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MCUXpresso SDK board support folders

MCUXpresso SDK board support provides example applications for NXP development and evaluation boards for Arm Cortex-M cores. Board support packages are found inside of the top level boards folder, and each supported board has its own folder (MCUXpresso SDK package can support multiple boards). Within each <board_name> folder there are various sub-folders to classify the type of examples they contain. These include (but are not limited to):

  • cmsis_driver_examples: Simple applications intended to concisely illustrate how to use CMSIS drivers.

  • demo_apps: Full-featured applications intended to highlight key functionality and use cases of the target MCU. These applications typically use multiple MCU peripherals and may leverage stacks and middleware.

  • driver_examples: Simple applications intended to concisely illustrate how to use the MCUXpresso SDK’s peripheral drivers for a single use case.

  • rtos_examples: Basic FreeRTOS OS examples showcasing the use of various RTOS objects (semaphores, queues, and so on) and interfacing with the MCUXpresso SDK’s RTOS drivers

  • multicore_examples: Simple applications intended to concisely illustrate how to use middleware/multicore stack.

Example application structure

This section describes how the various types of example applications interact with the other components in the MCUXpresso SDK. To get a comprehensive understanding of all MCUXpresso SDK components and folder structure, see MCUXpresso SDK API Reference Manual.

Each <board_name> folder in the boards directory contains a comprehensive set of examples that are relevant to that specific piece of hardware. Although we use the hello_world example (part of the demo_apps folder), the same general rules apply to any type of example in the <board_name> folder.

In the hello_world application folder you see the following contents:

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All files in the application folder are specific to that example, so it is easy to copy and paste an existing example to start developing a custom application based on a project provided in the MCUXpresso SDK.

Parent topic:MCUXpresso SDK board support folders

Locating example application source files

When opening an example application in any of the supported IDEs, a variety of source files are referenced. The MCUXpresso SDK devices folder is the central component to all example applications. It means the examples reference the same source files and, if one of these files is modified, it could potentially impact the behavior of other examples.

The main areas of the MCUXpresso SDK tree used in all example applications are:

  • devices/<device_name>: The device’s CMSIS header file, MCUXpresso SDK feature file and a few other files

  • devices/<device_name>/cmsis_drivers: All the CMSIS drivers for your specific MCU

  • devices/<device_name>/drivers: All of the peripheral drivers for your specific MCU

  • devices/<device_name>/<tool_name>: Toolchain-specific startup code, including vector table definitions

  • devices/<device_name>/utilities: Items such as the debug console that are used by many of the example applications

  • devices/<devices_name>/project_template: Project template used in CMSIS PACK new project creation

For examples containing an RTOS, there are references to the appropriate source code. RTOSes are in the rtos folder. The core files of each of these are shared, so modifying one could have potential impacts on other projects that depend on that file.

Parent topic:MCUXpresso SDK board support folders