it will have to configure the IOMUX to match the peripheral used on chip and on board. And then of course it will have to load the driver (at least one UART for consolle and ethernet driver) it needs. So FIRST thing to customize for your board is the bootloader. Using a base directory the git of u-boot the file that contain the DCD is: board/freescale/imx/ddr/mx6q_4x_mt41j128.cfg the other important file is the board/freescale/mx6sabresd/mx6sabresd.c this second file contain several board related definition, first of all, the IOMUX configuration for the pins of IMX6Q used for soc peripheral a third important file is the include one here there are several important define such as mem size. include/configs/mx6sabresd.h include/configs/mx6sabre_common.h So you need to make a copy of those files (in the new board dir, or in the include/configs for .h files) renaming them of course with the name of your custom board. Then you need also to add the new board to the Makefiles and source tree , as described following: (take also as a reference he chapter 1.2 and 1.3 of the attached document and this link http://git.denx.de/?p=u-boot.git;a=blob_plain;f=README;hb=HEAD). 1. Add a new configuration option for your board to the toplevel  "boards.cfg" file, using the existing entries as examples.  Follow the instructions there to keep the boards in order. 2. Create a new directory to hold your board specific code. Add any files you need. In your board directory, you will need at least the "Makefile", a "<board>.c" 3. Create a new configuration file "include/configs/<board>.h" for  your board 4. Debug and solve any problems that might arise. At this point if we did all the modification we need to u-boot we have to create our fsl-myboard layer to add our "patch" to the u-boot tree. those patched u-boot will be compiled and deployed just for the new MACHINE (our custom board). *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** II)                                                                                                                Creating DTS tree for kernel *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** 1)Then you need to create the DTS files for your board as well, those files are a description of your board (including) SOC , mem etc etc... used by the kernel. those files are in the kernel tree in arch/arm/boot/dts. Take a look http://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/petazzoni-device-tree-dummies.pdf  this is a good starting point. Another good reference is: Device Tree - eLinux.org , here you can find a lot of link and reference to a more deep understanding. The official wiki:http://www.devicetree.org/Main_Page And interesting: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/Documentation/devicetree In our example the reference dts will be of course the imx6q-sabresd.dts(in the kernel tree source path /arch/arm/boot/dts), this file include and refer other "dts" files that we will see . Well the starting point of this dts tree is, in this example, the imx6q-sabresd.dts, it recalls other files: imx6q-sabresd.dts ---------------> imx6qdl-sabresd.dtsi                           |----------------> imx6q.dtsi                                                            |--------------------> imx6q-pinfunc.h                                                            |--------------------> imx6qdl.dtsi                                                                                                   |-----------------------> skeleton.dtsi                                                                                                   |-----------------------> dt-bindings/gpio/gpio.h the file wiht the name that does not contain "sabresd" are not board related but Soc related so we can keep as is even for our custom board, so the only file we need to touch are imx6q-sabresd.dts and imx6qdl-sadresd.dtsi. As we did for u-boot porting, we will copy these files and create new ones with names as imx6q-cutomboard.dts and imx6qdl-customboard.dtsi in the same dir. Now we will examine them in detail.

iWave provides Android Lollipop and Linux 3.14 kernel BSP upgrades for its i.MX6 based products. iMX6 Board: From the launch of i.MX6 application processors, iWave Systems, a global leading SOM supplier has launched many variations of i.MX6 CPU modules and an SBC board catering to Industrial, automotive and medical applications. Complying with the Qseven R2.0 specification, the i.MX6 Q7 SOM supports industrial grade operation with 70mmx70mm size. The i.MX6 MXM SOM supports automotive grade i.MX6 CPU and the automotive specific interfaces with 314 pin MXM2 connector pinout in 85mmx85mm form factor. The recently launched i.MX6 SODIMM SOM module supports both commercial & industrial operating temperature with very compact form factor of 67.6mmx37mm. iMX6 Board Single Board Computer: Measuring 100mmx70mm, the Pico ITX size i.MX6 SBC board supports on-board connectors for all the i.MX6 interfaces with option to expand IOs through expansion connector.  All these three different form factor System on Modules and Single Board Computers are supported with different i.MX6 CPU variations such as Quad, Dual, Dual Lite & Solo. Besides this i.MX6 Qseven modules also supports i.MX6 Quad Plus and i.MX6 Dual plus CPU configurations. To enable quick prototyping of these different form factor SOMs, iWave systems supports independent development kit variation for each form factor SOMs with Linux, Android and WEC7* BSP support. These development kits help customer to save up to 60% of new product development cycle sothat the quick time to market can be achieved. All these i.MX6 products are getting Android Lollipop and Linux 3.14 kernel BSP upgrades which will be available for customers by the first quarter of 2016.

iWave Systems, Proven Partner of Freescale Semiconductor and a leading Embedded Hardware, FPGA and Software Turnkey Design Services and Solutions company, presents improved i.MX 6 Qseven Development Board RainboW-G15D that supports following  sensors: 3-Axis Accelerometer Digital e-Compass Ambient Light Sensor Altimeter/Barometer These sensors interfaced with the iMX6 processor using I2c interface for internal communication and data transfer and also possess INT (interrupt) signal to interrupt the processor about the data. The RainboW-G15D development kit with Linux 3.0.35 BSP supports these various sensors. 3-Axis Accelerometer: This Accelerometer sensor is used for Static orientation detection (Portrait/Landscape, Up/Down, Left/Right, Back/Front position identification). Motion detection for power saving (Auto-SLEEP and Auto-WAKE). Shock and vibration monitoring. Digital e-Compass: The digital e-compass sensor is used for measuring magnetic fields with an output date rates up to 80Hz (ODR). It acts as electronic Compass with accurate heading information. Location Based Services. Ambient Light Sensor: The ambient light sensor is used for measuring the light rays, it uses the photo detectors to convert the light energy into electrical energy. Altimeter/Barometer: This sensor is used for Measuring the pressure/altitude and temperature, it uses ADC to convert physical parameter into electrical. About i.MX6 Qseven Development Board: The Development Platform incorporates Qseven compatible i.MX6x SOM which is based on Freescale's iMX 6 Series 1.2GHz multimedia focused processor and Generic Q7 compatible Evaluation Board. This platform can be used for quick prototyping of any high end applications in verticals like Automotive, Industrial & Medical. Being a nano ITX form factor with 120mmx120mm size, the board is highly packed with all necessary on-board connectors to validate complete iMX6 CPU features. About i.MX6 Qseven System On Module (SOM): iW-RainboW-G15M is Freescale's i.MX6 based Qseven compatible CPU module for faster and multimedia focused applications. The module has on-board expandable 1GB DDR3 RAM, micro SD slot and optional eMMC flash. With the extreme peripheral integration, the module supports industry latest high performance interfaces such as, PCIe Gen2, Gigabit Ethernet, SATA 3.0, HDMI 1.4 and SDXC etc. About iWave Systems: iWave has been an innovator in the development of “Highly integrated, high-performance, low-power and low-cost i.MX6/i.MX50/i.MX53/i.MX51/i.MX27 SOMs”. iWave helps its customers reduce their time-to-market and development effort with its products ranging from System-On-Module to complete systems. The i.MX6 Pico ITX SBC is brought out by iWave in a record time of just 5 weeks. Furthermore, iWave’s i.MX6/i.MX50/i.MX53/i.MX51/i.MX27 SOMs have been engineered to meet the industry demanding requirements like various Embedded Computing Applications in Industrial, Medical & Automotive verticals. iWave provides full product design engineering and manufacturing services around the i.MX SOMs to help customers quickly develop innovative products and solutions. For more details: i.MX6 Q7 Development Kit | iWave Systems email: mktg@iwavesystems.com

iWave is upgrading Android KitKat 4.4 BSP for its all variants of i.MX6 Qseven SOMs. The KitKat BSP supports following features and will be available in end of Q2 2015: i.MX6 ARM Cortex A9 Quad, Dual, Dual Lite & Solo CPU 1GB DDR3 RAM (Quad, Dual, Dual Lite CPU version)/ 512MB DDR3 (Solo CPU version) Freescale PMIC SPI NOR Flash eMMC Flash uSD slot Standard SD slot USB 2.0 Host USB 2.0 device 10/100/1000 Ethernet PCIex1 Port CAN Port LVDS display port Capacitive multi-touch PWM for backlight HDMI Port with Audio SATA (Support available only in i.MX6Q/D) Hardware Codecs (Encode/Decode) 2D/3D Graphics MIPI CSI camera port AC97 Audio In/Out Console UART Besides the Android support, Linux and WEC7 board support packages are also available for the i.MX6 Qseven SOMs from iWave systems. More details about the i.MX6 Qseven SOM & software features can be found in the i.MX6 Qseven product page. Device drivers will be supported for specific interface chipsets, which are used in iWave's Qseven Carrier board. More details about iWave i.MX6 Qseven development kit can be found in the following webpage: http://www.iwavesystems.com/product/development-platform/i-mx6-q7-development-kit-54.html

MYIR has released a cost-effective and power-efficient ARM Evaluation Kit (EVK) MYD-IMX28X for Freescale i.MX28 family of multimedia applications processors which has an ARM926EJ-S Core, with speed up to 454 MHz. The board can support running Linux operating systems, which allows developers to use it as an i.MX28 reference platform to quickly start their own design. The board takes full features of the i.MX28 ARM processor and has exposed a comprehensive set of peripherals and connectivity options to make the board suitable for smart gateways, human-machine interfaces (HMIs), handheld devices, scanners, portable medical, experimental education and more other industrial applications. The MYD-IMX28X Development Board is using the MYC-IMX28X CPU module as the heart of the system which is an ARM9-based system-on-module (SOM) integrated with the i.MX28 processor, 128MB DDR2 SDRAM, 256MB Nand Flash and Ethernet PHY. It is connected to the base board through two 1.27mm pitch 80-pin connectors. The base board has extended many peripherals and interfaces through headers and connectors, featuring 1 x RS232, 1, Debug, 2 x USB ports, up to 2 x Ethernet, 1 x CAN, 1 x RS485, TF, Audio, LCD, JTAG, etc. MYD-IMX28X Development Board MYC-IMX28X CPU Module MYIR offers the board with Freescale i.MX283 or i.MX287 ARM9 CPU by default; user can integrate a different MYC-IMX28X CPU module on the same base board, thus making two variants of i.MX28 evaluation boards. MYD-IMX283 Development Board – with MYC-IMX283 CPU Module for Freescale i.MX283 MYD-IMX287 Development Board – with MYC-IMX287 CPU Module for Freescale i.MX287 The MYD-IMX283 and MYD-IMX287 boards only have a few differences as described in below table: Model MYD-IMX283 MYD-IMX287 Processor i.MX283 i.MX287 CAN 0 2 Ethernet 1 2 The MYD-IMX28X board comes with Linux2.6.35 software packages, detailed documents, necessary cable accessories as well as optional 4.3- and 7-inch LCD (with touch screen) to provide a complete Freescale i.MX28 starter kit and enable a quickly start of evaluation of i.MX28 family applications processors.

Measuring only 70mm by 55mm, the MYS-6ULX designed by MYIR is a high-performance low-cost Single Board Computer specially designed for Industry 4.0 (Industrie 4.0) and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The MYS-6ULX has DDR3, Nand Flash, USB, Ethernet, TF, LCD and more other core components and peripheral interfaces integrated on the tiny board. Furthermore, it has two 2.0mm pitch 2x20-pin headers on board to bring out as many as signals for user extensions. The MYS-6ULX single board computer has MYS-6ULX-IND and MYS-6ULX-IOT two different models, which are respectively for Industry 4.0 and IoT applications. The two boards share the same hardware circuit design and are fully compatible in software. The MYS-6ULX-IND is built around the i.MX 6UL processor family and can support -40 to +85 Celsius extended temperature operation, which makes the board more suitable for industrial control and communication applications. The MYS-6ULX-IOT is based on the i.MX 6ULL processor family and has additionally a USB based WiFi module with antenna on the board. MYIR has ported Linux 4.1.15 for the board with Debian distribution as well as Yocto project with ported QT. MYIR has also provided an interesting demo to enable customers to experience Amazon Alexa Voice Service. Additionally, MYIR has designed an expansion board MYB-6ULX to further enhance the performance of MYS-6ULX. It is connected to the MYS-6ULX board through its onboard two 2.0mm pitch 2 x 20-pin expansion headers and has extended one more Ethernet for MYS-6ULX and added CAN, RS485, Audio, RTC and Camera. MYIR also offers optional LCD modules and Camera module to add functionality to the boards, which would be a complete embedded system.                                                              MYS-6ULX-IND Single Board Computer                                                            MYS-6ULX-IOT Single Board Computer                    MYB-6ULX Expansion Board

CPU: ARM Cortex-A9,FreeScale i.MX6Q1Ghz/1.2Ghz 1024M Byte  DDR3 SDRAM,4G BYTE eMMC Flash 5 usart ， USB Host，USB OTG 124 bits TFT port ，dual LVDS output  and HDMI IIC*2，McSPI*3，CAN*2,SD card *3，6*6 keyboard 120 pin conn *2 FR4 PC size:84*55(mm)

iMX6Q SABRE Lite WEC2013 Solution from Adeneo Embedded

23 February 2016, Nürnberg, Germany: Toradex is pleased to announce a new member of its System on Module (SOM) product line based on the NXP i.MX 7 series applications processors. The processors offer an excellent performance/power ratio, advanced security features, and a heterogeneous multicore architecture based on ARM ® Cortex-A7 and Cortex-M4 cores, which make the platform a perfect fit for products targeting the rapidly growing IoT market. Some of the features of new SOMs: Colibri iMX7S and Colibri iMX7D are; NXP i.MX 7Solo and i.MX 7Dual applications processors 1x/2x ARM ® Cortex-A7 up to 1GHz & 1x Cortex-M4 at 200MHz 256MB/512MB RAM, 512MB on-board Flash Asymmetric/ Heterogeneous multicore processing Low power consumption/ high efficiency Advanced security features Connectivity: CAN, Ethernet, USB, I2C, UART, etc. Multimedia: Touch, RGB, Camera Parallel Interface, Analog Audio, etc. Temperature range -20° to 85° C The additional Cortex-M4 core is tailored for time-critical applications. This unique heterogeneous multicore architecture allows to clearly separate real time tasks from any server or GUI-related applications. The i.MX 7 processor also includes many additional security features such as secure boot, cryptographic acceleration and tamper detection, which are of high value for the IoT market. Toradex's internal benchmarks prove the effectiveness of the new architecture used for i.MX 7 processors. While the performance is comparable to the very successful i.MX 6Solo processor (ARM ® Cortex-A9 1GHz) SoC, the power consumption in operating mode is in the range of the Colibri VF61 (ARM ® Cortex-A5 500MHz) or less than 75% of the power consumption of i.MX 6Solo. When looking at the standby mode, i.MX 7 requires even less than a third compared to the power consumption of i.MX 6Solo.                                                                                                       *Results are based on nbench benchmarking, which uses a single-core, so performance & power consumption figures                                                                                                                 are comparable between dual-core i.MX 7Dual and single-core SoCs such as i.MX 6Solo, VF61 & VF50 The Colibri iMX7S/D SOMs are an extension to the robust and compact Toradex embedded computing SOMs and customized Single Board Computers (SBC), which are used in variety of industries such as industrial automation, medical, automotive, robotics and many more. Toradex’s products are ideal for quickly creating proof-of-concepts as well as scaling seamlessly from prototypes to tens of thousands of devices, without the need to redesign the embedded computer. “We are happy to be one of the first companies in the world providing a product based on the NXP ® i.MX 7 series. This processor offers an upgrade path from our pin-compatible VFxx-based platforms while retaining the unique combination of two different cores on the same die. By controlling sensors and actuators through the Cortex-M4 core and running non-time critical tasks on the Cortex-A7 core, many customers can massively reduce both the system complexity and the BOM cost. This great product is another result of a longstanding and strong partnership between Toradex and NXP,” said Stephan Dubach, CEO, Toradex. “NXP is looking to drive wide adoption of the i.MX7, critical to our success are system level board designs from our partners that enable our customers to effectively accelerate time to market. Toradex’s Colibri i.MX7 SOM is a highly efficient, powerful module that offers advanced security features in a small form factor. This combined with an extensive ecosystem, will allow customers to immediate start development and shorten time to market,” said Robert Thompson, Chief Enablement Architect for i.MX applications processors, NXP Semiconductors. Technical Specifications: Technical details of Colibri iMX7 SOMs can be found at https://www.toradex.com/computer-on-modules/colibri-arm-family/nxp-freescale-imx7 Availability: Toradex’s Colibri iMX7 SOMs will be available for sales from 23 February 2016 on the Toradex webshop. Webinar: Toradex is hosting a webinar on 09 March 2016 with NXP. Register now: Introducing the i.MX 7 System-on-Chip - presented by Toradex and NXP About Toradex: Toradex is a Swiss based company with offices around the world, offering ARM ® -based System on Modules (SOMs) and Customized SBCs. Powered by NXP ® i.MX 6, i.MX 7 & Vybrid, and NVIDIA ® Tegra processors, the pin compatible SOMs offer scalability in terms of price, performance, power consumption, and I/Os. Complemented with direct online sales and long-term product availability, Toradex offers direct premium support and ex-stock availability with local warehouses. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/