New TI Tiva C Series Launchpad EK-TM4C1294XL

[BravoV]

Details here -> http://www.ti.com/ww/en/launchpad/launchpads-tivac-ek-tm4c1294xl.html#tabs

Brief Arm M4F mcu features :

- 120MHz core, 1MB Flash, 256KB SRAM, 6KB EEPROM
- Cyclical Redundancy Check (CRC) hardware with 16-/32-bit Hash function that support four CRC forms
- Support for four tamper inputs and configurable tamper event response
- 10/100 Ethernet MAC
- Ethernet PHY with IEEE 1588 PTP hardware support
- USB 2.0 OTG/Host/Device with ULPI interface option and Link Power Management (LPM) support
- Four Quad Synchronous Serial Interface (QSSI) modules with Bi-, Quad- and advanced SSI support
- Ten I2C modules with four transmission speeds including high-speed mode

Yay .. finally, Ethernet is here.

Price: $19.99 ... not bad imo, but back ordered ... damn.

[true]

Been waiting for this - I have a project that can use nearly every feature of this to reduce cost and chip count, although I don't need the performance

Waiting to see what distributor pricing will be for the chip...but I hope I can get a hold of this board sooner rather than later.

[remixed123]

Waiting to see what distributor pricing will be for the chip...but I hope I can get a hold of this board sooner rather than later.

Yes, this is a cool dev board for those of us working with the Tiva C ARM Cortex M4 MCUs....or anyone wanting a pretty powerful and affordable ARM Cortex dev board to play with.

According to this page - http://www.ti.com/ww/en/mcu/Tiva_Connected_Launchpad/?DCMP=tivac-launchpad&HQS=mcu-tivc-ek-tm4c129xl-em-lp-en%20&sp_rid_pod4=ODE4MTg4NDIxMzkS1&sp_mid_pod4=45010478&spMailingID=45010478&spUserID=ODE4MTg4NDIxMzkS1&spJobID=380439534&spReportId=MzgwNDM5NTM0S0

Shipment of the dev board begins March 6th. So just order it from the TI website, they ship for free anywhere in the world.

Regarding the pricing on the chip, the similiarly specced TM4C129DNCPDT is being priced at $8.02USD for quanities of 1000 - http://www.ti.com/product/tm4c129dncpdt#samplebuy

Though you will likely need to add another dollar or so onto this price to get a typical Digikey price.

[BravoV]

I think its very clear they're sending this message that contains the current trending jargon buzz words ... 

Why this LaunchPad?

Easily connect your ideas and products to the cloud with the Connected LaunchPad. Evaluate and develop new designs for the Internet of Things and learn how easy it is to get connected to your end customers and provide new value-added services and benefits

Damn, as a hobbyist, I haven't finish exploring the 1st gen Stellaris or Launchpad MCU features yet, and to be honest coming from Atmel AVR as my previous mcu of choice, the 1st gen TI ARM M4F core at 80Mhz is already too powerful for me, now this is at 120Mhz and with all new features, I feel a bit overwhelmed. 

Yes, I've sold my soul to TI when moving from 8 bit mcu to ARM architecture, just glad TI keeps improving it. 

Definitely will get one.

[nowlan]

Hello,
Can someone explain to me the following?:
Four Quad Synchronous Serial Interface

[BravoV]

Hello,
Can someone explain to me the following?:
Four Quad Synchronous Serial Interface

Not claiming an expert, my shot, its part of the TI M4F serial comm peripherals, laymen, its a dedicated hardware based SPI module, but with plenty of extra features.
See the "Comm Peripherals" block below.




Want more details ?  Quote from the datasheet :

Quad Synchronous Serial Interface (QSSI)

The TM4C1294NCPDT microcontroller includes four Quad-Synchronous Serial Interface (QSSI) modules.

All four of the modules support Advanced and Bi-SSI interfaces as well as a Quad-SSI enhancement to provide faster throughput of data. The QSSI module acts as a master or slave interface for synchronous serial communication with peripheral devices that have either Freescale SPI, or Texas Instruments synchronous serial interfaces.

The QSSI performs serial-to-parallel conversion on data received from a peripheral device. The transmit and receive paths are buffered with internal, independent FIFO memories allowing up to eight 16-bit values in Legacy mode and 8-bit values in Advanced, Bi-, and Quad-modes.

The CPU can accesses data in these FIFOs as well as the QSSI's control and status information. A µDMA interface is also provided to allow the transmit and receive FIFOsto be programmed as source/destinationaddresses in the µDMA module.

The TM4C1294NCPDT QSSI modules have the following features:

* Four QSSI channels with Advanced, Bi- and Quad-SSI functionality
* Programmable interface operation for Freescale SPI or Texas Instruments synchronous serial interfaces in Legacy Mode. Support for Freescale interface in Bi- and Quad-SSI mode.
* Master or slave operation
* Programmable clock bit rate and prescaler
* Separate transmit and receive FIFOs, each 16 bits wide and 8 locations deep
* Programmable data frame size from 4 to 16 bits
* Internal loopback test mode for diagnostic/debug testing
* Standard FIFO-based interrupts and End-of-Transmission interrupt
* Efficient transfers using Micro Direct Memory Access Controller (µDMA)
  – Separate channels for transmit and receive
  – Receive single request asserted when data is in the FIFO; burst request asserted when FIFO contains 4 entries
  – Transmit single request asserted when there is space in the FIFO; burst request asserted when four or more entries are available to be written in the FIFO
  – Maskable µDMA interrupts for receive and transmit complete
* Global Alternate Clock (ALTCLK) resource or System Clock (SYSCLK) can be used to generate baud clock.

A bit more about the modes ...

In Quad-SSI mode, allow four bits of data to be received or transmitted at once. Note that in bi- and quad-SSI data transfers are only half-duplex.

[dannyf]

The ethernet stuff is mostly useless.

Hopefully they have fixed the issues with the adc.

[BravoV]

The ethernet stuff is mostly useless.

Hopefully they have fixed the issues with the adc.

You wouldn't care to elaborate on what is wrong with the Ethernet stuff, would you?  What are the ADC issues? Your bald opinion, however valid, is not in and of itself all that informative.

Since this is quite new, I guess he already worked intensively with the pre-release version in order to come up with that kind of bold conclusion ? Especially the ethernet which is totally new in TI M4F families.

[BravoV]

Wow and people bitch about Microchips erratas. The TM4C1294NCPDT has a 71 page errata and is on Si rev2.

LOL ... welcome to TI  , all I can say is just look at the bright side, its better to have tons of "documented" erratas, rather than we have to bump on it the hard way ourself. 

[nowlan]

I missed the part about GPIO.
I see lots of pwm & serial ports when looking at block diagram.

[dannyf]

The TM4C1294NCPDT has a 71 page errata and is on Si rev2.

Take a look at some of the errata for the luminary chips: they will practically give you a heart attack,

[Dago]

Thanks for the tip, I ordered one. I haven't done anything with the MSP430 launchpads or the Stellaris launchpad though but you can't argue with the price. Maybe I'll turn it into a temperature sensor server or something.

The board looks like it's autorouted which is a bit meh!

[BravoV]

I missed the part about GPIO.
I see lots of pwm & serial ports when looking at block diagram.

I guess GPIO is so boring that they don't put it in the main block diagram anymore. 

Just download the mcu datasheet, it has tons of details and also their features which beats common 8 bit mcu gpio out of the water, simply not in the same league. 

The board looks like it's autorouted which is a bit meh!

Yeah, and watch those weird 3 mounting holes, don't have any idea what the pcb designer was thinking. 

[true]

The page is gone and the part is no longer in the estore.

[BravoV]

Yeah, really weird, its totally gone now from TI web site, search result gives nothing. 

Also I did put launchpad in my shopping basket yesterday that I'm going to purchase later, which I knew it was there before, now its gone too from the TI online shopping basket, and I got this notice

The item EK-TM4C1294XL - Tiva C Series TM4C1294 Connected LaunchPad is no longer available. It has been removed from the basket.

[hans]

Luckily the datasheet is still available:
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tm4c1294ncpdt.pdf

Some of the features really confuses me. Why would anyone need 10 I2C busses..? Is this a case of where people think you can only connect 1 or 2 devices onto 1 I2C bus? Or an exotic application where someone uses the same I2C device 10 times, without address select?

Four Quad SPI modules (for like FLASH chips).. nice, but Microchip's PIC32MZ allows the flash also to be memory mapped. I don't see me using them anything soon though, unless I need some kind of file system running of the FLASH chip (things like webservers or whatever).
They also seem to have forgotten I2S support. You'd say it would have it because TI themselves make bloody audio ADC's and DAC's.

The ethernet functionality has an integrated Phy, which is nice. Except for the fact they dropped the previous Luminary Micro series which had this feature shortly after takeover (in anticipation of this part, how long has it been?), and everyone was furious about that decision.

I guess I will get some boards when they're out, however I still got my other Stellaris boards lying around.. hmm

[dannyf]

You'd say it would have it because TI themselves make bloody audio ADC's and DAC's.

Freescale is pretty good in that department, as well as Analog.

and everyone was furious about that decision.

That was a boneheaded decision on the part of TI. Now they are redeeming themselves.

[AndrejaKo]

Yeah, really weird, its totally gone now from TI web site, search result gives nothing. 

Also I did put launchpad in my shopping basket yesterday that I'm going to purchase later, which I knew it was there before, now its gone too from the TI online shopping basket, and I got this notice

The item EK-TM4C1294XL - Tiva C Series TM4C1294 Connected LaunchPad is no longer available. It has been removed from the basket.

Interesting! I managed to order it and it's still listed as an item in order history. I hope they don't retroactively remove it. It could be extremely useful to me for a project I'll be doing soon.

[BravoV]

Interesting! I managed to order it and it's still listed as an item in order history. I hope they don't retroactively remove it. It could be extremely useful to me for a project I'll be doing soon.

Well, I haven't order mine though, just put it in the shopping basket with other TI stuffs that I'm going to purchase.

Please keep us in the loop how this ended up.

[dannyf]

So, did you launch the chip before they canceled it or did they cancel the chip before they launched it?

[AndrejaKo]

They removed it from the order and shipped the rest of the order today.
^That's what I get for not reading carefully. They shipped the rest of the order today, but the new Launchpad is still in the order. Order status says: "Status: Partial Shipment, Partial Payment Captured"

Also they switched from FedEx to DHL Global Forwarding and this time, there's no tracking number.

[neslekkim]

Also they switched from FedEx to DHL Global Forwarding and this time, there's no tracking number.

Saw that to, when FedEx finally started to remember where to deliver my packages..

[tszaboo]

Some of the features really confuses me. Why would anyone need 10 I2C busses..? Is this a case of where people think you can only connect 1 or 2 devices onto 1 I2C bus? Or an exotic application where someone uses the same I2C device 10 times, without address select?

If you make a backplane with some 8 plug-in card, each of them is the same, you spare a lot of headache if you don't need to use addressing. This looks very promising for some projects.
I hope that all the communication ports are working the same way, and there are no suprises in the errata (like I2C3 has an easter egg, if you configure the same way as the others)

[AndrejaKo]

Oh, don't worry about the errata. There's just 71 pages of it! It almost seems like nothing works correctly on that chip. I just hope that they give us revision 2 (or hopefully newer) on the new secret Launchpad. I mean, they even managed to mess up the ROM implementation of TivaWare in version 1. Here's a download link for those who can't be bothered to look it up: http://www.ti.com/lit/er/spmz850a/spmz850a.pdf

[dannyf]

It is a little bit disappointing to see that TI continues to stumble on this. The issues with the luminary chips are widely known and should have been addressed long time ago. Yet, they are still here.

[AndrejaKo]

I just got mail from TI. The orders for the new Launchpad should be ope now. Unfortunately, the TI's store site times out for me, so I can't confirm if it's really available or not.

[true]

Yeah, was timing out for me too, but now it works and I ordered one. Should've ordered more than one...I guess I can order more later if I need them, shipping is included in the cost after all.

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Tiva_C_Series_TM4C1294_LaunchPad

The GPIO breakout is fairly novel I think - http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/CLP_Breadboard

They had a giveaway promotion if you signed up for the mailing list - of course I didn't win

[AndrejaKo]

What's the ship date for those who ordered after official launch?

I managed to place the order when the Launchpad first appeared in the store, before it was pulled, and the ship date if 14th March.

I do agree that the breadboard mounting method is very interesting! It will definitely make my life easier.

[neslekkim]

Did they remove the purchase link on this?, I registered to get informed when it was supposed to be available, but newer got that email, and i cannot find any option to buy..

[AndrejaKo]

They removed the article from the store, but  in the e-mail they sent, there's a link that leads to this page: https://estore.ti.com/tiva-connected-launchpad.aspx?DCMP=mcu-tivc-ek-tm4c129xl-en&HQS=mcu-tivc-ek-tm4c129xl-em-es-en  From what I can see, the limit is two pieces and it's available for pre-order. It should start shipping on the sixth of Match.


Also I noticed that it is supposed to use TivaWare 2.1, while the current version is 2.0.1, so it looks like new TivaWare is coming.

[neslekkim]

cool, it worked

[ataradov]

Important: The full USB chapter is under NDA. This chapter describes the module features at a high level. For a copy of the full NDA data sheet, follow the instructions in the Non-Disclosure Agreement for the Tiva C Series TM4C1294NCPDT Microcontroller Data Sheet (literature number SPMS410).

Uhm... thanks, but no thanks.

[ElektroQuark]

Important: The full USB chapter is under NDA. This chapter describes the module features at a high level. For a copy of the full NDA data sheet, follow the instructions in the Non-Disclosure Agreement for the Tiva C Series TM4C1294NCPDT Microcontroller Data Sheet (literature number SPMS410).

 
In this type of board? 

[BravoV]

Yeah, the documentation on USB part is sucks big time  , but I clicked the NDA page anyway and downloaded the datasheet that with the complete USB details.

Just fyi, quoted from the 1st opening paragraph from the USB section :

Note:
Portions of this chapter are excerpted from Mentor Graphics documentation.
Mentor Graphics Proprietary. Used with permission.

Mentor Graphics ? Huh ? What the hell this company has to do with this USB part of this TI ARM mcu ? 


Psst... should anyone need it, you know who to PM, right ?   



BTW, I'm still stuck at the check out page with that damn rotating "processing" logo, any one could get pass that screen and finalized the shopping ? 

[neslekkim]

BTW, I'm still stuck at the check out page with that damn rotating "processing" logo, any one could get pass that screen and finalized the shopping ? 

I bought the card yesterday, no problems at all.
But if I get it, that's another story..

[andersm]

Mentor Graphics ? Huh ? What the hell this company has to do with this USB part of this TI ARM mcu ?

Presumably they're using Mentor's IP block, but you'd think TI would have the expertise to design it in-house.

[ataradov]

Mentor Graphics ? Huh ? What the hell this company has to do with this USB part of this TI ARM mcu ? 

Mentor makes IP cores.

If NDA can be signed online by anyone, then it is not so bad.

[BravoV]

If NDA can be signed online by anyone, then it is not so bad.

Yes, its not the paper based NDA that have to be signed by hand, only few clicks at TI web to sign agree on the terms, once passed, you will be provided with the link to the complete PDF datasheet.

Of course, assuming you will skip reading all those long & boring terms as usual  , and will just click the agree button straight away. Just a tiny note on few hard to find and deep buried terms in there, that you agree to surrender your soul and every youngest child for 10 generations if you violated the terms.   

[BravoV]

Just fyi, order shipped at 7th March. 

[AndrejaKo]

So did anyone get the launchpad? I yes, what are your first impressions?

[true]

Yeah, I got mine.

Looks cool but haven't done anything with it, been too sick and busy working.

The GPIO on the bottom is labeled on the reverse side of the board.

[BravoV]

Just arrived home and its here, few notes, the main mcu still using the "X"-perimental chip as usual  , and the ICDI part is powered by lower class TM4C123GH6PMI brethren, and the ICDI section also equipped with external debug headers (pointed by yellow arrow at below photo).

Brief impressions, plenty of I/Os and with headers for two booster pack modules, put an example by attaching the green board, TI CC3000 wi-fi booster pack that looks tiny compared to the main launchpad board.

[AndrejaKo]

Thanks a lot for photos! The board really is huge and there are certainly plenty of headers. I don't like the actual pinout of the breadboard connector. I would have liked it better if they had liked up pins of more ports, so I wouldn't have to go hunting for them when I need to connect to a parallel 8-bit line.


In other news, it has been confirmed on TI's forums by their employees that the new launchpad will use the revision 2 of the chip, so there should be no need to worry that you'll get version one.

[BravoV]

In other news, it has been confirmed on TI's forums by their employees that the new launchpad will use the revision 2 of the chip, so there should be no need to worry that you'll get version one.

Thanks, mind give me the link of that particular discussion at TI's forum ?

[westfw]

I got mine too.   Sigh; SO much work to do to get it to do the sorts of things I'd like it to do, whether I "find" an appropriate OS/etc, or write it.

Now where did I see a picture of someone cleverly connecting some appropriate (and somewhat unusual) header pins on the edge, allowing the board to be mounted vertically in the center of a protoboard?  (no such header pins included. :-( )

[BravoV]

This ? -> http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/CLP_Breadboard



Yeah, too bad those headers are not included in the package. 

[AndrejaKo]

From what I can see, you can use double angled headers and cut it in half, so you get one shorter half and one longer half. They seem to be a bit more common than the pin headers TI recommends.

[BravoV]

Unless you have a special precision cutting tool, I think its not easy to cut that header in half at length wise.

[sportq]

Just arrived home and its here, few notes, the main mcu still using the "X"-perimental chip as usual 

Just got mine and it's also got the pre-production mcu   

Peter

[BravoV]

I think we'll have to live with it, since its not officially released yet.

All of us will turned into TI's slaves to debug this chip for free, smart aren't they ? 

[bingo600]

Got my two EK-TM4C1294XL , with XM4C129 chips

Decided to skip the "Unknown connect" to the demosite , and build + load "blinky"  - D1 is blinking green

I'm using GCC , and the nice template from here , and the lm4flash (as root)
https://github.com/uctools/tiva-template

Connect the debugport with the USB cable and fire away:

build $ sudo /home/bingo/bin/lm4flash main.bin
Found ICDI device with serial: 0F0006C6
ICDI version: 12245


I wonder what the makefile entry - really should be  (seems like the new tivaware rel notes says they abandoned the BLIZZARD stuff)


CFLAGS += -DTARGET_IS_BLIZZARD_RA1



/Bingo

[mkissin]

I think they're TARGET_IS_SNOWFLAKE_RA0

[bingo600]

I think they're TARGET_IS_SNOWFLAKE_RA0

I was told this on the StellarisTI forum

It's TARGET_IS_TM4C129_RA1 for the new TivaWare 2.1, or the later releases of TivaWare 2.0 it's TARGET_IS_SNOWFLAKE_RA0

So i guess you're right for tivaware 2.0

/Bingo

[AndrejaKo]

I just got my Launchpad and here are my first impressions:

The build quality isn't the best and isn't as good as it was on launchpads from say a year ago. It came covered in flux (but nothing a few minutes with alcohol couldn't fix) and has several bad-looking solder joints. The device/OTG USB connector has been soldered at an angle an doesn't inspire much confidence in me.

The Booster pack headers are a bit different than on original Tiva Launchpad. They are now much thicker and less flexible and give the feeling of standard pinheaders. This is good news for me, since I usually use the exposed pins to connect scope probes and pins on 123 Launchpad tend to bend.

For the bottom breadboard holes, I plan to try to use a saw to cut an angled pinheader into two pieces. I'll report the results as soon as I can.