SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board - Features

Last modified by Microchip on 2023/11/09 09:10

This topic describes the features of the SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board (P/N: EV40E67A) with links to additional information.

Features Summary

The major features of the SAM9X60-EK Evaluation Kit are:

  • SAM9X60D1G MPU
  • Mass storage
  • Communications
  • Debugging
  • User interface
  • Expansion
  • Power options
  • Jumper summary

References

sam9x60 Curiosity Development Board

Comparison

The following training compares the SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board with the SAM9X60-EK Evaluation Kit

SAM9X60D1G MPU

The SAM9X60D1G System-in-Package (SiP) is a high-performance, ultra-low-power ARM926EJ-S™ Arm® Thumb® CPU-based embedded microprocessor (MPU) running up to 600 MHz, with a 1 Gbit integrated DDR2 memory. Its features include:

  • 600 MHz ARM926EJ-S Core, 200 MHz System/Memory Bus
  • 1 Gbit integrated DDR2 SRAM
  • 64 kB internal SRAM
  • 24-bit LCD controller
  • 2D graphics processor unit
  • Camera interface
  • Dual 10/100 ethernet
  • Dual Control Area Network (CAN)
  • Dual SD memory card/eMMC
  • Two high-speed USB hosts, plus one high-speed host or device
  • Thirteen FLEXCOMs (USART, SPI, and I2C)
  • Hardware encryption engine and True Random Number Generator (TRNG)
  • Secure boot

sam9x60 Curiosity Processor

Mass Storage

There are three mass storage options available on the development board.

4 Gb NAND Flash (U3)

U3 is a 4 Gb (512M x 8) NAND Flash memory (Macronix MX30LF4G28AD-XKI). It is connected to the NAND Flash controller of the SAM9X60D1G.

Secure Digital Multimedia Card (SDMMC) (J5)

J5 is a Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard (MMC) memory card slot. It is connected to the Secure Digital MultiMediaCard port 1 (SDMMC1) peripheral of the SAM9X60D1G.

Micro Secure Digital (J3)

J3 is a micro SD memory card slot. It is connected to the Secure Digital MultiMediaCard port 0 (SDMMC0) peripheral of the SAM9X60D1G.

sam9x60 Curiosity Mass Storage

Communications

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board provides wired communications via ethernet, USB, and CAN.

Ethernet (J6)

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board contains an ethernet MAC peripheral. It is connected to a 10Base T/100Base-TX ethernet physical layer transceiver, KSZ8081RNA. A unique EUI-48™ MAC address is provided by a Serial EEPROM, 24AA025E48.

Dual CAN (J7)

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board features two CAN transceivers and MCP2542 transceivers. They are accessible from connector J7 (not populated). 

Note: The CAN0, Debug UART RX, and TX are shared and selectable through jumpers J14 and J15.

USB (J7 and J10)

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board features three USB communication ports named USB-A, USB-B, and USB-C.

The USB-A port acts only as a USB device interface and is accessed via USB Micro-B connector J7.

Note: The USB-A port (J7) is used as a source of power for the development board.

Note: The USB-A port (J7) is used as the default serial port used to communicate with the SAM-BA® Monitor resident on the MPU.

The USB-B and USB-C ports are connected to the stacked USB Type-A connecter (J10). Each port can act both as a device and as a host.

Wireless Connectivity

Wireless communications (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth®) can be added to the SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board by plugging in the ATWILC3000-SD Evaluation Kit (P/N: AC164158) to SD memory card slot J5.

sam9x60 Curiosity Comms

Debugging

There is one method of debugging the SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board via JTAG. In addition, a console serial communications port development board (J11).

JTAG (J12)

A JTAG interface to the SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board is provided by 20-pin connector J12 (not populated). This facilitates software development and debugging by connecting an external JTAG debugger such as the J-32 Debug Probe or Segger J-Link BASE Debug Probe.

Alert: The JTAG interface signals voltage levels are 3.3V.

Serial UART Debug Port (J11)

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board features a dedicated serial UART port (J11) (3.3 VDC TTL level) for communicating with the target console. 

Note: For more information, see: SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board - Console Serial Communications.

Note: The CAN0, Debug UART RX, and TX are shared and selectable through jumpers J14 and J15.

sam9x60 Curiosity Debug

User Interface

Red-Green-Blue (RGB) LED (D1)

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board features one RGB LED (D1).

Pushbuttons (SW1-SW3)

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board contains three push buttons:

  • RESET (SW1): Reset push button, when pressed the system resets.
  • USER (SW2): User push button which is available for user’s usage.
  • START (SW3): Will wake up the processor when it has been shut down by software.

LCD Interface (J13)

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board contains an 18-bit RGB666 parallel LCD Interface, that supports a variety of LCD Displays. The Liquid Crystal Display Controller (LCDC) I/O lines are available on the baseboard 50-pin Flexible Flat Cable (FFC) / Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) connector J13.

Alert: The default supply voltage to the LCD Interface is 5 VDC. The supply voltage can be changed to 3.3 VDC by moving the zero-ohm resistor from R73 to R74.

Note: Displays such as AC320005-5, which is a high-performance WVGA display module with maXTouch® technology, can be connected.

sam9x60 Curioisty User Interface

Expansion

mikroBUS™ (J8)

mikroBUS™ socket is a proprietary communication and plugin standard for small interface boards called Click boards™ that extends the capabilities of the development board by offering Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), UART, TWI, and PWM-based sensors and devices. They are made by MikroElektronika, a producer and retailer of hardware and software tools for developing embedded systems.

GPIO/Raspberry Pi Connector(J9)

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board contains a 40-pin GPIO connector (J9) for use. This connector is compatible with the Raspberry Pi expansion header.

sam9x60 Curioisty Expansion

Power Options

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board can be powered by connecting a USB Micro-B cable to J7 USB-A.

sam9x60 Curiosity Power Options

Jumper Summary

The SAM9X60 Curiosity Development Board jumpers are as follows:

Jumper J4 – NAND Boot:

  • Closed: enable boot (default)
  • Open: disable boot

The UART Debug and CAN0 RX and TX signals are shared via jumpers J14 (RX) and J15 (TX):

Jumper J14 – RX:

  • 1-2: UART debug RX
  • 2-3: CAN0 RX

Jumper J15 – TX:

  • 1-2: UART debug TX
  • 2-3: CAN0 TX

sam9x60 Curiosity Jumpers

What's Next?