Fast Prototyping Board for RA8E1 MCU Group

Overview

The FPB-RA8E1, a Fast Prototyping Board for the RA8E1 MCU Group, enables users to seamlessly evaluate the features of the RA8E1 MCU group and develop embedded systems applications using Flexible Software Package (FSP) and the e2 studio IDE. Users can use on-board features along with their choice of popular ecosystems add-ons to bring their big ideas to life.

The MCU in this series incorporates a high-performance Arm® Cortex®-M85 core with HeliumTMrunning up to 360 MHz with the following features:

  • 1 MB code flash memory

  • 544 KB SRAM (32 KB of TCM RAM, 512 KB of user SRAM)

  • Octal Serial Peripheral Interface (OSPI)

  • Ethernet MAC Controller (ETHERC), USBFS

  • Analog peripherals

  • Security and safety features

The following components are included in the FPB-RA8E1 box:

  • FPB-RA8E1 v1 board

  • FPB-RA8E1 v1 Quick Start Guide

The specifications of the CPU board are shown below:

MCU specifications

  • 360 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M85 core based RA8E1 MCU 144 pins, LQFP package

  • ROM/SRAM size: 1MB/512KB

  • MCU input clock: 20MHz (Generate with external crystal oscillator)

  • Power supply: DC 5V, select one way automatically from the below:

    • Power is supplied from the Debug USB connector (J10)

    • Power is supplied from an external 5V input (J60 or via TP7/TP9)

Connector

  • Two Digilent Pmod™ (SPI, I2C and UART [Pmod 1] and SPI/UART [Pmod 2]) connectors

  • Arduino™ (UNO R3) connectors

  • JTAG/SWD Connector

  • Debug USB-C connector

  • External +5 V power source connector (J60)

  • Real Time Clock backup supply battery connector

  • 20-pin Camera Interface connector

Onboard debugger

This product has the onboard debugger circuit, J-Link On-Board (hereinafter called “J-Link-OB”). When you write a program, connect the CPU board to PC with USB cable. J-Link-OB operates as debugger equivalent to J-Link. If connecting from flash programing tool (e.g. J-Flash Lite by SEGGER), set the type of debugger (tool) to “JLink”

Hardware

Detailed Hardware features for the RA8E1 MCU group can be found at:

Supported Features

The fpb_ra8e1 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.

fpb_ra8e1/r7fa8e1afdcfb target

Type

Location

Description

Compatible

CPU

on-chip

ARM Cortex-M85 CPU1

arm,cortex-m85

ADC

on-chip

Renesas RA 12-bit resolution ADC (ADC12)11

renesas,ra-adc12

CAN

on-chip

Renesas RA CANFD controller global1

renesas,ra-canfd-global

on-chip

Renesas RA CANFD controller2

renesas,ra-canfd

Clock control

on-chip

Renesas RA Clock Generation Circuit external clock configuration1

renesas,ra-cgc-external-clock

on-chip

Generic fixed-rate clock provider3

fixed-clock

on-chip

Renesas RA Sub-Clock1

renesas,ra-cgc-subclk

on-chip

Renesas RA Clock Generation Circuit PLL Clock11

renesas,ra-cgc-pll

on-chip

Renesas RA Clock Generation Circuit PLL Clock out line33

renesas,ra-cgc-pll-out

on-chip

Renesas RA Clock Control node pclk block1

renesas,ra-cgc-pclk-block

on-chip

Renesas RA Clock Control Peripheral Clock105

renesas,ra-cgc-pclk

Comparator

on-chip

Renesas RA ACMPHS (High-Speed Analog COMParator) Global1

renesas,ra-acmphs-global

on-chip

Renesas RA ACMPHS (High-Speed Analog COMParator) Controller2

renesas,ra-acmphs

on-chip

Renesas RA LVD (Low-voltage detection) Controller2

renesas,ra-lvd

Counter

on-chip

Renesas RA AGT as Counter2

renesas,ra-agt-counter

CRC

on-chip

Renesas RA CRC device1

renesas,ra-crc

DAC

on-chip

Renesas RA DAC Controller Global1

renesas,ra-dac-global

on-chip

Renesas RA DAC Controller11

renesas,ra-dac

DMA

on-chip

Renesas RA DMA Controller1

renesas,ra-dma

Ethernet

on-chip

Renesas RA Ethernet1

renesas,ra-ethernet

on-chip

Renesas RA External MDIO controller1

renesas,ra-mdio

Flash controller

on-chip

Renesas RA family flash high-performance controller1

renesas,ra-flash-hp-controller

GPIO & Headers

on-chip

Renesas RA GPIO I/O Port102

renesas,ra-gpio-ioport

on-board

GPIO pins exposed on a Digilent Pmod interface2

digilent,pmod

I2C

on-chip

Renesas RA I2C controller2

renesas,ra-iic

on-chip

Renesas RA SCI-B I2C controller6

renesas,ra-i2c-sci-b

I2S

on-chip

Renesas RA I2S controller2

renesas,ra-i2s-ssie

Input

on-board

Group of GPIO-bound input keys1

gpio-keys

Interrupt controller

on-chip

ARMv8.1-M NVIC (Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller)1

arm,v8.1m-nvic

LED

on-board

Group of GPIO-controlled LEDs1

gpio-leds

Miscellaneous

on-chip

Renesas RA Event Link Controller1

renesas,ra-elc

on-chip

Renesas RA SCI controller33

renesas,ra-sci

on-chip

Renesas RA ULPT2

renesas,ra-ulpt

on-chip

Renesas RA AGT2

renesas,ra-agt

on-chip

Renesas RA External Interrupt115

renesas,ra-external-interrupt

MMU / MPU

on-chip

ARMv8.1-M MPU (Memory Protection Unit)1

arm,armv8.1m-mpu

MTD

on-chip

Flash memory binding for Renesas RA Code flash region1

renesas,ra-nv-code-flash

on-chip

Flash memory binding for Renesas RA Data flash region1

renesas,ra-nv-data-flash

on-board

Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1

fixed-partitions

OCTOSPI

on-chip

Renesas RA OSPI1

renesas,ra-ospi-b

PHY

on-chip

This binding is to be used by all the usb transceivers which are built-in with USB IP1

usb-nop-xceiv

Pin control

on-chip

Renesas RA Pin Controller1

renesas,ra-pinctrl-pfs

Power management

on-chip

Renesas RA battery backup domain1

renesas,ra-battery-backup

PWM

on-chip

Renesas RA Pulse Width Modulation113

renesas,ra-pwm

RNG

on-chip

Renesas RA RSIP-E51A TRNG1

renesas,ra-rsip-e51a-trng

RTC

on-chip

Renesas RA RTC1

renesas,ra-rtc

Serial controller

on-chip

Renesas RA SCI_B UART controller15

renesas,ra8-uart-sci-b

SPI

on-chip

Renesas RA SCI B SPI6

renesas,ra-spi-sci-b

on-chip

Renesas RA8 SPI_B controller11

renesas,ra8-spi-b

SRAM

on-chip

Generic on-chip SRAM1

mmio-sram

Timer

on-chip

ARMv8.1-M System Tick1

arm,armv8.1m-systick

on-chip

Renesas RA ULPT TIMER2

renesas,ra-ulpt-timer

USB

on-chip

Renesas RA USB full-speed controller1

renesas,ra-usbfs

on-chip

Renesas RA USB device controller1

renesas,ra-udc

Video

on-chip

Renesas RA Capture Engine Unit Driver (ceu)1

renesas,ra-ceu

Watchdog

on-chip

Renesas RA Watchdog (wdt)1

renesas,ra-wdt

Programming and Debugging

The fpb_ra8e1 board supports the runners and associated west commands listed below.

flash debug attach rtt debugserver reset
jlink ✅ (default) ✅ (default)
pyocd

Applications for the fpb_ra8e1 board can be built, flashed, and debugged in the usual way. See Building an Application and Run an Application for more details on building and running.

Configuring the Debug Probe

The FPB-RA8E1 board includes an on-board SEGGER J-Link debugger. SEGGER J-Link drivers are available at https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink

To use the on-board J-Link debugger, ensure that:

  1. The J-Link OB is connected to the host PC via the USB port (J10).

  2. The J-Link OB jumper is in the default configuration as described in the FPB-RA8E1 - User’s Manual.

Configuring a Console

Connect a USB cable from your PC to the on-board virtual COM port (J10), and use a serial terminal of your choice (minicom, PuTTY, etc.) with the following settings:

  • Speed: 115200

  • Data: 8 bits

  • Parity: None

  • Stop bits: 1

Flashing

Here is an example for the Hello World application.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b fpb_ra8e1 samples/hello_world
west flash

Open a serial terminal, reset the board (push the reset switch S2), and you should see the following message in the terminal:

***** Booting Zephyr OS v4.3.0-xxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx *****
Hello World! fpb_ra8e1

Debugging

Here is an example for the Hello World application.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b fpb_ra8e1 samples/hello_world
west debug

Open a serial terminal, step through the application in your debugger, and you should see the following message in the terminal:

***** Booting Zephyr OS v4.3.0-xxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx *****
Hello World! fpb_ra8e1

References