Getting started with Microchip: SAMA5 - Software - DRM
SAMA5D2 Xplained Ultra Development Kit (SAMA5D2-XULT) with WVGA Display Module (AC320005-5).
The following article explains all necessary steps to create an Embedded Wizard UI application suitable for SAMA5 using Software Rendering and DRM. The description was tested on the SAMA5D2 Xplained Ultra Development Kit (SAMA5D2-XULT) from Microchip, but can also be used analogously on other SAMA5 boards.
Please follow these instructions carefully and step by step in order to ensure that you will get everything up and running on your target. In case you are not familiar with Embedded Wizard, please read first the chapter basic concepts and the Quick Tour tutorial to understand the principles of Embedded Wizard and the GUI development workflow. Moreover, this article assumes that you are familiar with Linux.
Prerequisites
First, make sure you have all of the following items:
Hardware components
★SAMA5D2 Xplained Ultra rev.C Development Kit (ATSAMA5D2C-XULT) from Microchip
★2GB SD Card
Software components
★Embedded Wizard Studio
You can download Embedded Wizard Studio directly from the following link:
EmbeddedWizard_Studio_x64-V15.00.msi
Customers can also find all their licensed software packages in the Embedded Wizard Download Center (login required).
★Embedded Wizard Build Environment for SAMA5 with Software Rendering and DRM (SAMA5-Software-DRM)
You can download the suitable Build Environment from the following link:
SAMA5-Software-DRM-BuildEnvironment-V15.00.00.00.zip
Customers can also find the latest version of the Build Environment and their licensed Platform Package source codes in the Embedded Wizard Download Center (login required).
★Yocto Project SDK (Yocto Project 3.1.15 "Dunfell") - choose the Cortex-A5 hard float NEON toolchain
IMPORTANT
In order to build (cross-compile) the GUI applications for the SAMA5 target, a Linux PC or virtual machine is required. Please prepare an adequate Linux environment (e.g. Ubuntu within a VMware virtual machine).
Installing Tools and Software
★Step 1: Install the latest version of Embedded Wizard Studio on your Windows PC.
★Step 2: Unpack the provided Embedded Wizard Build Environment for SAMA5 with Software Rendering and DRM (SAMA5-Software-DRM) to your local file system (e.g. C:\SAMA5) of your Windows PC.
★Step 3: Prepare the SD Card with the previously downloaded SD Card image. This can be done with the tool Etcher - please follow these instructions.
★Step 4: Install the Yocto Project SDK into your Linux system (e.g. /opt/poky-atmel/).
★Step 5: Share the directory of the Embedded Wizard Build Environment for SAMA5 with your Linux system (e.g. /mnt/hgfs/SAMA5).
Exploring the Build Environment
The provided Embedded Wizard build environment for SAMA5 contains everything you need to create, compile, link and flash an Embedded Wizard UI application for the SAMA5 target. After unpacking, you will find the following subdirectories and files:
•\Application - This folder contains ready-to-use projects to compile and link an Embedded Wizard generated UI application. They are used for all provided examples and they can be used to build your own UI applications.
•\GeneratedCode - This folder is used to receive the generated code from an Embedded Wizard UI project. All template projects are building the UI application out of this folder. You can create your own UI project and generate the code into the subdirectory \GeneratedCode without the need to adapt the project.
•\Project - This folder contains the prepared projects for GCC (make).
•\Source - This folder contains the files main.c and ewmain.c. There you will find the initialization of the system and the main loop to drive an Embedded Wizard GUI application. The file ewconfig.h contains general configuration settings for the target system, like memory ranges and display parameter and configuration settings for the Embedded Wizard Graphics Engine and Runtime Environment.
•\Examples\<ScreenSize> - These folders contain a set of demo applications prepared for a dedicated screen size of 480x272 pixel, 800x480 pixel and 1280x720 pixel. Each example is stored in a separate folder containing the entire Embedded Wizard UI project. Every project contains the necessary profile settings for the SAMA5 target. For a complete overview and detailed descriptions of all available examples, including their features and usage, see Examples.
•\MasterDemo - This folder contains the binary file of the Embedded Wizard Master Demo. It combines a variety of examples within one huge demo application. It can be used for presentations and showcases.
•\PlatformPackage - This folder contains the necessary source codes and/or libraries of the SAMA5 Platform Package: The Graphics Engines for the supported color format RGBA8888 and the Runtime Environment (in the subdirectory \RTE).
•\TargetSpecific - This folder contains all configuration files and platform specific source codes. The different ew_bsp_xxx files implement the bridge between the Embedded Wizard UI application and the underlying board support package (Microchip hardware drivers) in order to access the display, the serial interface and the touch device.
Creating the UI Examples
For the first bring up of your system, we recommend to use the example 'HelloWorld':
Example 'HelloWorld' within Embedded Wizard Studio.
The following steps are necessary to generate the source code of this sample application:
★Navigate to the directory \Examples\<ScreenSize>\HelloWorld.
★Open the project file HelloWorld.ewp with your previously installed Embedded Wizard Studio. The entire project is well documented inline. You can run the UI application within the Prototyper by pressing Ctrl+F5.
★To start the code generator, select the menu items - or simply press F8. Embedded Wizard Studio generates now the sources files of the example project into the directory \Application\GeneratedCode.
Building the Binary
The following steps are necessary to build the Embedded Wizard UI sample application using the cross-compiler on your Linux system:
★Open a terminal window and setup the cross-compiler:
. /opt/poky-atmel/3.1.15/environment-setup-cortexa5t2hf-neon-vfpv4-poky-linux-gnueabi
★Change into the subfolder /Application/Project of the shared directory of the Embedded Wizard Build Environment for SAMA5
cd /mnt/hgfs/SAMA5/Application/Project
★Now start compiling and linking:
make
The resulting binary of the application (EmbeddedWizard-Linux-DRM) will be stored in the current directory.
Downloading the Binary
★Insert the SD Card (including the SD Card image) into your SAMA5 target, connect your Windows PC via USB with the board by using the EDBG_USB connector and connect the board to your network.
★As soon as you connect your SAMA5 target with the PC via USB, a new virtual Com Port appears within your system device list. Open the device manager to get the port number of this COM port.
★Now you can open your terminal application (e.g. 'Putty' or 'TeraTerm') and connect it via COMx with the following settings: 115200-8-N-1.
★Please ensure that the display is active at boot time. For that purpose stop the bootloader after reset and insert the following command:
setenv display 5000 saveenv reset
★Login as root without a password
★Create a directory for the Embedded Wizard UI applications (e.g. /home/root/EmbeddedWizard) and change into it:
mkdir EmbeddedWizard cd EmbeddedWizard
★In order to quit the current running demo of the SD card image, please insert the following command:
/etc/init.d/egtdemo stop
★Determine the IP address of your board (e.g. by using ifconfig) and note it (e.g. 192.168.0.xxx).
★From your Linux build system you can now copy the binary to the target by using its IP address:
scp EmbeddedWizard-Linux-DRM root@192.168.0.xxx:/home/root/EmbeddedWizard
★Finally, you can start the binary on the target (via serial terminal) using the correct touch configuration:
./EmbeddedWizard-Linux-DRM
Example 'HelloWorld' running on SAMA5 development board.
All other examples can be created in the same way: Just open the desired example with Embedded Wizard Studio, generate code and rebuild the whole application using simply:
make scp EmbeddedWizard-Linux-DRM root@192.168.0.xxx:/home/root/EmbeddedWizard
Creating your own UI Applications
In order to create your own UI project suitable for the SAMA5 target, you can create a new project and select the SAMA5 Software project template:
As a result you get a new Embedded Wizard project, that contains the necessary Profile attributes suitable for the SAMA5 development board:
The following profile settings are important for your target:
★The attribute PlatformPackage should refer to an installed Linux Software Platform Package.
★The attribute ScreenSize should correspond to the display size of the SAMA5 development board.
★The attribute OutputDirectory should refer to the \Application\GeneratedCode directory within your Build Environment. By using this template, it will be very easy to build the UI project for your target.
★The attribute CleanOutputDirectories should be set to true to ensure that unused source code within the output directory \Application\GeneratedCode will be deleted.
Now you can use the template project in the same manner as it was used for the provided examples to compile, link and download the binary.
Most of the project settings are taken directly out of the generated code, like the screen orientation. Only a few additional settings can be configured directly within the Makefile. All other settings can be made directly within the file ewconfig.h, which contains general configuration settings for the target system.
Console output
The SSH client is very helpful to receive error messages or to display simple debug or trace messages from your Embedded Wizard UI application.
During a successful application startup, the console displays the following information:
Initialize Display... [OK] Initialize Touch Driver... [OK] Initialize Memory Manager... [OK] Initialize Platform Package... [OK] Initialize Invocation Queue... [OK] Create Embedded Wizard Root Object... [OK] Create Embedded Wizard Viewport... [OK] Starting Embedded Wizard main loop - press <p> to shutdown application... --------------------------------------------- Embedded Wizard System Info --------------------------------------------- Target system SAMA5 Software DRM Color format RGBA8888 Build Environment version V15.00.00.00 Runtime Environment (RTE) version V15.00 Graphics Engine (GFX) version V15.00 MemoryPool address 0x009EC680 MemoryPool size 33554432 bytes Framebuffer address 0xB6C0B000 Doublebuffer address 0xB6A94000 Off-screen buffer used Display interface unknown Display size 800 x 480 Framebuffer size 800 x 480 Surface rotation 0 EwScreenSize 800 x 480 Graphics accelerator none Warp function support enabled Vector graphics support enabled Gradients support enabled Blur support enabled Mask support enabled Tint support enabled Bidirectional text support enabled Compression support enabled Index8 bitmap resource support enabled RGB565 bitmap resource support enabled Native bitmap resource support enabled Max surface cache size 4194304 bytes Glyph cache size 512 x 512 Max issue tasks 512 Operating system Embedded Linux Toolchain GCC C-Compiler version 9.3.0 Build date and time Nov 27 2025, 14:23:16 ---------------------------------------------
It can be used for all trace statements from your Embedded Wizard UI applications or for all debug messages from your C code.
Embedded Wizard GUI Demos
If you just want to run our GUI demos on your SAMA5 target without building the different examples, you can simply copy the binary file of the Embedded Wizard Master Demo.
The Embedded Wizard Master Demo combines a variety of examples within one huge demo application. It can be used for presentations and showcases. Each demo application can be activated from a common main menu. To return back from a demo application to the main menu, a small home button appears on top of every demo. Additionally, the Master Demo contains an auto-demo mode that presents one demo application after the other. The auto-demo starts automatically and stops as soon as the user touches the screen.
In order to copy the binary file to your target, please follow these steps:
★Change into the subfolder /MasterDemo of the shared directory of the Embedded Wizard Build Environment for SAMA5
cd /mnt/hgfs/SAMA5/MasterDemo
★Copy the binary to the target:
scp EmbeddedWizard-Linux-DRM root@192.168.0.xxx:/home/root/EmbeddedWizard
★Finally, you can start the binary on the target (via serial terminal) using the correct touch configuration:
./EmbeddedWizard-Linux-DRM
'Master Demo' running on SAMA5 target.
Release notes
The following section contains the version history of the Build Environment (including Graphics Engine and Runtime Environment) for SAMA5 with Software Rendering and DRM (SAMA5-Software-DRM). These release notes describe only the platform specific aspects - for all general improvements and enhancements please see the Embedded Wizard release notes.
Version 15.00.00.00
★Using Graphics Engine (GFX) and Runtime Environment (RTE) V15.00.
★Using SD-Card image for SAMA5D2 Xplained Ultra with display (linux4sam-poky-sama5d2_xplained-graphics-2021.04.img.bz2).
★Using Yocto Project SDK (Yocto Project 3.1.15 "Dunfell") Cortex-A5 Hard float NEON Lightweight toolchain.