RoadTest: Atmel SAMA5D4 Xplained Ultra
Author: matfur92
Creation date:
Evaluation Type: Independent Products
Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True
What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained, Arduino Yun, Arduino Mega 2560, Arduino Uno
What were the biggest problems encountered?: Initial phase hard: missing instructions to start using the board through examples that can make people understand the potential of this
Detailed Review:
Under construction - progressive updates
| Characteristics | SAMA5D4 | SAMA5D3 |
|---|---|---|
 |  | |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 135 × 88 × 20 mm | 125 x 75 x 20mm (10-layers) |
| Processor | SAMA5D44 ( 361-ball BGA pack age), 16x16 mm body, pitch 0.8 mm | SAMA5D36 (324-ball BGA package) ARM Cortex-A5 Processor with ARM v7-A Thumb2® instruction set, core frequency up to 536 MHz |
| Oscillators | MPU, EDBG: 12 MHz quartz RTC: 32.768 KHz PHY: 25 MHz | 12-MHz crystal oscillator 32.768-kHz crystal oscillator |
| Main Memory | 2 x DDR2 2 Gb 16 Meg x 16 x 8 banks (total 4Gbit = 512 MB) 1 x SLC NAND Flash 4 Gb 8-bit data (total 4Gbit = 512 MB) | 2x 1Gb DDR2 (16M x 16 bits x 8 banks) 1x 2Gb SLC NAND Flash (256M x 8 bits) |
| Accessory memories | One optional Serial EEPROM SPI One EEPROM with Mac Address and Serial Number | One Serial EEPROM SPI One 1-Wire EEPROM |
| SD/MMC | One 4-bit SD card connector One 4-bit Micro-SD card connector | One 8-bit SD card connector One optional 4-bit Micro-SD card connector |
| USB | Two USB Hosts with power switch One Micro-AB USB device | Two USB Hosts with power switch One Micro-AB USB device |
| Display | One LCD interface connector, LCD TFT Controller with overlay, alpha-blending, rotation, scaling and color space conversion One HDMI interface and connector | One LCD interface connector, LCD TFT Controller with overlay, alpha- blending, rotation, scaling and color space conversion |
| Ethernet | One Ethernet PHY (RMII 10/100MHz) | One Gigabit Ethernet PHY (GRMII 10/100/1000) One Ethernet PHY (RMII 10/100) |
| Debug port | One JTAG interface connector One EDBG interface One serial DBGU interface (3v3 level) | One JTAG interface connector One serial DBGU interface (3.3V level) |
| Expansion connector | Arduino R3 compatible set of connectors XPRO set of connectors | Arduino R3 compatible set of headers The SAMA5D36 GPIO,TWI, SPI, USART, UART, Audio and ISI interfaces are accessible through these headers |
| Board supply voltage | 5V from USB, power jack, and Arduino shield On-board power regulation by PMIC | 5V from USB or power jack or Arduino shield On-board power regulation is perfo rmed by a Power Management Unit (PMU) |
| Battery | On-board battery socket | On-board optional power Cap for CMOS backup |
| User interface | Reset, Wake-up and free user push button One red user/power LED and one blue user LED | Reset, wakeup and free user pushbutton One red user/power LED and one blue user LED |
| Connectors | J4 Main power supply J11 USB A Device. Supports USB device using a type Micro-AB connector J16 USB Host B and C. Supports USB host using a stacked type A connector J1 Serial DBGU (3.3V level) J13 JTAG, 20 pin IDC connector J20 EDBG USB connector J9 Micro-SD connector J24 SD/MMC connector J12 Ethernet ETH0 J2 Expansion connector with all LCD controller signals for display module connection (QTouch®, TFT LCD display with touchscreen and backlight) J5 HDMI connector type A BAT1 CR1225 Battery holder J6, J7, J8, J14, J15, J17, J18, J19 Expansion connectors with Arduino R3 compatible PIO signals J21, J22, J23 Expansion connectors Xplained J3 JTAG EDBG (not populated) J10 PIOBU extension (not populated) | J2 Main power supply J6 USB A device, that supports USB device using a Micro-AB connector J7 (upper): USB B Host, that supports USB host using a type A connector J7 (lower): USB C Host, that supports USB host using a type A connector J23 Serial DBGU 3.3V level J24 JTAG, 20-pin IDC connector J11 Micro-SD connector J10 SD/MMC connector J12 Gigabit Ethernet ETH0 J13 Ethernet ETH1 J22 Expansion connector with all LCD controller signals for display module connection (QTouch, TFT,LCD display with Touch Screen and backlight C41 Optional SuperCap J14 to J21 Seven expansion connectors with Arduino R3 compatible PIO signals Various test points located throughout the board |
| Others | Compatible IDE : DS-5 Community Edition | ARM DS-5 Development Studio | Compatible IDE : DS-5 Community Edition | ARM DS-5 Development Studio Supported tools LinuxLink Embedded Linux Development Center for Atmel SAMA5D3 Series | Timesys Embedded Linux |
Both are two beautiful board, with two prices not too far apart. SAMA5D4, unlike the younger sister SAMA5D3 unfortunately does not have an additional port to provide enhanced performance with Gigabit Ethernet, is therefore limited to a single Ethernet 10/100. it really is a shame given the higher cost, would have been better but even a single Ethernet Gigabit! Another lack, which has not the SAMA5D3 is compatible with the service provided by the http://www.timesys.com at LinuxLink Embedded Linux Development Center for Atmel SAMA5D3 Series | Timesys Embedded Linux for creating through the cloud of the images from the system. Although you can not create them directly online from the panel that you have available once registered, it seems possible to create in any case, through the IDE owner, a build for the SAMA5D4 as reported by this link: http://www.timesys.com/pdf/2015-timesys-productbrief-atmel-sama5.pdf.
The price difference with the younger sister is anyway justified by a number of features of the highest level as the presence of an HDMI port which now allows to display on a screen of any of the content that the most recent production there own pace, thanks to a more powerful processor. The amount of RAM and ROM is doubled allowing the use of multiple processes simultaneously or storing a quantity of appropriate data, thus allowing a more dynamic and flexible. In addition to the compatibility of the pinout of Arduino R3 is also added compatibility with XPRO !!
The last gem that differentiates this product also is definitely the space for the battery (not included).
These differences largely repay the difference in price between the two products, but the absence of a Gigabit port may be one of the minus points of this board in case anyone ever needs a decent IO on network.
To enable HDMI I had to flash the OS.
I downloaded the latest image available at this address: ftp://www.at91.com/pub/demo/linux4sam_4.6/linux4sam-poky-sama5d4_xplained-4.6.zip
When I extract the .zip file are entered in the folder linux4sam-poky-sama5d4_xplained-4.6 and I went as taking a slight modification to file demo_script_linux_nandflash.tcl. A line 210 I replaced
append dtbFile $variant_name $board_suffix ".dtb"
con
append dtbFile $variant_name $board_suffix "_hdmi.dtb"
to enable exactly the HDMI.
I performed the following steps then having the board disconnected from any power:
1) closed jumper JP7
2) Connect the USB micro-A cable to J11
3) Once recognized by the operating system (Windows Me), open the jumper JP7
4) Started as an administrator demo_linux_nandflash.bat script (.sh for UNIX users)
5) Given a few minutes, you open a file in notepad in which the last line shows the word === DONE. ===. This indicates that the flash was successful.
6) Detached the USB from J11 and connect to J20:EDBG_USB from which you can normally access the shell of the board.
Now the HDMI is enabled and if the HDMI cable connected to a screen will not say more video source does not exist but it will give a beautiful black screen 
I connected the card to the PC using type A-micro-B USB cable connected to the USB-EDBG
