NXP MIMXRT595-EVK

Overview

i.MX RT500 crossover MCUs are part of the edge computing family and are optimized for low-power HMI applications by combining a graphics engine and a streamlined Cadence Tensilica Fusion F1 DSP core with a next-generation Arm Cortex-M33 core. These devices are designed to unlock the potential of display-based applications with a secure, power-optimized embedded processor.

i.MX RT500 MCUs provides up to 5MB of on-chip SRAM and several high-bandwidth interfaces to access off-chip flash, including an Octal/Quad SPI interface with an on-the-fly decryption engine.

MIMXRT595-EVK

Hardware

  • MIMXRT595SFFOC Cortex-M33 (275 MHz) core processor with Cadence Tensilica Fusion F1 DSP

  • Onboard, high-speed USB, Link2 debug probe with CMSIS-DAP protocol (supporting Cortex M33 debug only)

  • USB2.0 high-speed host and device with micro USB connector and external crystal

  • Octal/Quad/pSRAM external memories via FlexSPI

  • 5 MB system SRAM

  • Full size SD card slot (SDIO)

  • On-board eMMC chip

  • On-board 5 V inputs NXP PCA9420UK PMIC providing 1.2 V, 1.8 V, 3.3 V

  • User LEDs

  • Reset and User buttons

  • MIPI-DSI connector

  • Single row headers for ARDUINO signals and MikroBus connector

  • FlexIO connector for MikroElektronica TFT Proto 5 inch capacitive touch display

  • One motion sensor combo accelero-/magneto-meter NXP FXOS8700CQ

  • Stereo audio codec with line-In/ line-Out/ and Microphone

  • Pmod/host expansion connector

  • NXP TFA9896 audio digital amplifier

  • Support for up to eight off-board digital microphones via 12-pin header

  • Two on-board digital microphones

For more information about the MIMXRT595 SoC and MIMXRT595-EVK board, see these references:

Supported Features

NXP considers the MIMXRT595-EVK as a superset board for the i.MX RT5xx family of MCUs. This board is a focus for NXP’s Full Platform Support for Zephyr, to better enable the entire RT5xx family. NXP prioritizes enabling this board with new support for Zephyr features. The mimxrt595_evk board configuration supports the hardware features below. Another very similar board is the NXP MIMXRT685-EVK, and that board may have additional features already supported, which can also be re-used on this mimxrt595_evk board:

Interface

Controller

Driver/Component

NVIC

on-chip

nested vector interrupt controller

SYSTICK

on-chip

systick

OS_TIMER

on-chip

os timer

IOCON

on-chip

pinmux

GPIO

on-chip

gpio

USART

on-chip

serial port-polling; serial port-interrupt

CLOCK

on-chip

clock_control

I2C

on-chip

i2c

SPI

on-chip

spi

CTIMER

on-chip

counter

WDT

on-chip

watchdog

FLASH

on-chip

OctalSPI Flash

TRNG

on-chip

entropy

USB

on-chip

USB device

FLEXSPI

on-chip

flash programming

RTC

on-chip

counter

PM

on-chip

power management; uses SoC sleep, deep sleep and deep-powerdown modes

SDHC

on-chip

disk access (works with eMMC & SD)

I2S

on-chip

i2s

DISPLAY

on-chip

LCDIF; MIPI-DSI. Tested with RK055HDMIPI4M MIPI Display, RK055HDMIPI4MA0 MIPI Display, and G1120B0MIPI MIPI Display display shields

The default configuration can be found in the defconfig file:

boards/arm/mimxrt595_evk/mimxrt595_evk_cm33_defconfig

Other hardware features are not currently supported by the port.

Connections and IOs

The MIMXRT595 SoC has IOCON registers, which can be used to configure the functionality of a pin.

Name

Function

Usage

PIO0_2

USART0

USART RX

PIO0_1

USART0

USART TX

PIO0_14

GPIO

GREEN LED

PIO0_25

GPIO

SW0

PIO0_10

GPIO

SW1

PIO4_30

USART12

USART TX

PIO4_31

USART12

USART RX

PIO0_29

I2C

I2C SCL

PIO0_30

I2C

I2C SDA

PIO0_22

GPIO

FXOS8700 TRIGGER

PIO1_5

SPI

SPI MOSI

PIO1_4

SPI

SPI MISO

PIO1_3

SPI

SPI SCK

PIO1_6

SPI

SPI SSEL

PIO0_5

SCT0

SCT0 GPI0

PIO0_6

SCT0

SCT0 GPI1

System Clock

The MIMXRT595 EVK is configured to use the OS Event timer as a source for the system clock.

Serial Port

The MIMXRT595 SoC has 13 FLEXCOMM interfaces for serial communication. One is configured as USART for the console and the remaining are not used.

Fusion F1 DSP Core

You can build a Zephyr application for the RT500 DSP core using nxp_adsp_rt595 board. Xtensa toolchain supporting RT500 DSP core is included in Zephyr SDK. To build the hello_world sample for the RT500 DSP core:

$ west build -b nxp_adsp_rt595 samples/hello_world

For detailed instructions on how to debug DSP firmware, please refer to this document: Getting Started with Xplorer for EVK-MIMXRT595

Programming and Debugging

Build and flash applications as usual (see Building an Application and Run an Application for more details).

Configuring a Debug Probe

A debug probe is used for both flashing and debugging the board. This board is configured by default to use the LPC-Link2.

  1. Install the J-Link Debug Host Tools and make sure they are in your search path.

  2. To connect the SWD signals to onboard debug circuit, install jumpers JP17, JP18 and JP19, if not already done (these jumpers are installed by default).

  3. Follow the instructions in LPC-Link2 J-Link Onboard Debug Probe to program the J-Link firmware. Please make sure you have the latest firmware for this board.

Configuring a Console

Connect a USB cable from your PC to J40, and use the serial terminal of your choice (minicom, putty, etc.) with the following settings:

  • Speed: 115200

  • Data: 8 bits

  • Parity: None

  • Stop bits: 1

Flashing

Here is an example for the Hello World application. This example uses the J-Link Debug Host Tools as default.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b mimxrt595_evk_cm33 samples/hello_world
west flash

Open a serial terminal, reset the board (press the RESET button), and you should see the following message in the terminal:

*** Booting Zephyr OS v2.7 ***
Hello World! mimxrt595_evk_cm33

Debugging

Here is an example for the Hello World application. This example uses the J-Link Debug Host Tools as default.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b mimxrt595_evk_cm33 samples/hello_world
west debug

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

*** Booting Zephyr OS v2.7 ***
Hello World! mimxrt595_evk_cm33

Troubleshooting

If the debug probe fails to connect with the following error, it’s possible that the image in flash is interfering and causing this issue.

Remote debugging using :2331
Remote communication error.  Target disconnected.: Connection reset by peer.
"monitor" command not supported by this target.
"monitor" command not supported by this target.
You can't do that when your target is `exec'
(gdb) Could not connect to target.
Please check power, connection and settings.

You can fix it by erasing and reprogramming the flash with the following steps:

  1. Set the SW7 DIP switches to ON-ON-ON to prevent booting from flash.

  2. Reset by pressing SW3

  3. Run west debug or west flash again with a known working Zephyr application (example “Hello World”).

  4. Set the SW5 DIP switches to OFF-OFF-ON to boot from flash.

  5. Reset by pressing SW3