Hardware

Hardware definitions

Azure Sphere hardware is available from multiple vendors, and each vendor may expose features of the underlying chip in different ways. This folder contains definitions specific to individual hardware implementations.

This README file describes how to set the target hardware for a sample and how to extend the sample hardware definitions to support additional hardware features.

For additional information, see Manage hardware dependencies in the online documentation.

Hardware

The samples support the following Azure Sphere hardware:

Chips

• MediaTek MT3620

Modules

• AI-Link WF-M620-RSC1
• Avnet AES-MS-MT3620
• USI USI-MT3620-BT-COMBO

Development Kits

• MT3620 RDB
• Seeed MT3620 mini-dev board, which uses the AI-Link WF-M620-RSC1 module
• Avnet MT3620 SK, which uses the Avnet AES-MS-MT3620 module
• USI MT3620 BT EVB, which uses the USI USI-MT3620-BT-COMBO module

Each folder contains a JSON file and a header file that maps the board- or module-specific features to the underlying Azure Sphere chip.

The identifiers that the samples use for Azure Sphere features are abstracted into a file named sample_hardware.json, which maps them to peripherals in the board- and module-specific files.

Set the target hardware for a sample application

To change the target hardware for a sample application, use the corresponding hardware definition from the samples repository.

1. Clone the Azure Sphere samples repository if you have not done so already.

   Important: Clone the entire samples repository, instead of downloading an individual sample. The target hardware definition files for all the samples are stored in the Hardware folder at the top level of the repository.

2. Set the Target Hardware Definition Directory and the Target Hardware Definition for your hardware.

   The Target Hardware Definition Directory identifies the folder that contains the hardware definition files for the target hardware. This path is relative to the workspace. The Target Hardware Definition identifies the JSON file in the Target Hardware Definition Directory that defines the mappings from the sample application code to the target hardware.

   • If you're using Visual Studio, edit the AzureSphereTargetHardwareDefinitionDirectory and AzureSphereTargetHardwareDefinition fields in the CMakeSettings.json file. For example:

      ```json
      "AzureSphereTargetHardwareDefinitionDirectory": "<path to cloned samples\Hardware\mt3620_rdb",
      "AzureSphereTargetHardwareDefinition": "mt3620_rdb.json"
      ```
     

   • If you're using VS Code, edit the AZURE_SPHERE_TARGET_HARDWARE_DEFINITION_DIRECTORY and AZURE_SPHERE_TARGET_HARDWARE_DEFINITION values in the .vscode/settings.json file:

       ```json
       "AZURE_SPHERE_TARGET_HARDWARE_DEFINITION_DIRECTORY": "<path to cloned samples\Hardware\mt3620_rdb",
      "AZURE_SPHERE_TARGET_HARDWARE_DEFINITION": "mt3620_rdb.json",
      ```
     

   • If you're building on the command line for either Windows or Linux, include the parameters shown in the following example. The path to the target directory can be absolute or relative; if relative, it is relative to the location of the CMakeLists.txt file.

      ```console 
      -DAZURE_SPHERE_TARGET_HARDWARE_DEFINITION_DIRECTORY="<path to cloned samples>\azure-sphere-samples\Hardware\<folder for your hardware>"
      -DAZURE_SPHERE_TARGET_HARDWARE_DEFINITION="sample_hardware.json"
      ```
     

The sample_hardware.h file contains the SAMPLE_* definitions for the peripherals that the samples use. Both Visual Studio and VS Code support Intellisense in this context, so you can hover the cursor over an instance of a SAMPLE_peripheral identifier in the code to see additional hardware details.

The contents of the sample_hardware.json file are used during the build procedure to update the app_manifest.json file and in compiling and packaging the sample.