It has been a long time since I posted my latest article in the community about NXP's newest LPC5500 MCU: The LPC551x/S1x family with same security level as the previously launched LPC552x and LPC55S6x, but less price as well as extra CAN-FD interface. There is more and more interest in the field with LPC5500 series of microcontrollers these days. Not only because NXP is promoting it to be its mainstream MCU platform in the recent years, but also because its high-efficiency leveraging Cortex-M33 core, DSP co-processor and its security functions that user can choose.
LPC5500
For those who are not familiar with the LPC5500, it is a mainstream MCU Series running at 150MHz frequency. Leveraging the Arm
Cortex-M33 technology, LPC5500 combines significant product architecture enhancements and high level of integration over previous generationsof NXP's microcontrollers, offering dramatic power consumption improvements and enhanced security features including SRAM PUF based root of trust and provisioning, real-time execution from encrypted images , and asset protection with Arm TrustZone-M Technology.
Software
Today I am not gonna talk too much about how fancy the MCUs are, you can always check NXP website and E14 to search and get to know more about the microcontrollers. I want to highlight more of the tools side that NXP help to support user experience and quick get starts. Firstly, the software support is always a key aspect for users to decide whether to use this MCU or not. NXP's LPC5500, like previous LPC microcontrollers, offers a wide choice for you in terms of IDE. You can either use the MCUXpresso IDE free of charge, or use IAR and Keil if you are more familiar with those. NXP always provides a package of software examples for different IDE users to get started. And if you are using our MCUXpresso ecosystem, NXP has developed a new MCUXpresso Secure Provisioning Tool which is designed for secure provisioning, generation and management of keys, signatures and certificates. Check more details here: MCUXpresso Secure Provisioning Tool
Documentation
LPC5500 has been brought to the market for only over a year. But NXP has already understood a lot of user actual needs and delivered a bunch of application notes for anyone interested to download. Here are some that I found most valuable and one of a kind.
AN12278 - LPC55S69 Security Solutions for IoT Utilizing the security functions of LPC55S6x to build IoT applications
How to Use CAN-FD to Transfer Data on LPC55S16
AN12581 - 2-layer PCB Layer Design Guide for VFBGA98 Package So far all 3 families of LPC5500 has VFBGA98 packages, some developers are not fan of this package. The reason why is despite the BGA package has advantage of smaller size, better electric feature, it is always a little bit harder to route a PCB based on it. The pins are tightly beneath the chip so that for a simple design, you might have to route and manufacture the board in 4-layer. However NXP has designed the BGA package in a special way and provides a guide for you to reference to realize a 2-layer board still.
Dev board
In terms of boards, as you may already know, NXP usually design evaluation kit for most of the new microcontrollers that go mass production. It is no exception for LPC5500, so far there are already 3 families in the LPC5500 series, so, there are 3 development boards launched at the same time as well:
Besides these, there is also a very unique one that is in the market now that you could buy: the OKDO E1. This is something very unique and interesting, the board is only the size of 2 coins, very tiny and thin. However, you can still find the LQFP100 LPC55S69 chip in the center as well as a debug module, this means that the board is ready for USB debug the time when you get it and powered it up. There are some unboxing and evaluation videos from the field that you could find on YouTube or other social website. More detail information can be found here:
This is all? Then you are very wrong. NXP is also trying to expand the exposure of LPC5500 and lower the entrance for all users to get to know and play with the chip. Like in China specifically, NXP will release some local development tool and core board for users to get more easily. This will come in a couple months, already excited about it.