Nordic nRF9160

The nRF9160 development kit (DK) is a single-board development kit for the evaluation and development on the Nordic nRF9160 SiP for LTE-M and NB-IoT.

The nRF9160 SoC features a full-featured Arm® Cortex®-M33F core with DSP instructions, FPU, and ARMv8-M Security Extension, running at up to 64 MHz.

Documentation

The following links provide useful information about the nRF9160

nRF9160 DK website:: https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-tools/Development-Kits/nRF9160-DK

Nordic Semiconductor TechDocs: https://docs.nordicsemi.com

Building TF-M on nRF9160

To build an S and NS application image for the nRF9160 run the following commands:

cmake -S <TF-M base folder> -B build_spe \
        -DTFM_PLATFORM=nordic_nrf/nrf9160dk_nrf9160 \
        -DTFM_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../toolchain_GNUARM.cmake \
cmake --build build_spe -- install

cmake -S <Application base folder> -B build_app \
        -DCONFIG_SPE_PATH<Absolute path to TF-M base folder>/build_spe/api_ns
        -DTFM_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchain_ns_GNUARM.cmake
cmake --build

Note

Currently, applications can only be built using GCC (GNU ARM Embedded toolchain).

Note

For BL2 (MCUBoot) logging output to be available, the project needs to be built with Debug configuration (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug).

Flashing and debugging with Nordic nRF Segger J-Link

nRF9160 DK is equipped with a Debug IC (Atmel ATSAM3U2C) which provides the following functionality:

Segger J-Link firmware and desktop tools
SWD debug for the nRF9160 IC
Mass Storage device for drag-and-drop image flashing
USB CDC ACM Serial Port bridged to the nRFx UART peripheral
Segger RTT Console
Segger Ozone Debugger

To install the J-Link Software and documentation pack, follow the steps below:

Download the appropriate package from the J-Link Software and documentation pack website
Depending on your platform, install the package or run the installer
When connecting a J-Link-enabled board such as an nRF9160 DK, a drive corresponding to a USB Mass Storage device as well as a serial port should come up

nRFx Command-Line Tools Installation

The nRF Command-line Tools allow you to control your nRF9160 device from the command line, including resetting it, erasing or programming the flash memory and more.

To install them, visit nRF Command-Line Tools and select your operating system.

After installing, make sure that nrfjprog is somewhere in your executable path to be able to invoke it from anywhere.

BL2, S, and NS application images can be flashed into nRF9160 separately or may be merged together into a single binary.

Flashing the nRF9160 DK

To program the flash with a compiled TF-M image (i.e. S, NS or both) after having followed the instructions to install the Segger J-Link Software and the nRFx Command-Line Tools, follow the steps below:

Generate Intel hex files from the output binary (bin) files as follows:

srec_cat build_app/tfm_s_ns_signed.bin -binary --offset 0x10000 \
      -o build_app/tfm_s_ns_signed.hex -intel

Connect the micro-USB cable to the nRF9160 DK and to your computer
Erase the flash memory in the nRF9160 IC:

nrfjprog --eraseall -f nrf91

(Optionally) Erase the flash memory and reset flash protection and disable
the read back protection mechanism if enabled.

nrfjprog --recover -f nrf91

Flash the BL2 and TF-M image binaries from the sample folder of your choice:

nrfjprog --program build_spe/bin/bl2.hex -f nrf91 --sectorerase
nrfjprog --program build_app/tfm_s_ns_signed.hex -f nrf91 --sectorerase

Reset and start TF-M:

nrfjprog --reset -f nrf91

Secure UART Console on nRF9160 DK

SECURE_UART1 is enabled by default when building TF-M on nRF9160 DK, so the secure firmware console output is available via USART1.

Non-Secure console output is available via USART0.

Note

By default USART0 and USART1 outputs are routed to separate serial ports.