Getting Started with the MCIMX8QXP-CPU | NXP Semiconductors

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Getting Started with the MCIMX8QXP-CPU

Last Modified: 2019-03-20 09:34:00Supports i.MX 8QuadXPlus MEK

Purchase your i.MX 8QuadXPlus MEK

Contents of this document

1. Out of the Box

The following section describes the steps to boot the i.MX 8QuadXPlus MEK.

1.1 i.MX 8QuadPlus MEK Unboxing

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Development kit contains:

  • i.MX 8QuadXPlus MEK board for smart devices
  • USB cable (micro-B to standard-A)
  • Cable -Assembly, USB 2.0 Type-A Male, USB Type-C Male, Shielded, 1m
  • 12 V/8.3 A universal power supply
  • Quick Start Guide
  • 8 GB SD card with bootable operating system demonstration image

1.2 Get Familiar With the Board

IMX8QUADXPLUS-BOARD-TOP

IMX8QUADXPLUS-BOARD-TOP

IMX8QUADXPLUS-BOARD-BACK

IMX8QUADXPLUS-BOARD-BACK

1.3 Insert the SD card (J12)

The kit includes an SD card with a pre-built NXP Linux binary demo image. Without modifying the binary inside the SD card, booting from this SD card provides a default system with certain features for building other applications on top of Linux. The software is described in the following sections.

1.4 Connect USB Debug Cable

Connect the micro-B end of the supplied USB cable into Debug UART port J11. Connect the other end of the cable to a host computer.

If you are not sure about how to use a terminal application, try one of the following tutorials depending on the operating system of the host machine:

1.5 Connect Power Supply

Connect the power supply cable to the power connector (J9).

The processor starts executing from the on-chip ROM code. With the default boot switch setup, the code reads the fuses to define the media where it is expected to have a bootable image. After it finds a bootable image, the U-Boot execution should begin automatically.

Information is printed in the serial console for the Cortex®-A35. If you do not stop the U-Boot process, it continues to boot the kernel.

NextBuild, Run

2. Build, Run

2.1 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 is available in the i.MX Linux documentation bundle under the Linux sections of the i.MX Software and Development Tool.

2.2 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.

2.3 Download an NXP Linux BSP Pre-built Image

The latest pre-built images for the i.MX 8QuadXPlus MEK 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.

PreviousOut of the Box
NextGet Software

3. Get Software

3.1 Embedded Android™

This section describes the boot process of loading the i.MX 8QuadXPlus MEK board with an Embedded Android system image and introduces how to build the software components that create your own system image. For details on building the Android platform, see Building Android

The current release includes Demo Images, Source code, and Documentation. These can also be found under Android section of the i.MX Software and Development Tool.

3.2 Overview

The storage devices on the development system (MMC/SD or NAND) must be programmed with the U-Boot boot loader. The boot process determines which storage device to access based on the switch settings. When the boot loader is loaded and begins execution, the U-Boot environment space is then read to determine how to proceed with the boot process.

The images can come from pre-built release packages or be created from source code. Regardless of how you obtain them, all Android images contain the following components:

  • U-Boot image: u-boot.imx

  • boot image: boot.img

  • Android system root image: system.img

  • Recovery root image: recovery.img

For more information about the Android BSP refer to the Android User Guide.

3.3 Download NXP Android BSP Image

The pre-built NXP Android demo image provides a default system with certain features for evaluation. Without modifying the system, users can perform some basic operations, and interact with the system to test hardware interfaces and develop software application in the user space.

The pre-built images from the package are categorized by boot device and put in the directory with the device name. The latest pre-built image files can be found in Android section on the i.MX Software and Development Tool.

3.4 Burn NXP Android BSP Image Using UUU

In addition to the connections from Out of box chapter, connect the J10 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 Android BSP image onto an SD card can vary. Choose an option below for detailed instructions:

PreviousBuild, Run
NextMCUXpresso SDK

4. MCUXpresso SDK

The MCUXpresso Software Development Kit (MCUXpresso SDK) provides comprehensive software source code to be executed in the i.MX 8QuadXPlus M4 core.

If you do not wish to enable the Cortex®-M4 on i.MX 8QuadXPlus at this moment you can skip this section.

4.1 Overview

The MCUXpresso SDK is designed for the development of embedded applications for Cortex®-M4 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.

Depending on the OS used in the host machine, the way to build and deploy the demos can vary. Choose an option below for detailed instructions:

PreviousGet Software
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External Memory

External Memory

Documents and Videos Description
i.MX 8/8X Family DDR Tools Release

The purpose of the i.MX 8/8X DDR Tools is to enable users to generate and test a custom DRAM initialization based on their device configuration (density, number of chip selects, etc.) and board layout (data bus bit swizzling, etc.).

PreviousMCUXpresso SDK
NextProject and Tutorials: Security and Integrity

Security and Integrity

Documents and Videos Description
AN12714 i.MX Encrypted Storage Using CAAM Secure Keys

Provides the steps to run a transparent storage encryption at block level using DM-Crypt taking advantage of the secure key feature provided by i.MXs Cryptographic Accelerator and Assurance Module (CAAM)
AN12838 Strengthening Public Key Cryptography using CAAM Secure Key

Describes the public key cryptography scheme based on the Black Key feature provided by the i.MX application processors.
AN12554 Demo Application to Generate Red/Black Blobs Using CAAM and Encrypt/Decrypt Data

Instructions and steps on how to set up and run a demo application to generate both red and black key blobs and use them to encrypt and decrypt data.
AN12906 HSM and SHE on i.MX 8QXP and i.MX 8DXL

Hardware Secure Module (HSM) and Secure Hardware Extension (SHE) are two security services for NXP products, that supports in various types of automotive applications. This document provides an initial knowledge of the architecture of these services and helps to develop an application using the HSM and SHE APIs.
Trusted Execution Environment: Getting Started with OP-TEE on i.MX Processors

An overview of TEE, example use cases and how to leverage i.MX hardware security features from OP-TEE.
Secure the Edge: Manufacturing Protection: Provision Sensitive Material in an Unsecure Environment

This webinar will provide an introduction to the Manufacturing protection feature and discuss how it can be used to ensure that sensitive material is delivered and installed securely.
AN12312 Secure Boot on i.MX 8 and i.MX 8X Families using AHAB

The i.MX family of applications processors provides this capability with the Advanced High Assurance Boot (AHAB) component on the on-chip ROM and the Security Controller (SECO) Firmware. The AHAB in ROM is responsible for authenticating the SECO firmware (NXP signed), which will supply the services for authenticating the images signed by the user to the System Controller ROM.
AN12812 Using Code-Signing Tool with Hardware Security Module

This document provides the information necessary for the user to effectively use Code-Signing Tool (CST) with a Hardware Security Module (HSM) backend.

CAAM Module Example

The i.MX 8QuadXPlus MEK 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. This example shows the advantages of using CAAM as an encryption offload engine.

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 require 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.

p

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

1234567891011121314151617# openssl speed -evp aes-128-cbc 
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 16 size blocks: 19785933 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s 
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 64 size blocks: 10656521 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s 
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 256 size blocks: 3706151 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s 
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 1024 size blocks: 1036434 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s 
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 8192 size blocks: 134183 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s 
OpenSSL 1.0.2n 7 Dec 2017 
built on: reproducible build, date unspecified 
options:bn(64,32) rc4(ptr,char) des(idx,cisc,16,long) 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 105524.98k 227339.11k
316258.22k 353769.47k 366409.05k

Load the cryptodev module and run the openssl command again. This time you should be able to see that the timing values show the accelerated values. As the block sizes increases, the elapsed time decreases:

123456789101112131415# modprobe cryptodev 
cryptodev: driver 1.9 loaded. 
# openssl speed -evp aes-128-cbc -engine cryptodev engine "cryptodev" set. 
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 16 size blocks: 
103333 aes-128-cbc's in 0.07s Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 64 size blocks: 102441
aes-128-cbc's in 0.09s 
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 256 size blocks: 84088 aes-128-cbc's in 0.08s 
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 1024 size blocks: 72447 aes-128-cbc's in 0.04s 
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 8192 size blocks: 25304 aes-128-cbc's in 0.03s OpenSSL
1.0.2n 7 Dec 2017 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:
aarch64-poky-linux-gcc -DL_ENDIAN -DTERMIO -O2 -pipe -g -feliminate-unused-debug-type
The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed. type 16 bytes 64 bytes 256
bytes 1024 bytes 8192 bytes aes-128-cbc 23618.97k 72846.93k 269081.60k 1854643.20k
6909678.93k

The encryption algorithms supported by the CryptoDev can be listed by the following command:

1234# openssl engine cryptodev -c 
(cryptodev) BSD cryptodev engine 
[RSA, DSA, DH, DES-CBC, DES-EDE3-CBC, AES-128-CBC, AES-192-CBC, AES-256-CBC,
hmacWithMD5, hmacWithSH A1, RIPEMD160, MD5, SHA1]

Tools and References

Security Reference Manual for i.MX8DualX/8DualXPlus/8QuadXPlus Application Processors

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Wired Communications

Documents and Videos Description
AN12409 i.MX6/7/8 series USB Certification Guide

The purpose of this document is to describe how to perform USB Certification Test on the i.MX6/7/8 series family of applications processor including procedure descriptions, tools and criteria for USB Compliance Test.
AN12444 PCIe Certification Guide for i.MX 8 Series

A fast and easy way to describe the compliance test procedures, tools, and criteria for PCI Express 3.0, 2.0, and 1.1/1.0a designs on i.MX 8 series products for both silicon validation, as per the PCIe® BASE specification and add-in cards motherboard systems, as per the PCIe CEM specification.
AN13164 i.MX8MP PCIe Bandwidth Analysis

This document presents various usage scenarios for PCIe on the i.MX 8M Plus to provide a more clear understanding of the cases where near Gen3 x1 line rate bandwidth (8 Gbits/s) can be achieved after protocol overhead. NOTE: While this app note references the i.MX 8MP, the test environment setup is the same for the i.MX 8QXP, however, the amount of bandwidth does not apply.

AN13210 How to Use FlexCAN in Linux

i.MX 8MP EVK - i.MX8MP presents two FlexCAN FD interfaces which can be programmed from Realtime domain or Linux domain. This document presents various usage scenarios for FlexCAN on the i.MX 8M Plus to provide a clearer understanding of how FlexCAN to be used in Linux. NOTE: While this app note references the i.MX 8MP, the method of using FlexCAN in Linux is the same for the i.MX 8QXP.

Connectivity

To connect to the Internet on Linux with i.MX 8QuadXPlus MEK follow the steps below:

  1. Connect an Ethernet cable to the board RJ-45 connector.
  2. Boot up the board and wait for the Linux prompt.
  3. At the Linux prompt, enter the following command. 
    1# ifconfig eth0
  4. Ping any site to corroborate functionality. 
    123456# 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

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Wireless Connectivity

Wireless Connectivity

Documents and Videos Description
Cloud Connectivity

Integrated support for cloud services including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud IoT.
Getting Started with NXP-based WiFi modules on i.MX 8M Quad EVK Running Linux OS

This manual covers the bring-up of i.MX 8M Quad EVK, configurations for the BSP image, hardware connection with NXP-based wireless modules, and how to bring up the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth interfaces.

Note: While this document mentions the i.MX 8M, it can also apply to the i.MX 8QXP, although the WiFi interface type is different
Feature Configuration Guide for NXP-based Wireless Modules on i.MX 8M Quad EVK

This document specifies the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth features and configurations on i.MX 8M Quad EVK with Azurewave AW-CM358MA (88W8987) and Azurewave AW-CM276MA (88W8997) wireless modules. It covers the initialization and configuration of the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth interfaces.

Note: While this document mentions the i.MX 8M, it also applies to the i.MX 8QXP.

PreviousProject and Tutorials: Wired Communications
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Multicore and Hardware Acceleration

Multicore and Hardware Acceleration

Documents and Videos Description
AN13285 i.MX 8X Using L1 Cache for Cortex-M4 Core

Introduces the basic technology of the cache system including the L1 cache, memory types, attributes, and Memory Protection Unit for the Cortex-M4 core embedded into the i.MX 8X series processors. It guides you on how to use the cache to develop applications running correctly and with high performance

PreviousProject and Tutorials: Wireless Connectivity
NextProject and Tutorials: Power Management

Power Management

The PF8100-8200 are the NXP Power Management ICs optimized for i.MX 8 and i.MX8X families.

Documents and Videos Description
AN12338 i.MX 8QuadXPlus Power Consumption Measurement

Illustrates the current drain measurements of the i.MX 8QuadXPlus application processors taken on the NXP Multisensory Evaluation Kit (MEK) platform through several use cases.

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:

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

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

    12345# echo mem > /sys/power/state
[ 18.832439] PM: Syncing filesystems ... done.
[ 18.939268] Freezing user space processes ... (elapsed 0.001 seconds) done.
[ 18.947957] Freezing remaining freezable tasks ... (elapsed 0.001 seconds) done.
[ 18.956810] Suspending console(s) (use no_console_suspend to debug)

  • Press the SW3 switch to wake-up the board. The following messages should appear on terminal:

    123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233[ 138.859067] PM: suspend of devices complete after 40.103 msecs
[ 138.859071] PM: suspend devices took 0.040 seconds
[ 138.861306] PM: late suspend of devices complete after 2.229 msecs
[ 138.864518] PM: noirq suspend of devices complete after 3.207 msecs
[ 138.864521] Disabling non-boot CPUs ...
[ 138.892702] CPU1: shutdown
[ 138.892705] psci: CPU1 killed.
[ 138.940761] CPU2: shutdown
[ 138.940764] psci: CPU2 killed.
[ 138.992702] CPU3: shutdown
[ 138.992704] psci: CPU3 killed.
[ 139.005413] Enabling non-boot CPUs ...
[ 139.017625] Detected VIPT I-cache on CPU1
[ 139.017647] GICv3: CPU1: found redistributor 1 region 0:0x00000000388a0000
[ 139.017689] CPU1: Booted secondary processor [410fd034]
[ 139.018002] cache: parent cpu1 should not be sleeping
[ 139.018221] CPU1 is up
[ 139.033610] Detected VIPT I-cache on CPU2
[ 139.033624] GICv3: CPU2: found redistributor 2 region 0:0x00000000388c0000
[ 139.033654] CPU2: Booted secondary processor [410fd034]
[ 139.033930] cache: parent cpu2 should not be sleeping
[ 139.034129] CPU2 is up
[ 139.049722] Detected VIPT I-cache on CPU3
[ 139.049737] GICv3: CPU3: found redistributor 3 region 0:0x00000000388e0000
[ 139.049767] CPU3: Booted secondary processor [410fd034]
[ 139.050049] cache: parent cpu3 should not be sleeping
[ 139.050257] CPU3 is up
[ 139.106888] PM: noirq resume of devices complete after 56.624 msecs
[ 139.108600] PM: early resume of devices complete after 1.408 msecs
[ 139.115589] Suspended for 0.435 seconds
[ 139.116781] PM: resume of devices complete after 8.175 msecs
[ 139.262945] Restarting tasks ... done.
[ 139.277327] hantro receive hot notification event: 0

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Audio

Documents and Videos Description
DSP Concepts offering for i.MX 8 Processors

Learn about audio platform offerings from DSP Concepts for the i.MX 8M family.

Simple Audio Example

This simple example shows the link between audiotestsrc and alsasink.

First, check the sound card info using [aplay -|]. Note which sound card number is assigned to WM8960. Modify the gstreamer command below as needed to align with the WM8960 sound card number. For example, if the WM8960 is sound card 2, then change the end of the gstreamer command to be hw:2.”

Connect your earphone to the Audio Jack on the i.MX 8QuadXPlus MEK board.

If your earphone includes a microphone feature (TRRS with four contacts), do push the microphone jack to the end. Leave one contact ring outside 

123456# gst-launch-1.0 audiotestsrc ! alsasink device=hw:2
Setting pipeline to PAUSED ...
Pipeline is PREROLLING ...
Redistribute latency...
Pipeline is PREROLLED ...
Setting pipeline to PLAYING ... New clock: GstAudioSinkClock

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

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

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.

The default output device is cs42888，you can set output device to wm8960 with below steps first:

  1. Start pulseAudio daemon

    1# pulseaudio --start

  2. Get wm8960 sink number

    1# pacmd list-sinks
    3. From the log, wm8960 is in index 2

  3. Set default sink to wm8960

    1# pacmd set-default-sink 2

Then you can run the command below to play a video file:

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849# gplay-1.0 big_buck_bunny_1080p_stereo.avi
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
------------------------
====== 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][00:07:12/00:09:56]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

PreviousProject and Tutorials: Power Management
NextProject and Tutorials: Display and Graphics

Display and Graphics

Display and Graphics

Documents and Videos Description
i.MX Graphics User’s Guide

Provides information on graphic APIs and driver support for developers writing graphics applications or video drivers.
i.MX 8 Gstreamer User Guide

Learn more about how to use GStreamer version 1.0 on the i.MX 8M Nano EVK. Includes examples for decode, encode, camera, video composition and video scaling and rotation.
Implementing Graphics in Real-time Industrial HMI Systems with NXP MCUs and Embedded Wizard

NXP has partnered with TARA Systems to offer Embedded Wizard as an Enabling Software Technology.
AN12189 Quick Start Guide for MX8-DSI-OLED1 for i.MX 8X Evaluation Kit

This document provides a brief overview on how to get started with the MX8-DSI-OLED1 accessory card, a MIPI-DSI interface OLED display kit with touch screen support, and the i.MX 8QXP EVK.
AN12188 Quick Start Guide for IMX-MIPI-HDMI for i.MX 8X Evaluation

This document provides a brief overview on how to get started with the i.MX 8QXP EVK and the IMX-MIPI-HDMI accessory card, which is used for converting the MIPI-DSI signal to an HDMI signal.
i.MX 8QXP-MEK Display Selection Guide

Describes the i.MX 8QXP MEK mini-SAS connectors features on Linux and Android use cases, covering the supported daughter cards, the process to change Device Tree (DTS) files or Boot images, and enable these different display options on the board.

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Camera Interfaces

Camera Interfaces

Documents and Videos Description
i.MX 8 Camera Use Cases

Learn more about the i.MX 8 MIPI CSI use case, Advanced Gstreamer camera use cases, available cameras and daughter cards supported by the i.MX 8M Nano EVKB, compatible Device Tree (DTS) files, and how to enable different camera options.

Note: While this document references the i.MX 8M Nano it also applies to the i.MX 8QXP.
i.MX 8 Gstreamer User Guide

Learn more about how to use GStreamer version 1.0 on the i.MX 8M Nano EVK. Includes examples for decode, encode, camera, video composition and video scaling and rotation.

Note: While this document references the i.MX 8M Nano it also applies to the i.MX 8QXP.
AN12187 Quick Start Guide for MINISASTOCSI for i.MX 8M Evaluation Kit

This document provides a brief overview on how to get started with the i.MX 8M EVK and the MINISASTOCSI accessory card, a MIPI-CSI interface camera kit based on OmniVision chipset OV5640.

Note: While this document refers to the i.MX 8M EVK, the MINISASTOCSI can also be used with the i.MX 8QXP MEK.

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NextProject and Tutorials: Functional Safety

Functional Safety

Functional Safety

Documents and Videos Description
i.MX 8/8X Functional Safety Concepts

The i.MX 8/8X is designed as a Safety Element out of Context (SEooC) MPU and can be used in dedicated manners for safety-critical applications such as automotive digital instrument clusters, where critical information and alerts need to be assessed and analyzed at all times.
Functional Safety Industrial and Automotive Concepts of the i.MX 8/8X Families of Applications Processors

The i.MX 8 and i.MX 8X processor families have the safety mechanisms in place to help with your SIL 2/3 and ASIL A/B needs from a platform level. Explore the quality-managed (QM) safety-related hardware components for your specific use case.

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NextProject and Tutorials: Machine Learning

Machine Learning

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.

Documents and Videos Description
eIQ® ML Software Development Environment

Enables the use of ML algorithms on NXP MCUs, i.MX RT crossover MCUs, and i.MX family SoCs. eIQ software includes inference engines, neural network compilers and optimized libraries.
i.MX Machine Learning User’s Guide

The NXP eIQ UM for i.MX toolkit provides a set of libraries and development tools for machine learning applications targeting NXP microcontrollers and application processors.
NXP eIQ Machine Learning Software Development Environment for i.MX Applications Processors

This users manual provides guidance for the supported ML software for the i.MX family and includes an eIQ introduction, Yocto installation guide, and step-by step guide for running all supported DNN and non-DNN examples.
eIQ FAQ

This document covers some of the most commonly asked questions we've gotten about eIQ and embedded machine learning.
AN13001 Glow Memory Analysis

How to understand the Glow memory information generated by the Glow compiler and calculate the memory required for a particular model. This compiler can then be used to determine the minimum memory size that is needed to run the model.
AN12766 Anomaly Detection with eIQ using K-Means clustering in Tensor Flow Lite

Step by step instruction to enable a machine condition monitoring application using anomaly detection.
Getting Started with eIQ Software for i.MX Applications Processors

A series of step-by-step tutorials using our eIQ ML software development environment from unboxing a board, to deploying, to modeling, to inferencing at the edge.

Tools and References

eIQ Inference with Arm NN library - eIQ Arm NN (Neural network) is an inference engine for CPUs, GPUs, and other compute engines supporting Caffe, TensorFlow, TensorFlow Lite, and ONNX models

eIQ Inference with TensorFlow Lite library - TensorFlow Lite, a low latency, smaller footprint inference engine, uses the Eigen library and techniques such as pre-fused activations and quantized kernels.

eIQ Toolkit for End-to-End Model Development and Deployment - eIQ Workflow Tool supports data curation, model training, quantization and pruning, validation, target profiling and model deployment.

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Device Management and Secure OTA

Device Management and Secure OTA

Documents and Videos Description
AN12900 Secure Over-the-Air Prototype for Linux Using CAAM and Mender or SW Update

Provides a prototype implementation for Secure OTA for Linux images, specifically for the i.MX 8M/MM
AN12921 Google Cast Authentication Aspects Implementation on i.MX

This app note provides details about security properties required for Google Voice Assistant (GVA) and Cast for Audio (C4A) on the security aspects and their implementations on NXP’s GVA/C4A reference platform

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Minicom Tutorial

Serial Communication Console Setup

On the command prompt of the Linux host machine, run the following command to determine the port number:

1$ ls /dev/ttyUSB*

The smaller number is for Arm® Cortex®-A35 core and the bigger number is for Arm® Cortex®-M4 core.

Minicom

Use the following commands to install and run the serial communication program (minicom as an example):

  • Install Minicom using Ubuntu package manager. 
    1$ sudo apt-get install minicom
  • Launch Minicom using a console window using the port number determined earlier. 
    1$ sudo minicom /dev/ttyUSB* -s
  • Configure Minicom as show in Figure 3
  • The next step is to Connect the HDMI cable.

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Tera Term Tutorial

Serial Communication Console Setup

The FTDI USB-serial chip on i.MX 8QuadXPlus enumerates two serial ports. Assume that the ports are COM9 and COM10. The smaller numbered port COM9 is for the serial console communication from Arm® Cortex®-A35 core and the larger numbered port COM10 is for Arm® Cortex ®-M4 core. The serial-to-USB drivers are available atFTD Chip Drivers

Note: To determine the port number of the i.MX board virtual COM port, open the Windows device manager and find USB serial Port in Ports (COM and LPT)

Tera Term

Is an open source terminal emulation application. This program displays the information sent from the NXP development platform’s virtual serial port.

  • Download Tera Term. After the download, run the installer and then return to this webpage to continue.
  • Launch TeraTerm. The first time it launches, it shows the following dialog. Select the serial option. Assuming your board is plugged in, there should be a COM port automatically populated in the list.
  • Configure the serial port settings (using the COM port number identified earlier) to 115200 baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit. To do this, go to Setup → Serial Port and change the settings.
  • Verify that the connection is open. If connected, Tera Term shows something like below in its title bar.
  • The next step is to Connect the HDMI cable.

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PuTTY Tutorial

Serial Communication Console Setup

The FTDI USB-serial chip on i.MX 8QuadXPlus enumerates two serial ports. Assume that the ports are COM9 and COM10. The smaller numbered port ( COM9) is for the serial console communication from Arm® Cortex®-A7 and the larger numbered port (COM10) is for Arm Cortex-M4. The serial-to-USB drivers are available at FTD Chip Drivers

Note: To determine the port number of the i.MX board virtual COM port, open the Windows device manager and find USB serial Port in Ports (COM and LPT)

PuTTY is a popular terminal-emulation application. This program displays the information sent from the NXP development platform’s virtual serial port.

  • Download PuTTY After the download, run the installer and then return to this webpage to continue.
  • Launch PuTTY by either double clicking on the executable file you downloaded or from the Start menu, depending on the type of download you selected.
  • Configure In the window that launches. Select the Serial radio buttonand enter the COM port number that you determined earlier. Also enter the baud rate, in this case 115200.
  • Click Open to open the serial connection. Assuming the board is connected and you entered the correct COM port, the terminal window opens. If the configuration is not correct, PuTTY alerts you.
  • The next step is to Connect the HDMI cable.

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Board Information

Chip Documents

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Support

Troubleshooting

Demo not Working?

Did your board come in a box that looks like this?:

No problem! Your board simply came in the old packaging and has a different out-of-box demo loaded into the flash memory.

You should be seeing the red and green LEDs toggling back and forth. It's OK to move onto the next step when you're ready

Still not working?

Try proceeding to the next steps to get other example applications running on your board. If you still have problems, try contacting us through the NXP Community.

Training

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

Training Description
AN12770 i.MX 8X C0 Migration Guide Migrating from i.MX 8X B0 to i.MX 8X C0 s This application note introduces the major considerations required to migrate from i.MX 8X B0 to i.MX 8X C0, including i.MX 8QuadXPlus, i.MX 8DualXPlus, and i.MX 8DualX.
AN13273 i.MX 8QuadXPlus/8DualXPlus/DualX Product Lifetime Usage Describes the estimated product lifetimes for the i.MX 8QuadXPlus/8DualXPlus/8DualX application processors based on the criteria used in the qualification process.
I.MX 8X Training Full list of on-demand training, how-to videos and webinars from NXP about this product.

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Connect with other engineers and get expert advice on designing with the i.MX8X on one of our community sites.

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