By Microchip Technology 65
The Microchip SMART SAMA5D2 series is a high-performance, ultra-low-power Arm Cortex-A5 processor based MPU. The Arm Cortex-A5 processor runs up to 500 MHz and features the ARM NEON™ SIMD engine a 128 kB L2 cache, and a floating-point unit. It supports multiple memories, including latest-generation technologies such as DDR3, LPDDR3, and QSPI Flash. It integrates powerful peripherals for connectivity (EMAC, USB, dual CAN, up to 10 UARTs, and others) and user interface applications (TFT LCD controller, touch controller, class D amplifier, audio PLL, CMOS sensor interface, and more). The devices offer advanced security functions to protect customer code and secure external data transfers. These include ARM TrustZone®, tamper detection, secure data storage, hardware encryption engines including private keys, on-the-fly decryption of code stored in external DDR or QSPI memory, and a secure boot loader. The devices come with a free Microchip Linux distribution.
The Microchip SAMA5D2 Xplained Ultra is a fast prototyping and evaluation platform for the Atmel SMART SAMA5D2 series of microprocessors. The board includes eMMC and DDR3 memories as well as a rich set of connectivity options. Connectors and expansion headers allow for easy customization and quick access to leading-edge embedded features such as the ClassD amplifier or the capacitive touch controller. An Microchip Linux distribution and software package makes it easy to get started with development.