Getting Started with the i.MX 8M Nano UltraLite EVK

Embedded Linux^®

This section is applicable ONLY if attempting to load a Linux operating system on the board.

The i.MX Linux Board Support Package (BSP) is a collection of binary files, source code, and support files that are used to boot an Embedded Linux image on a specific i.MX development platform.

Current releases of Linux binary demo files can be found on the i.MX Linux download page. Additional documentation can be found the i.MX Linux documentation bundle, or under the Linux sections on the i.MX Software and Development Tool.

2.1 Overview

Before the Linux OS kernel can boot on an i.MX board, the Linux kernel is loaded to a boot device (SD card, eMMC and so on) and the boot switches are set to boot that device.

There are various ways to download the Linux BSP image for different boards and boot devices.

For this getting started guide, only a few methods to transfer the Linux BSP image to an SD card are listed. Experienced Linux developers can explore other options.

2.1.1. Download an NXP Linux BSP pre-built image

The latest pre-built images for the i.MX 8M Nano UL DDR3L EVK are available on the Linux download page under the most current version on Linux.

The pre-built NXP Linux binary demo image provides a typical system and basic set of features for using and evaluating the processor. Without modifying the system, the users can evaluate hardware interfaces, test SoC features, and run user space applications.

When more flexibility is desired, an SD card can be loaded with individual components (boot loader, kernel, dtb file, and rootfs file) one-by-one or the .sdcard image is loaded and the individual parts are overwritten with the specific components.

2.1.2 Burn NXP Linux BSP image using Universal Update Utility (UUU)

In addition to the connections from Out of box chapter, connect the J301 to the host machine using the proper USB cable.

Turn off the board. Consult Boot switch setup and configure the board to boot on SDP (Serial Download Protocol) mode.

Depending on the OS used in the host machine, the way to transfer the Linux BSP image onto an SD card can vary. Choose an option below for detailed instructions:

Choose an option below for detailed instructions:

Linux^®

OR

Windows^™

The MCUXpresso Software Development Kit (MCUXpresso SDK) provides comprehensive software source code to be executed in the i.MX 8M Nano UL M7 core. If you do not wish to enable the Cortex^®-M7 on i.MX 8M Nano UL at this moment you can skip this section.

3.1 Overview

The MCUXpresso SDK is designed for the development of embedded applications for Cortex^®-M7 standalone or collaborative use with the A cores. Along with the peripheral drivers, the MCUXpresso SDK provides an extensive and rich set of example applications covering everything from basic peripheral use case examples to demo applications. The MCUXpresso SDK also contains RTOS kernels, and device stack, and various other middleware to support rapid development.

This guide shows how to run the hello_world.bin demo provided by the REL_2.9.0 release. For detailed information on MCUXpresso SDK and how to build and deploy custom demos, please see the MCUXpresso SDK site.

3.2 Run Applications Using U-Boot

This section describes how to run applications using an SD card and pre-built U-Boot image for i.MX processor.

1. Following the steps from section 2 - Embedded Linux, prepare an SD card with a pre-built U-Boot + Linux image from the Linux BSP package for the i.MX 8M Nano UL processor. If you have already loaded the SD card with a Linux image, you can skip this step.
2. Insert the SD card in the host computer (Linux or Windows) and copy the application image (for example hello_world.bin) to the FAT partition of the SD card.
3. Safely remove the SD card from the PC.
4. Insert the SD card to the target board. Make sure to use the default boot SD slot and double check the Boot Switch Setup.

5. Connect the DEBUG UART connector on the board to the PC through USB cable. The Windows OS installs the USB driver automatically and the Ubuntu OS will find the serial devices as well.

   See Connect USB debug cable section in Out of box for more instructions on serial communication applications.

6. Open a second terminal on the i.MX 8M Nano UL DDR3L EVK board’s second enumerated serial port. This is the Cortex^®-M7’s serial console. Set the speed to 115200 bit/s, data bits 8, 1 stop bit (115200, 8N1), no parity.

7. Power up the board and stop the boot process by pressing any key before the U-Boot countdown reaches zero. At the U-Boot prompt on the first terminal, type the following commands.

   => fatload mmc 0:1 0x48000000 hello_world.bin

   => cp.b 0x48000000 0x7e0000 0x20000

   => bootaux 0x7e0000

   These commands copy the image file from the first partition of the SD card into the Cortex®-M7’s TCM and releases the Cortex^®-M7 from reset.

Tools and References

Security Reference Manual for i.MX 8M Nano Applications Processor

CAAM Module Example

The i.MX 8M Nano UL DDR3 EVK board includes the Cryptographic Acceleration and Assurance Module (CAAM) module that can be used through CryptoDev in order to accelerate by hardware the encryption and decryption process. It is recommended to use this module when working with large amounts of data or in any application where performance is important.

Checking the speed performance

OpenSSL is an open source project that defines the security protocols SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security). It has a software library that can be used in applications that requires a secure information transmission in order to prevent eavesdropping.

OpenSSL includes a speed command that tests the encryption performance for a desired encryption algorithm. For this example the algorithm used is the aes-128-cbc that implements the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption algorithm, with a Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode of operation and 128 bits block.

The OpenSSL speed test can be seen using the following command:

            
              # openssl speed -evp aes-128-cbc
  Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 16 size blocks: 43389139 aes-128-cbc's in 2.99s
  Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 64 size blocks: 28788614 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s
  Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 256 size blocks: 11766741 aes-128-cbc's in 2.99s
  Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 1024 size blocks: 3674139 aes-128-cbc's in 2.99s
  Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 8192 size blocks: 495157 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s
  OpenSSL 1.0.2p 14 Aug 2018
  built on: reproducible build, date unspecified
  options:bn(64,64) rc4(ptr,char) des(idx,cisc,16,int) aes(partial) idea(int) blowfish(ptr)
  compiler: arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc -march=armv7ve -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=hard -mcpu=cortex-a7 -DL_ENDIAN -DTERMIO -O2 -pipe -g -feliminate-unused-debug-types -Wall -Wa,--noexecstack -DHAVE_CRYPTODEV -DUSE_CRYPTODEV_DIGESTS
  The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed. type 16 bytes 64 bytes 256 bytes 1024 bytes 8192 bytes
Aes-128-cbc 193627.86k 513839.78k 837089.96k 1048974.64k 1130986.42k
Solution: 
In doc “AN12838 Strengthening Public Key Crptography using CAAM Secure Key” section 5.2.1 and 5.2.2. it describes details of the usage.

            
          

With Linux running on the i.MX board, you can evaluate special features that i.MX SoCs provide. This tutorial shows the step-by-step instructions on how to connect to the Internet on Linux with i.MX 8M Nano UL DDR3 EVK:

1. Connect an Ethernet cable to the board RJ-45 connector.
2. Log in
3. Boot up the board and wait for the Linux prompt.
4. At the Linux prompt, enter the following command.
   # ifconfig eth0

5. Ping any site to corroborate functionality.

   
                       # ping 8.8.8.8 PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data. 
     64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=119 time=4.81 ms 64 bytes 
     from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=119 time=4.87 ms 64 bytes 
     from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=3 ttl=119 time=4.94 ms 64 bytes 
     from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=4 ttl=119 time=4.61 ms
                     

The PCA9450 is a single chip Power Management IC optimized for i.MX 8M, i.MX 8M Nano and i.MX 8M Nano UltraLite.

Low Power Mode Suspension Example

With Linux running on the i.MX board, you can evaluate special features that i.MX SoCs provide. This example shows how to suspend to low-power modes and resuming to normal operation.

Enter the command below in order to enable serial TTY as a wake up source for the board:

# echo enabled > /sys/class/tty/ttymxc0/power/wakeup

Enter the command below to enter Suspend-To-RAM mode:

                
                  # echo mem > /sys/power/state
  PM: suspend entry (deep)
  PM: Syncing filesystems ... done.
  Freezing user space processes ... (elapsed 0.001 seconds) done.
  OOM killer disabled.
  Freezing remaining freezable tasks ... (elapsed 0.000 seconds) done.
  Suspending console(s) (use no_console_suspend to debug)
                
              

Press the SW901 switch to wake-up the board. The following messages should appear on terminal:

                
                  HIFsuspendwow TODO
  PM: suspend devices took 0.112 seconds
  Disabling non-boot CPUs ...
  CPU1: shutdown
  psci: CPU1 killed.
  CPU2: shutdown
  psci: CPU2 killed.
  CPU3: shutdown
  psci: Retrying again to check for CPU kill
  psci: CPU3 killed.
  Enabling non-boot CPUs ...
  Detected VIPT I-cache on CPU1
  GICv3: CPU1: found redistributor 1 region 0:0x00000000388a0000
  CPU1: Booted secondary processor [410fd034]
  cache: parent cpu1 should not be sleeping
  CPU1 is up
  Detected VIPT I-cache on CPU2
  GICv3: CPU2: found redistributor 2 region 0:0x00000000388c0000
  CPU2: Booted secondary processor [410fd034]
  cache: parent cpu2 should not be sleeping
  CPU2 is up
  Detected VIPT I-cache on CPU3
  GICv3: CPU3: found redistributor 3 region 0:0x00000000388e0000
  CPU3: Booted secondary processor [410fd034]
  cache: parent cpu3 should not be sleeping
  CPU3 is up
  PM: resume devices took 0.028 seconds
  OOM killer enabled.
  Restarting tasks ... done.
  PM: suspend exit
                
              

Tools and References

i.MX Audio Board Hardware User's Guide This manual includes system setup and configurations and provides detailed information on the usage of the i.MX Audio Board System from a hardware perspective.

Simple Audio Example

Connect your earphone to the Audio Jack on the i.MX 8M Nano UL DDR3 EVK board.

If your earphone includes a microphone feature (TRRS with four contacts), do not push the microphone jack to the end. Leave one contact ring outside.

            
              #aplay -1

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****

card 0: imxspdif [imx-spdif], device 0: S/PDIF PCM snd-soc-dummy-dai-0 [S/PDIF PCM snd-soc-dummy-dai-0] 
Subdevices: 1/1 
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 
card 2: wm8524audio [wm8524-audio], device 0: HiFi wm8524-hifi-0 [] 
Subdevices: 1/1 
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 
card 2: wm8524audio [wm8524-audio], device 1: HiFi-ASRC-FE (*) [] 
Subdevices: 1/1 
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 
# gst-launch-1.0 audiotestsrc ! alsasink device=plughw:2 
Setting pipeline to PAUSED ... 
Pipeline is PREROLLING ... 
Redistribute latency... 
Pipeline is PREROLLED ... 
Setting pipeline to PLAYING ... 

New clock: GetAudioSinkClock

            
          

You should be able to listen a tone on the earphone.

When you are done with the tone, finish the command line by pressing kbd:[Ctrl+C]

This example is very simple. It shows the link between audiotestsrc and alsasink.

Decoder Video Audio Example

This example explains how to decode just the audio from a video file. Copy a video file to your /home/root/ on your SD card rootfs partition, boot the board from the SD card and run the command below:

Note:You can obtain the file used in the example for free from the Big Buck Bunny site.

            
              # gplay-1.0 SampleVideo_1280x720_2mb.mp4
  FSL_GPLAY2_01.00_LINUX build on Mar 12 2018 11:48:19
  Set VideoSink kmssink
  Set TextSink fakesink ====== AIUR: 4.3.4 build on Mar 12 2018 11:47:35. ======
  Core: AVI_PARSER_03.05.29 build on Aug 31 2017 09:15:57
  file: /usr/lib/imx-mm/parser/lib_avi_parser_arm_elinux.so.3.1
  Track 00 [video]: Disabled
  Codec: 4, SubCodec: 1
  -----------------------
  ------------------------ Track 01 [audio_0] Enabled
  Duration: 0:09:56.424000000
  Language: und
  Mime: audio/mpeg, mpegversion=(int)1, channels=(int)2, rate=(int)48000, bitrate=(int)0
  codec_data=(buffer)014d401fffe10017674d401fda014016ec0440000003004000000c83c60ca801000468ef3c80
  ------------------------
  ====== BEEP: 4.3.4 build on Mar 12 2018 11:47:45. ======
  Core: MP3 decoder Wrapper build on Jan 11 2018 10:20:25
  file: /usr/lib/imx-mm/audio-codec/wrap/lib_mp3d_wrap_arm_elinux.so.3
  CODEC: BLN_MAD-MMCODECS_MP3D_ARM_02.13.01_ARMV8 build on Jan 11 2018 10:05:45. [Stop (No Repeated)][Vol=1.0][00:00:00/00:09:56]=========== fsl_player_play()=========== FSL_GPLAY2_01.00_LINUX build on Mar 12 2018 11:48:19
  [h]display the operation Help
  [p]Play
  [s]Stop
  [e]Seek
  [a]Pause when playing, play when paused
  [v]Volume
  [m]Switch to mute or not
  [>]Play next file
  [ [r]Switch to repeated mode or not
  [u]Select the video track
  [d]Select the audio track
  [b]Select the subtitle track
  [f]Set full screen
  [z]resize the width and height
  [t]Rotate
  [c]Setting play rate
  [i]Display the metadata
  [x]eXit
  State changed: buffering
  State changed: playing
  [Playing (No Repeated)][Vol =1.0][00:00:13/00:00:13]EOS Found
  getNextItem No next item!
  No more media file, exit gplay!
  State changed: stopped
  Exit display thread
  FSL_PLAYER_UI_MSG_EXIT
  fsl_player_deinit
                    

            
          

Machine learning (ML) typically encompasses applications where classification, recognition, and prediction of man-made abstractions are desired. Examples include image recognition, gesture recognition, anomaly detection, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, ASR, scene recognition, and many more. This section will focus specifically on the NXP ML tools applied to image or video streams. The voice and audio sections may also reference the included examples.

Board Documents

• i.MX 8M NanoUL EVK Quick Start Guide
• i.MX 8M Nano UltraLite DDR3L Evaluation Kit Hardware User's Guide
• i.MX 8M Nano UltraLite DDR3L EVK Design Files

Chip Documents

• i.MX 8M Nano Applications Processor Datasheet for Consumer Products
• i.MX 8M Nano Applications Processor Datasheet for Industrial Products
• i.MX 8M Nano Applications Processor Reference Manual
• i.MX 8M Nano Hardware Developer’s Guide
• Mask Set Errata for Mask 0N14Y

Software

• i.MX Software and Development Tools

To learn what to do next, find your issue below. If you still need help, contact NXP Support.

Trainings

Want to learn more about using the i.MX 8M Nano UltraLite EVK? Check out our selection of training offerings ranging from online mini tech sessions to hands-on deep-dive training for help.

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