ambiq micro Apollo4 Blue EVB User manual

QUICK START GUIDE
Apollo4 EVB Display Kit
(Shield Board Revision 1)
Ultra-low Power Apollo SoC Family
Doc. ID: QS-A4DK-1p1
Doc. Revision: 1.1, March 2023

Apollo4 Display Kit Quick Start Guide
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Table of Content
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 6
2. Document Revision History ................................................................................... 7
3. Reference Documents and Software .................................................................... 8
4. Quick Start ............................................................................................................ 9
5. Overview of the Apollo4 Display Kit .................................................................... 10
6. Software Development Tools .............................................................................. 13
7. Graphics Development Tools .............................................................................. 14
8. Hardware Configuration Options ......................................................................... 15
9. Ordering Information ........................................................................................... 17

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List of Figures
Apollo4 Display Kit ...................................................................................................... 6
Apollo4 Display Kit Block Diagram............................................................................ 10
Apollo4 Display Shield Parts Locations .................................................................... 11
PSU page of the Display Shield schematic............................................................... 15
GPIO79 Pin Connection Options .............................................................................. 16

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List of Tables
Document Revision History......................................................................................... 7
EVB / Shield Ordering Information............................................................................ 17
SoC Ordering Information......................................................................................... 17

Apollo4 Display Kit Quick Start Guide
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1. Introduction
This document provides guidance in setting up the Display Kit hardware, part number AMAP4DISP,
revision 1, on the Apollo4 Evaluation Board (EVB), revision 3, to get started executing memory and display
examples and measuring power consumption in various configurations. The Apollo4 Display Kit is also
intended to provide an introduction to the GUI Builder.
Figure 1. Apollo4 Display Kit

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2. Document Revision History
Table 1: Document Revision History
Rev # Date Description
1.0 Aug 2021 Document initial public release.
1.1 Mar 2023 Compatibility note added in section “Overview of the Apollo4
Display Kit” on page 10.
Updated section “Software Development Tools” on page 13.

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3. Reference Documents and Software
The following items may be useful in understanding and using the EVB.
▪ EVB Schematic
▪ Apollo4 SoC Datasheet
▪ Apollo4 Family Programmer’s Guide
▪ Apollo4 Errata List
▪ AmbiqSuite SDK

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4. Quick Start
The Apollo4 Display Kit comes with the following items:
▪ Apollo4 Evaluation Board (EVB), revision 3
▪ Apollo4 Display Shield, revision 1
▪ USB Type C cable
▪ Four adhesive-backed rubber feet
▪ Extra jumpers
Caution: The EVB has components loaded on the back of the board. Care should be taken to not damage
these components. The included rubber feet should be applied to the bottom of the board to prevent direct
contact between the components and a desk surface.
The EVB in the Apollo4 Display Kit comes with jumpers pre-configured for default operation. Also, it has
been pre-programmed with the nemagfx_balls_bench example program. To begin EVB program
execution, first carefully attach the Apollo4 Display Shield to the Apollo4 EVB. Press the two boards
together as evenly as possible until the display shield is fully seated on the connectors of the EVB. Then
connect the USB-C cable from a USB port on a PC to the J-Link USB connector (J6) on the EVB, and turn
on the power switch (SW4). The blue LED under the power switch should illuminate. The display should
immediately display balls of various colors and sizes bouncing around the display, blending their colors
where they intersect.
The AmbiqSuite SDK provides many example programs that may be run on the Display Kit. To run these
examples, download the SDK via the link provided above and select any of the pre-built examples in the
SDK at /boards/apollo4b_bga_evb_disp_shld/examples.

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5. Overview of the Apollo4 Display Kit
The Apollo4 Display Kit consists of two PCB assemblies:
1. The Apollo4 EVB (AMAP4EVB), revision 3 or later
2. The Apollo4 Display Shield revision 1
Please note that the Apollo4 Display Kit is only compatible with the (non-blue) Apollo4 EVB, part number
AMAP4EVB.
The two board assemblies have combined features and interconnection according to the block diagram of
Figure 2.
Figure 2. Apollo4 Display Kit Block Diagram
Apollo4
EVB
APS256XXN
PSRAM
ATXP032
FLASH
THGBMNG5D1LBAIT
e-MMC
ADXL362
Accel
454*454
AMOLED
Display
EVB Headers
Octal-MSPI0
Octal-MSPI1
MIPI DSI
Quad-MSPI2
I2C
Touch
ALS
SDIF
SPI
J-Link
Debugger
USB
User LEDs
Power
Headers
Audio Jack
Debug
In/Out
Connectors
MCU USB
Connector
Display
Shield

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Figure 3 identifies the major components on the Display Shield.
Figure 3. Apollo4 Display Shield Parts Locations
The Display Kit has these additional features:
▪ Apollo4 Display Shield
- 1.4" 454*454 Pixel MIPI AMOLED Display
- Display Laminated Capacitive Touch Sensor - TMA525C
- 256 Mb HexSPI Double-Data-Rate (DDR) Enabled PSRAM - APS256XXN
- 32 Mb Octal-SPI DDR-enabled flash memory - ATXP032
- 4 GB x1/x4/x8 e-MMC module - THGBMNG5D1LBAIT
- 3-Axis MEMS accelerometer - ADXL362
▪ Apollo4 AMAP4EVB Evaluation Board
- USB Type C connector for power/download/debug
- USB Type C connector for power/data to Apollo4
- Segger J-Link debugger
- Debugger-in port (SWD or ETM)
- Three user-controlled LEDs
- Two push buttons for application use, plus a reset push button
- Power slide switch with LED power indicator
- 3.5 mm Audio Jack (SJ-435107) for evaluating low-power analog audio interface
For a full overview of the Apollo4 EVB's offerings, please refer to the AMAP4EVB Quick Start Guide, which
includes information about the debug interface.
Caution: The EVB has components loaded on the back of the board. Care should be taken to not damage
these components.

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5.1 Secure Boot on the Apollo4 SoC
Apollo4 SoC parts from the Ambiq Micro factory are preprogrammed with a Secure Bootloader and an
uninitialized Customer Info Space, referred to as INFO0. Initial provisioning of the part would include
programming a valid INFO0 and programming the main firmware image in the flash. The Apollo4 EVB is
shipped with the INFO0 configuration pre-programmed with optimal settings for the EVB layout:
1. Default boot to non-secure mode.
2. Enable Boot Override to Push Button on GPIO18 (OTP setting) - BTN0/SW1.
3. Enable wired updates over UART0.
A. UART0 is mapped to JLINK (OTP Setting).
B. Baud rate is 115200 bps, no-parity, 8-bit data length, no flow control.
C. Timeout is 3 seconds.
For your reference, the following settings are programmed into INFO0 on the Apollo4 SoC resident on the
EVB:
▪ Simo Buck is NOT enabled.
▪ Secure Bootloader (SBL) interface is configured to UART using GPIO47 and GPIO60, which allows
secure boot to be performed over the J-Link COM interface of the EVB.
▪ SBL override pin is configured to GPIO18 which is BTN0/SW1 on the EVB.
▪ All Flash and Debugger protection features are disabled.
For information on changing the INFO0 settings as well as using the Secure Bootloader, please refer to the
README.txt file, which can be found in the tools\apollo4b_scripts folder of the latest SDK release
supporting the Apollo4 family. This folder contains a number of python scripts to demonstrate generation of
INFO0 settings, customer main images, and the creation of images for the Wired Update protocol over
UART.
NOTE
The Apollo4 Plus Display Shield and the Apollo4 Display Shield are not
compatible with each other due to pin differences. The Apollo4 Plus Display
Shield must be used with the Apollo4 Plus EVB (AMAP4PEVB), and the Apollo4
Display Shield must be used with the Apollo4 EVB (AMAP4EVB).
Each display kit has its own board support package (BSP) provided in the
AmbiqSuite SDK. Support for the Apollo4 Plus Display Shield started in release
4.3.0.
Aside from pin differences, other differences between the two display shields
are the following Apollo4 Plus Display Shield features:
▪ The MSPI1 flash device was changed from Adesto ATXP032 used on the
Apollo4 Display Shield to ISSI IS25WX064.
▪ A mux was added to swap between the upper data pins of the MSPI0 hex
interface to the PSRAM (MSPI1 not used) and MSPI1 octal interface to the
IS25WX064 DDR Flash, as described at the beginning of this section.

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6. Software Development Tools
The standard Segger J-Link debug interface is used on the EVB for this Display Shield. Please install the
latest Segger J-Link software, and configure your preferred development IDE (Keil, IAR, or Eclipse) to use
the J-Link debug interface. Please consult the release notes of the latest/applicable SDK release for the
version of the tools used during testing of the SDK and which are recommended for development with the
SDK.
Links to the supported development tools are listed below.
▪SEGGER J-Link Software: https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink
▪ KEIL uVision 5 (ARM Compiler 5): https://www.keil.com/demo/eval/arm.htm
▪ Latest Keil Pack (CMSIS Ambiq Pack): http://www.keil.com/dd2/pack/#/third-party-download-dialog
▪ IAR IDE/Compiler: https://www.iar.com/iar-embedded-workbench/tools-for-arm/arm-cortex-m-edition/
▪ GCC (GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain): https://gcc.gnu.org
Regardless of IDE used, please install the Segger J-Link software. All of the above development
environments support J-Link, but you must have the latest J-Link software installed. Most alternate
development environments also support J-Link.
Please refer to the AmbiqSuite SDK Getting Started Guide for more details on setting up development
IDEs to use J-Link.

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7. Graphics Development Tools
The Apollo4 Display Kit supports the Nema®|GUI-Builder GUI Builder from Think Silicon (https://
www.think-silicon.com/?section=2183&language=en_US). The tool offers various color formatting, display
widgets, animations and other features written in the C programming language. The NEMA®|GUI-Builder
interfaces directly with the Apollo4's GPU and provides a software abstraction layer to organize and
employ drawing commands, while requiring minimum CPU/MCU usage and power consumption.
Required system resources are as follows:
▪OS: Windows® (10), Linux® (Ubuntu 32/64-bit)
▪Screen Resolution: 800×600 or higher
▪RAM: 256MB
▪Storage: 100MB available space
The Nema|Gui-Builder offers the following features.
Color Formats
▪ Support for multiple color formats for both source and destination textures
▪ 32-bit: RGBA8888 / BGRA8888 / ABGR8888
▪ 24-bit: RGB
▪ 16-bit: RGBA5551 / RGB565
▪ 8-bit: A8 / L8 / RGB332
▪ 4-bit: A4 / L4
▪ 2-bit: A2 / L2
▪ 1-bit: A1 / L1
▪ TSC (see GUI-Builder documentation for details)
Widgets
▪ Label button
▪ Icon button
▪ Radio button
▪ Horizontal slider
▪ Vertical slider
▪ Digital meter
▪ Icons
▪ Progress bar
▪ Gauge
▪ Circular progress
▪ Watch face
Transitions and Animations
▪ Alpha blending
▪ Programmable size, offset and format per layer
▪ Programmable stride/pitch enabling panning and clipping
Other Features
▪ Transparency
▪ Color keying
▪ Multi-function image processing

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8. Hardware Configuration Options
8.1 Power Supply Configuration
The Apollo4 Display Shield is connected to the AMAP4EVB hardware through each of the five GPIO head-
ers present on the EVB, as well as the high-speed connector, and as a result the display shield derives its
power supplies from the 5V USB supply of the EVB. The two derived power supplies are:
▪ VDD_1V9_PSU – Default 1.9V, configurable to 1.8V by shorting solder-bridge SB3
▪ VDD_3V3
The VDD_1V9_PSU rail is by default the source of power for the SHIELD_PSU rail, which is the supply for
each of the 1.9V on the display shield. However, by using solder bridges SB4 and SB5, the user can con-
figure the SHIELD_PSU rail to be supplied by an external supply, VDD_MCU of the Apollo4 EVB, or by the
default option of VDD_1V9_PSU.
▪ External Supply – Open SB4, Short SB5 on Display Shield, connect external supply to VDD_EXT on J3
of AMAP4EVB.
▪ VDD_MCU of AMAP4PEVB – Open SB4, Short SB5, connect jumper between VDD_EXT and
VDD_MCU on J3 of AMAP4EVB.
Figure 4. PSU page of the Display Shield schematic
By using an external supply, or the on-board VDD_1V9_PSU rail, the user is able to take accurate current
measurements of the Apollo4 under a variety of conditions offered by the Display Kit without extra load on
the Apollo4 SoC rails. Please consult the AMAP4EVB Quick Start Guide for details on taking current
measurements with the Apollo4 EVB.

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8.2 eMMC/SPI Solder-Bridge
Solder-bridges 1 and 2 are used to select between the SDIF_DAT4 (eMMC_D4) and DISP_SPI_SDI
(AP4_DISP_SDI) hardware connections for the GPIO79 pin. By default, the hardware is configured to
connect to the e-MMC device.
Figure 5. GPIO79 Pin Connection Options
8.3 Other Solder-bridge Options
For other solder-bridge options, please consult the Apollo4 EVB Quick Start Guide.

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9. Ordering Information
Table 2: EVB / Shield Ordering Information
Table 3: SoC Ordering Information
Device Name Orderable
Part Number Board Revision SoC SoC Package Availability
Apollo4 Display Kita
a. Includes Apollo4 EVB and Apollo4 Display Shield
AMAP4DISP EVB Rev. 3 /
Shield Rev. 1 Apollo4 146-pin BGA 4Q2021
Device Name Orderable
Part Numbera
a. The silicon revision is identified by the first letter in the bottom row of the package's top marking.
MRAM RAM Package Packing
Operating
Temperature
Range
Availability
Apollo4 SoC AMAP42KK-KBR-
B2 2 MB 1.8 MB 5.0 x 5.0, 146-pin BGA Tape and Reel -20 to 60°C Now

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QS-A4DK-1p1
Version 1.1
March 2023