ARM processors from TI, NXP and others - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: cmos2016
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 19, 2016, 08:29:10 pm
content: Hello guys,I'm new to this forum.I have had experience designing with TI's ARM processors, especifically the AM1707 and AM1705 part of the Sitara series.In general the design experience was very painful, the documentation including application notes were highly fragmented and outdated. And the technical support wasn't very helpful. In summary, very frustrating and I would like to find another alternative for the future.For my next design (PCB with a Cortex A processor running Linux) I do not want to use TI products, so I would like to hear from you about your design experience with another manufacturers like NXP, Cypress, Analog Devices, etc.I have never worked with processors from NXP or Freescale (now the same company as I learned recently).How is NXP in terms of tech support, design reference information (application notes) and software?If you know of another manufacturer that is worth mentioning please tell me.Thank you.Best regards,Patricio

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2016, 09:36:34 pm
content: documentation is great for NXP parts, they even thought that it would be useful to put a minimum working circuit for their parts, that's uncommon (sigh). I found documentation to be less great for freescale parts.NXP also is one of the few which has code examples that actually works!Regarding tech support.. my experience up to now has been generally negative, with a company account. After a week of automated responces that invited to post the problem to the community (even though i said i already did, and that what i didn't post on the community was confidential) i actually got to talk to an application engineer. great!But anyway the support system is crippled, i was only able to post the problem and not to add comments so everything was handled through emails (and the support system is designed to be used as a community of more accounts interacting.. i don't know how)And the community... sigh. NXP people will answer right away, only to post automated bullshit like "look at the FAQs" every time you write that you actually look at the god damn faqs... nothing strange i supposte

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 02:04:12 pm
content: Quote from: cmos2016 on October 19, 2016, 08:29:10 pmAs blueskull said, the CortexA options are somewhat shrinking. AFAIK the BeagleBone board is currently the only CortexA-based board that has multiple routes for embedded linux development and good device documentation - it is based on a TI device, though.For development you can either choose the TI official SDK (called Processors SDK) or the Debian and Angstron distros athttps://beagleboard.orgUnfortunately I don't have experience with the other devices blueskull mentioned, but a while ago I was interested in the AllWinner device but its datasheet and User's manual had several gaps.

author: mac.6
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 02:23:52 pm
content: NXP/Freescale i.MX family is well supported and documented. today current top of the line are i.MX7/8 (A7/A53) but you can still use i.MX6 (A9) or lower (not recommended).Linux/u-boot support is good, mostly set of patches on top of linux upstream release. Upstream support is so-so, especially if you use your own board. Appart from that you can use buildroot or yocto without issues (Freescale have it's own yocto repositories).Are you planning to do your own board or use a standard dev board? the former will require a big step from BB design as you will have route DDR ram/flash, not something simple and best stick to the reference design. For the latter you can found some low cost boards with i.MX6

author: krho
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 03:30:32 pm
content: There are i.MX6UL aka Ultralite Which are Cortex A7 running at around 500MHz, there is a lot of SOMs available with this processor, even Chinese ones.And then there is a new kid on the block also Cortex A7 named i.MX6ULL. Almost the same as i.MX6UL but it's supposed to be cheaper.I'd recommend to look at those.

author: Eternauta
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 03:58:32 pm
content: Depending on requirements about max speed and number of cores the Cortex-A5 from Atmel are a good alternative (SAMA5D2, SAMA5D3, SAMA5D4). Datasheet and AN well written and linux support up to version 4.4. Direct support from Atmel generally good.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 09:25:24 pm
content: I have done some designs/projects with the NXP iMX5 and iMX6 and they work well. Documentation and support are OK but do expect to sink a lot of time into customising & debugging the Linux kernel and bootloader. TI also has the Omap series but I like the iMX better because they have true hardware video compression and video accelleration instead of a DSP.

author: krho
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2016, 05:26:52 am
content: I wasn't mentioning Atmel series, because the SOMs itself are priced way higher. At least for me even in small series the SOM price is important especially if you have a cost sensitive device. The other one beeing the product placement in a market. Where the som price can make the product succeed or fail.

author: Franc
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2016, 12:12:13 pm
content: I would like recommend you the SAM series of Atmel. I started with them some weeks ago and getting success. I got some difficults for configure the Peripherals Drivers but it is normal for a beginner. I guess you will not like the AS7 because is slow and some bugs . If you don't needing high speed ASF works fine but I don't like, I guess a pain to understand the functions calls. Also the XplainedPro PCBs are very good and cheap. Here in Forum I posted some topics about coding in Bare Metal. For my project with SAM D21 I configured Drivers for DA, 2 SPI, Display OLED, TC3 and 2 ACs with just 3% of memory size (bare code) and 30%RAM, I still have a good memory size for joking with them .Regards!