NXP i.MX 7 Computer on Module - Colibri iMX7

Overview

The i.MX7 SoC is a Hybrid multi-core processor composed by Single/Dual Cortex A7 core and Single Cortex M4 core. Zephyr was ported to run on the M4 core. In a later release, it will also communicate with the A7 core (running Linux) via RPmsg.

Colibri-iMX7

Hardware

  • i.MX7 Single/Dual Cortex A7 (800MHz/1.0GHz) core and Single Cortex M4 (200MHz) core

  • Memory

    • RAM -> A7: 256MB, 512MB and 1GB

    • RAM -> M4: 3x32KB (TCML, TCMU, OCRAM_S), 1x128KB (OCRAM) and 1x256MB (DDR)

    • Flash -> A7: 4Gb eMMC and 512Mb NAND

  • Display

    • RGB 1920x1080x24bpp

    • 4-wire Resistive touch

  • Multimedia

    • 1x Camera Parallel Interface

    • 1x Analog Audio Line in (Stereo)

    • 1x Analog Audio Mic in (Mono)

    • 1x Analog Audio Headphone out (Stereo)

  • Connectivity

    • USB 2.0 OTG (High Speed)

    • USB 2.0 host (High Speed)

    • 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet PHY

    • 4x I2C

    • 4x SPI

    • 7x UART

    • 1x IrDA

    • 20x PWM

    • Up to 125 GPIO

    • 4x Analog Input (12 Bit)

    • 2x SDIO/SD/MMC (8 Bit)

    • 2x CAN

For more information about the i.MX 7 SoC, Colibri iMX7 Computer on Module and Colibri Evaluation Board, see these references:

Supported Features

The Colibri iMX7D Computer on Module with Colibri Evaluation Board configuration supports the following hardware features on the Cortex M4 Core:

Interface

Controller

Driver/Component

NVIC

on-chip

nested vector interrupt controller

SYSTICK

on-chip

systick

GPIO

on-chip

gpio

I2C

on-chip

i2c

PWM

on-chip

pwm

UART

on-chip

serial port-polling; serial port-interrupt

The default configuration can be found in the defconfig file:

Other hardware features are not currently supported by the port.

Connections and IOs

The Colibri iMX7D Computer on Module with Colibri Evaluation Board was tested with the following pinmux controller configuration.

Board Name

SoC Name

Usage

UART_B RXD

UART2_TXD

UART Console

UART_B TXD

UART2_RXD

UART Console

SODIMM_135

GPIO1_IO02

LED0

SODIMM_133

GPIO2_IO26

SW0

SODIMM_194

I2C4_SDA

I2C_SDA

SODIMM_196

I2C4_SCL

I2C_SCL

SODIMM_59

PWM1/GPIO1_IO08

PWM

System Clock

The M4 Core is configured to run at a 200 MHz clock speed.

Serial Port

The iMX7D SoC has seven UARTs. The number 2 is configured for the console and the remaining are not used/tested.

Programming and Debugging

The Colibri iMX7D doesn’t have QSPI flash for the M4 and it needs to be started by the A7 core. The A7 core is responsible to load the M4 binary application into the RAM, put the M4 in reset, set the M4 Program Counter and Stack Pointer, and get the M4 out of reset. The A7 can perform these steps at bootloader level or after the Linux system has booted.

The M4 can use up to 5 different RAMs. These are the memory mapping for A7 and M4:

Region

Cortex-A7

Cortex-M4 (System Bus)

Cortex-M4 (Code Bus)

Size

DDR

0x80000000-0xFFFFFFFF

0x80000000-0xDFFFFFFF

0x10000000-0x1FFEFFFF

2048MB (less for M4)

OCRAM

0x00900000-0x0091FFFF

0x20200000-0x2021FFFF

0x00900000-0x0091FFFF

128KB

TCMU

0x00800000-0x00807FFF

0x20000000-0x20007FFF

32KB

TCML

0x007F8000-0x007FFFFF

0x1FFF8000-0x1FFFFFFF

32KB

OCRAM_S

0x00180000-0x00187FFF

0x20180000-0x20187FFF

0x00000000-0x00007FFF

32KB

QSPI Flash

0x08000000-0x0BFFFFFF

64MB

References

At compilation time you have to choose which RAM will be used. This configuration is done in the file boards/toradex/colibri_imx7d/colibri_imx7d_mcimx7d_m4.dts with “zephyr,flash” (when CONFIG_XIP=y) and “zephyr,sram” properties. The available configurations are:

"zephyr,flash"
- &ddr_code
- &tcml_code
- &ocram_code
- &ocram_s_code
- &ocram_pxp_code
- &ocram_epdc_code

"zephyr,sram"
- &ddr_sys
- &tcmu_sys
- &ocram_sys
- &ocram_s_sys
- &ocram_pxp_sys
- &ocram_epdc_sys

Below you will find the instructions to load and run Zephyr on M4 from A7 using u-boot.

Copy the compiled zephyr.bin to the first EXT partition of the SD card and plug into the board. Power it up and stop the u-boot execution. Set the u-boot environment variables and run the zephyr.bin from the appropriated memory configured in the Zephyr compilation:

setenv bootm4 'ext4load mmc 0:1 $m4addr $m4fw && dcache flush && bootaux $m4addr'
# TCML
setenv m4tcml 'setenv m4fw zephyr.bin; setenv m4addr 0x007F8000'
setenv bootm4tcml 'run m4tcml && run bootm4'
run bootm4tcml
# TCMU
setenv m4tcmu 'setenv m4fw zephyr.bin; setenv m4addr 0x00800000'
setenv bootm4tcmu 'run m4tcmu && run bootm4'
run bootm4tcmu
# OCRAM
setenv m4ocram 'setenv m4fw zephyr.bin; setenv m4addr 0x00900000'
setenv bootm4ocram 'run m4ocram && run bootm4'
run bootm4ocram
# OCRAM_S
setenv m4ocrams 'setenv m4fw zephyr.bin; setenv m4addr 0x00180000'
setenv bootm4ocrams 'run m4ocrams && run bootm4'
run bootm4ocrams
# DDR
setenv m4ddr 'setenv m4fw zephyr.bin; setenv m4addr 0x80000000'
setenv bootm4ddr 'run m4ddr && run bootm4'
run bootm4ddr

Debugging

Download and install J-Link Tools and NXP iMX7D Connect CortexM4.JLinkScript.

To run Zephyr Binary using J-Link create the following script in order to get the Program Counter and Stack Pointer from zephyr.bin.

get-pc-sp.sh:

#!/bin/sh

firmware=$1

pc=$(od -An -N 8 -t x4 $firmware | awk '{print $2;}')
sp=$(od -An -N 8 -t x4 $firmware | awk '{print $1;}')

echo pc=$pc
echo sp=$sp

Get the SP and PC from firmware binary: ./get-pc-sp.sh zephyr.bin

pc=00900f01
sp=00905020

Plug in the J-Link into the board and PC and run the J-Link command line tool:

/usr/bin/JLinkExe -device Cortex-M4 -if JTAG -speed 4000 -autoconnect 1 -jtagconf -1,-1 -jlinkscriptfile iMX7D_Connect_CortexM4.JLinkScript

The following steps are necessary to run the zephyr.bin: 1. Put the M4 core in reset 2. Load the binary in the appropriate addr (TMCL, TCMU, OCRAM, OCRAM_S or DDR) 3. Set PC (Program Counter) 4. Set SP (Stack Pointer) 5. Get the M4 core out of reset

Issue the following commands inside J-Link commander:

w4 0x3039000C 0xAC
loadfile zephyr.bin,0x00900000
w4 0x00180000 00900f01
w4 0x00180004 00905020
w4 0x3039000C 0xAA

With these mechanisms, applications for the colibri_imx7d/imx7d/m4 board configuration can be built and debugged in the usual way (see Building an Application and Run an Application for more details).

References