Arduino/Genuino Zero
Overview
The Arduino Zero is a maker-friendly development board with Atmel’s Embedded Debugger (EDBG), which provides a full debug interface without the need for additional hardware.
Hardware
ATSAMD21G18A ARM Cortex-M0+ processor at 48 MHz
32.768 kHz crystal oscillator
256 KiB flash memory and 32 KiB of RAM
3 user LEDs
One reset button
On-board USB based EDBG unit with serial console
Native USB port
Supported Features
The arduino_zero board supports the hardware features listed below.
- on-chip / on-board
- Feature integrated in the SoC / present on the board.
- 2 / 2
-
Number of instances that are enabled / disabled.
Click on the label to see the first instance of this feature in the board/SoC DTS files. -
vnd,foo -
Compatible string for the Devicetree binding matching the feature.
Click on the link to view the binding documentation.
Type |
Location |
Description |
Compatible |
|---|---|---|---|
CPU |
on-chip |
ARM Cortex-M0+ CPU1 |
|
ADC |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 family ADC1 |
|
ARM architecture |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 multi-protocol (UART, SPI, I2C) SERCOM unit3 |
|
on-chip |
For locating the Device ID (serial number) on Atmel SAM0 devices1 |
||
Clock control |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 Main Clock Controller (MCLK)1 |
|
on-chip |
Atmel SAMD0 Generic Clock Controller (GCLK)1 |
||
Counter |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 basic timer counter (TC) operating in 32-bit wide mode2 |
|
DAC |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 family DAC1 |
|
DMA |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 DMA controller1 |
|
Flash controller |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 NVMC (Non-Volatile Memory Controller)1 |
|
GPIO & Headers |
on-chip |
SAM0 GPIO PORT node2 |
|
Interrupt controller |
on-chip |
ARMv6-M NVIC (Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller) controller1 |
|
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 series External Interrupt Controller1 |
||
LED |
on-board |
Group of GPIO-controlled LEDs1 |
|
on-board |
Group of PWM-controlled LEDs1 |
||
MTD |
on-chip |
Flash node1 |
|
on-board |
Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1 |
||
Pin control |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 PINMUX2 |
|
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 Pinctrl Container1 |
||
PWM |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 TCC in PWM mode1 |
|
RTC |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 RTC1 |
|
Serial controller |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 SERCOM UART driver2 |
|
SPI |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 SERCOM SPI controller1 |
|
SRAM |
on-chip |
Generic on-chip SRAM description1 |
|
Timer |
on-chip |
ARMv6-M System Tick1 |
|
USB |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 USB in device mode1 |
|
Watchdog |
on-chip |
Atmel SAM0 watchdog1 |
Connections and IOs
The Arduino store [1] has detailed information about board connections. Download the Arduino Zero Schematic [2] for more detail.
System Clock
The SAMD21 MCU is configured to use the 32.768 kHz external oscillator with the on-chip PLL generating the 48 MHz system clock. The internal APB and GCLK unit are set up in the same way as the upstream Arduino libraries.
Serial Port
The SAMD21 MCU has 6 SERCOM based USARTs. One of the USARTs (SERCOM5) is connected to the onboard Atmel Embedded Debugger (EDBG). SERCOM0 is available on the D0/D1 pins.
PWM
The SAMD21 MCU has 3 TCC based PWM units with up to 4 outputs each and a period
of 24 bits or 16 bits. If CONFIG_PWM_SAM0_TCC is enabled then LED0 is
driven by TCC2 instead of by GPIO.
SPI Port
The SAMD21 MCU has 6 SERCOM based SPIs. On the Arduino Zero, SERCOM4 is available on the 6 pin connector at the edge of the board.
USB Device Port
The SAMD21 MCU has a USB device port that can be used to communicate with a host PC. See the USB device support sample applications for more, such as the USB CDC-ACM sample which sets up a virtual serial port that echos characters back to the host PC.
DAC
The SAMD21 MCU has a single channel DAC with 10 bits of resolution. On the Arduino Zero, the DAC is available on pin A0.
Programming and Debugging
The Arduino Zero comes with a Atmel Embedded Debugger (EDBG). This provides a debug interface to the SAMD21 chip and is supported by OpenOCD.
Flashing
Build the Zephyr kernel and the Hello World sample application:
west build -b arduino_zero samples/hello_world
Connect the Arduino Zero to your host computer using the USB debug port.
Run your favorite terminal program to listen for output. Under Linux the terminal should be
/dev/ttyACM0. For example:$ minicom -D /dev/ttyACM0 -o
The -o option tells minicom not to send the modem initialization string. Connection should be configured as follows:
Speed: 115200
Data: 8 bits
Parity: None
Stop bits: 1
To flash an image:
west build -b arduino_zero samples/hello_world west flash
You should see “Hello World! arduino_zero” in your terminal.