MCUXpresso SDK Release Notes

Overview

The MCUXpresso SDK is a comprehensive software enablement package designed to simplify and accelerate application development with Arm Cortex-M-based devices from NXP, including its general purpose, crossover and Bluetooth-enabled MCUs. MCUXpresso SW and Tools for DSC further extends the SDK support to current 32-bit Digital Signal Controllers. The MCUXpresso SDK includes production-grade software with integrated RTOS (optional), integrated enabling software technologies (stacks and middleware), reference software, and more.

In addition to working seamlessly with the MCUXpresso IDE, the MCUXpresso SDK also supports and provides example projects for various toolchains. The Development tools chapter in the associated Release Notes provides details about toolchain support for your board. Support for the MCUXpresso Config Tools allows easy cloning of existing SDK examples and demos, allowing users to leverage the existing software examples provided by the SDK for their own projects.

Underscoring our commitment to high quality, the MCUXpresso SDK is MISRA compliant and checked with Coverity static analysis tools. For details on MCUXpresso SDK, see MCUXpresso-SDK: Software Development Kit for MCUXpresso.

MCUXpresso SDK

As part of the MCUXpresso software and tools, MCUXpresso SDK is the evolution of Kinetis SDK, includes support for LPC, DSC,PN76, and i.MX System-on-Chip (SoC). The same drivers, APIs, and middleware are still available with support for Kinetis, LPC, DSC, and i.MX silicon. The MCUXpresso SDK adds support for the MCUXpresso IDE, an Eclipse-based toolchain that works with all MCUXpresso SDKs. Easily import your SDK into the new toolchain to access to all of the available components, examples, and demos for your target silicon. In addition to the MCUXpresso IDE, support for the MCUXpresso Config Tools allows easy cloning of existing SDK examples and demos, allowing users to leverage the existing software examples provided by the SDK for their own projects.

In order to maintain compatibility with legacy Freescale code, the filenames and source code in MCUXpresso SDK containing the legacy Freescale prefix FSL has been left as is. The FSL prefix has been redefined as the NXP Foundation Software Library.

Development tools

The MCUXpresso SDK is compiled and tested with these development tools:

  • CodeWarrior Development Studio v11.2 with CodeWarrior for DSC v11.2 SP1 (Service Pack 1)

Supported development systems

This release supports board and devices listed in following table. The board and devices in bold were tested in this release.

Development boards

MCU devices

TWR-MC56F8200

MC56F82313VLC, MC56F82316VLF, MC56F82323VFM,
MC56F82623VLC, MC56F82643VLC, MC56F82646VLF,
MC56F82723VFM, MC56F82723VLC, MC56F82726VLF,
MC56F82728VLH, MC56F82733MFM, MC56F82733VFM,
MC56F82733VLC, MC56F82736VLF, MC56F82738VLH,
MC56F82743VFM, MC56F82743VLC, MC56F82746MLF,
MC56F82746VLF, MC56F82748MLH, MC56F82748VLH

Release contents

Table 1 provides an overview of the MCUXpresso DSC SDK release package contents and locations.

Deliverable

Location

Boards

<install_dir>/boards

Demo applications

<install_dir>/boards/<board_name>/demo_apps

Driver examples

<install_dir>/boards/<board_name>/driver_examples

Documentation

<install_dir>/docs

Driver, SoC header files, extension header files and feature header files

<install_dir>/devices/<device_name>

Peripheral Drivers

<install_dir>/devices/<device_name>/drivers

Utilities such as debug console

<install_dir>/devices/<device_name>/utilities

Middleware

<install_dir>/middleware

MCUXpresso SDK release package

The MCUXpresso SDK release package content is aligned with the silicon subfamily it supports. This includes the boards, CMSIS, devices, middleware, and RTOS support.

Device support

The device folder contains the whole software enablement available for the specific System-on-Chip (SoC) subfamily. This folder includes clock-specific implementation, device register header files, device register feature header files, and the system configuration source files. Included with the standard SoC support are folders containing peripheral drivers, toolchain support, and a standard debug console. The device-specific header files provide a direct access to the microcontroller peripheral registers. The device header file provides an overall SoC memory mapped register definition. The folder also includes the feature header file for each peripheral on the microcontroller. The toolchain folder contains the startup code and linker files for each supported toolchain. The startup code efficiently transfers the code execution to the main() function.

Board support

The boards folder provides the board-specific demo applications, driver examples, and middleware examples.

Demo application and other examples

The demo applications demonstrate the usage of the peripheral drivers to achieve a system level solution. Each demo application contains a readme file that describes the operation of the demo and required setup steps. The driver examples demonstrate the capabilities of the peripheral drivers. Each example implements a common use case to help demonstrate the driver functionality.

Middleware

Motor Control Software (ACIM, BLDC, PMSM)

Motor control examples.

FreeMASTER

FreeMASTER communication driver for 32-bit platforms.

Known issues

This section lists the known issues, limitations, and/or workarounds.

Hardware issue

The mini USB port(J18) pin5 does not route to GND.

Workaround: Connect J18 Pin 4 and Pin 5.