MCUXpresso SDK board support package folders
MCUXpresso SDK board support package provides example applications for NXP development and evaluation boards for Arm Cortex-M cores including Freedom, Tower System, and LPCXpresso boards. Board support packages are found inside the top-level boards folder and each supported board has its own folder (an MCUXpresso SDK package can support multiple boards). Within each <board_name> folder, there are various sub-folders to classify the type of examples it contains. These include (but are not limited to):
demo_apps: Full-featured applications that highlight key functionality and use cases of the target MCU. These applications typically use multiple MCU peripherals and may use stacks and middleware.driver_examples: Simple applications that show how to use the peripheral drivers of the MCUXpresso SDK for a single use case. These applications typically only use a single peripheral but there are cases where multiple peripherals are used (for example, SPI conversion using DMA).rtos_examples: Basic FreeRTOSTM OS examples that show the use of various RTOS objects (semaphores, queues, and so on) and interfaces with the RTOS drivers fo the MCUXpresso SDK.wireless_examples: Applications that use the Wireless stacks.
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 (document MCUXSDKAPIRM).
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:
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.
Note: To prevent compiling errors, do not use special characters in the path of the SDK such as {!,@,#,$,&,%,^} and space.
Parent topic:MCUXpresso SDK board support package folders
Locating example application source files
When opening an example application in any of the supported IDEs, various source files are referenced. The MCUXpresso SDK devices folder is the central component to all example applications. It means that 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>: CMSIS header file of the device, MCUXpresso SDK feature file, and a few other files
devices/<device_name>/drivers: All 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/<device_name>/project_template: Project template used by MCUXpresso IDE to create projects
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 package folders