Hands-on Workshop: Develop Linux and RT Apps on a Microchip Curiosity Board

Date: Wednesday, March 12th, 2025
Time: 13:30 - 16:30 CET (Germany Time)
Where: Nuremberg Messe, NCC Mitte, München 2
Duration: Three hours

Cost to attend: $30 US

This three-hour, hands-on workshop will introduce PIC64, Microchip’s 64-bit MPU, and the Curiosity board that can be used to evaluate the PIC64. Attendees will learn how to get started running Linux and the basic commands available on the kit. Next is a look at the Zephyr RTOS and the benefits of using an RTOS for real time tasks instead of a conventional OS. The instructors will show how a traditional OS and an RTOS can be blended in an AMP (asymmetric multiprocessing) system to get the best of both worlds.

Learning objectives:

• Introduce PIC64 and the Curiosity kit
  
• Learn the basic tool flow and how to build, deploy and run a Linux image for the PIC64
  
• Learn how to build, deploy and run the Zephyr RTOS on the PIC64
  
• Introduce the concept of AMP and the benefits of using asymmetric multiprocessing
  
• Learn how to build, deploy and run a combined Linux + Zephyr image on PIC64
  
• Learn how to customize the boot process and flow to optimize the boot of system components

You’ll receive the Curiosity PIC64GX1000 Kit ES featuring a quad-core, 64-bit CPU cluster based on the RISC-V application-class processor that supports Linux® and real-time applications. The kit is ready for rapid testing of applications in an easy-to-use hardware development platform and offers a MikroBUS™ expansion header for Click boards™, a ™ MIPI® CSI 2 Rx connector, and an HDMI output. 1 Gbyte of DDR4 memory and a microSD® card slot are available for booting Linux. Communication interfaces include one Gigabit Ethernet connector and three UART connections.

Who should attend?
This workshop will combine lecture with one-on-one instruction. It is aimed at engineers with a familiarity of buildroot/building the Linux kernel, u-boot and RTOS. Researching AMP (Asymmetric Multi Processing) is encouraged.

HW/SW Requirements
You will need to bring a laptop with a USB-C port and an SD card reader. You will be required to download software onto your laptop prior to the workshop.

Agenda

• Introduction to PIC64 and the Curiosity kit (15 minutes)
  
• Tool set up and introduction to the tool flow (15 minutes)
  
• Getting started with a basic linux image on PIC64 (30 minutes)
  
• Break / Q&A (15 minute)
  
• Getting started running a basic Zephyr demo on PIC64 (30 minutes)
  
• Building a merged Linux and Zephyr application on PIC64 (30 minutes)
  
• Optimizing the boot time for PIC64 applications (30 minutes)
  
• Wrap up + Q&A (15 minutes)