Category: Atmel SAMA5

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Linux 6.7 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.7 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.7 release

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.7, following Linux 6.6 LTS a little over two months ago: So we had a little bit more going on last week compared to the holiday week before that, but certainly not enough to make me think we’d want to delay this any further. End result: 6.7 is (in number of commits: over 17k non-merge commits, with 1k+ merges) one of the largest kernel releases we’ve ever had, but the extra rc8 week was purely due to timing with the holidays, not about any difficulties with the larger release. The main changes this last week were a few DRM updates (mainly fixes for new hw enablement in this version – both amd and nouveau), some more bcachefs fixes (and bcachefs is obviously new to 6.7 and one of the reasons for the large number of commits), and then a few random […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Snagboot is an open-source cross-vendor recovery tool for embedded targets

Snagboot is an open-source cross-vendor recovery tool for embedded targets

snagboot

Bootlin has just released the Snagboot open-source recovery tool for embedded platforms designed to work with multiple vendors, and currently STMicro STM32MP1, Microchip SAMA5, NXP i.MX6/7/8, Texas Instruments AM335x and AM62x, and Allwinner “sunxi” processors are supported. Silicon vendors usually provide firmware flashing tools, some closed-source binaries, that only work with their hardware. So if you work on STM32MP1 you’d use STM32CubeProgrammer, while SAM-BA is the tool for Microchip processors, NXP i.MX SoC relies on UUU, and if you’ve ever worked on Allwinner processors you’re probably family with sunxi-fel. Bootlin aims to replace all those with the Snagboot recovery tool. The Python tool is comprised of two parts: snagrecover using vendor-specific ROM code mechanisms to initialize external RAM and run the bootloader (typically U-Boot) without modifying any non-volatile memories. snagflash communicates with the bootloader over USB to flash system images to non-volatile memories, using either DFU, USB Mass Storage, or […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Linux 6.1 LTS release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.1 LTS release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.1 LTS

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 6.1, likely to be an LTS kernel, last Sunday: So here we are, a week late, but last week was nice and slow, and I’m much happier about the state of 6.1 than I was a couple of weeks ago when things didn’t seem to be slowing down. Of course, that means that now we have the merge window from hell, just before the holidays, with me having some pre-holiday travel coming up too. So while delaying things for a week was the right thing to do, it does make the timing for the 6.2 merge window awkward. That said, I’m happy to report that people seem to have taken that to heart, and I already have two dozen pull requests pending for tomorrow in my inbox. And hopefully I’ll get another batch overnight, so that I can try to really get as […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Microchip SAMA7G54 is a single-core Arm Cortex-A7 microprocessor for low power AI camera & audio applications

Microchip SAMA7G54 is a single-core Arm Cortex-A7 microprocessor for low power AI camera & audio applications

SAMA7G54 evaluation kit

Microchip has just announced the 1 GHz SAMA7G54 single-core Arm Cortex-A7 microprocessor (MPU) with MIPI CSI-2 and parallel camera interfaces, as well as up to four I2S, one SPDIF transmitter and receiver, and a 4-stereo channel audio sample rate converter. The company specifically launched a single-core processor to offer a lower power solution for AI camera and audio solutions, and the chip is coupled with the MCP16502 power management IC that has been optimized to provide the best power/performance ratio for the SAMA7G54. Microchip SAMA7G54 specifications: CPU – Arm Cortex-A7 based MPU @ up to 1GHz with 256KB L2 cache Memory – DDR2/DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR2/LPDDR3 up to 533MHz Storage – Quad SPI, Octal SPI, 3x SD/eMMC Camera I/F – MIPI CSI-2 (2-lane up to 1.5 Gbps each) and 12-bit parallel camera Up to 8 Mpixel @ 30 fps Audio – Up to 4x I2S, PDM, SPDIF (Rx/Tx), 4 stereo channel ASRC Networking […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Linux 5.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.17 changelog

Linus Torvalds has just released Linux 5.17: So we had an extra week of at the end of this release cycle, and I’m happy to report that it was very calm indeed. We could probably have skipped it with not a lot of downside, but we did get a few last-minute reverts and fixes in and avoid some brown-paper bugs that would otherwise have been stable fodder, so it’s all good. And that calm last week can very much be seen from the appended shortlog – there really aren’t a lot of commits in here, and it’s all pretty small. Most of it is in drivers (net, usb, drm), with some core networking, and some tooling updates too. It really is small enough that you can just scroll through the details below, and the one-liner summaries will give a good flavor of what happened last week. Of course, this means […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments on Linux 5.15 LTS release – Main Changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.15 LTS release – Main Changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linux 5.15

Linus Torvalds released Linux 5.15, an LTS version, this past Sunday: It’s been calm, and I have no excuse to add an extra rc, so here we are, with v5.15 pushed out, and the merge window starting tomorrow. Which is going to be a bit inconvenient for me, since I also have some conference travel coming up. But it’s only a couple of days and I’ll have my laptop with me. Sometimes the release timing works out, and sometimes it doesn’t.. Anyway, the last week of 5.15 was mainly networking and gpu fixes, with some random sprinkling of other things (a few btrfs reverts, some kvm updates, minor other fixes here and there – a few architecture fixes, couple of tracing, small driver fixes etc). Full shortlog appended. This release may have started out with some -Werror pain, but it calmed down fairly quickly and on the whole 5.15 was […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments on Jupiter Nano – Tiny Cortex-A5 board runs Linux or NuttX RTOS (Crowdfunding)

Jupiter Nano – Tiny Cortex-A5 board runs Linux or NuttX RTOS (Crowdfunding)

Jupiter Nano

Jupiter Nano looks like one of those small MCU boards, but instead of a microcontroller, it packs a 500 MHz Microchip SAMA5 Cortex-A5 processor with 128MB RAM capable of running Linux or NuttX operating systems. The board reminds me of the Adafruit Feather compatible Giant Board made by Groboards, with the same system-in-package, but Juniper Nano offers more I/Os via 48 through holes, and its size is said to be similar to Teensy 4.1 board (but not quite). Jupiter Nano specifications: SiP – Microchip SAMA5D27C-LD1G with Cortex-A5 processor running at 498 MHz, 128MB LPDDR2 DRAM Storage – MicroSD card socket (bootable) USB – 1x Micro USB 2.0 host/device port, 1x USB 2.0 host on header Expansion – 2x 24-pin headers with GPIOs, USB, SPI, I2C, up to 4x Flexcom interfaces configurable as SPI, UART or I2C Programming – JTAG port, Micro USB 2.0 FS debug console via MCP2200 USB-UART converter […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments on HaneSOM is a 4 cm2 Arm Linux module powered by Microchip SAMA5D2 SiP

HaneSOM is a 4 cm2 Arm Linux module powered by Microchip SAMA5D2 SiP

HaneSOM

DAB Embedded HaneSOM is a tiny (4 cm2) system-on-module based on Microchip SAMA5D2 Arm Cortex-A5 processor running Linux, which could make it the world’s smallest Linux module. The small size is made possible by the use of a SAMA5D2 system-in-package that also integrates 128MB DDR2, and the only two other chips on the modules are a 4MB flash (GD25Q32) and the PMIC (MIC2800). HaneSOM specifications: SiP – Microchip ATSAMA5D27C-D1G system-in-package with SAMA5D27 Arm Cortex-A5 processor @ 500 MHz with NEON, 128MBytes DDR2 System Memory – 128MBytes DDR2 memory Storage – 4 MBytes of QSPI Flash Castellated holes giving access to signal for: Storage – SD card interface Display – 24-bit RGB LCD TFT interface; capacitive touch controller Camera – Up to 5MP CMOS camera sensor support Audio – SSC, I2S Networking – 10/100M Ethernet USB – USB 2.0 (OTG and host) SPI, I2C, UART, CAN-FD, 12-bit ADC, PWM Misc – […]