Hello world!
NXP and DigiKey teamed up to announce a contest involving NXP’s Freedom (FRDM) Boards. The contest was officially announced at embedded world and engineers and enthusiasts are welcome to participate.
FRDM-MCXA153 - FRDM Development board for MCX A14x/A15x MCUs
FRDM-MCXN947 - FRDM Development Board for MCX N94/N54 MCUs
Each dev board includes the board, a USB-C cable, and a Getting Started Guide.
Info around the contest:
- Contest opens April 8, 2024
- Design ideas due May 20, 2024 through AllAboutCircuits
- Final Projects due July 31, 2024
- Winners selected August 15, 2024
Prizes include free boards, a $750 gift card, e-Bike and an Apple package (MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, and Airpods Pro).
Technical Info
Let’s talk tech about commonalities and differences between NXP’s MCX A and N series.
- The N series is great for multi-tasking while the A series is more all-purpose to address a wide range of applications.
- AllAboutCircuits has a great comparison chart, but in a nutshell it comes down to differences as outlined below:
| FRDM-MCXN947 | FRDM-MCXA153 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | About $25 USD | About $15 USD |
| Microcontroller | MCX-N947 Dual Arm™ Cortex™ -M33 cores @150MHz each with optimized performance efficiency, Up to 2MB dual-bank flash with optional full ECC RAM, External flash | MCXA15x Arm® Cortex®-M33 core Up to 128KB flash with up to 32 kB RAM with 8kB ECC, LPLUART, LPSPI, LPI2C, FS USB, DMA and LDO |
| Accelerators | Neural Processing Unit, PowerQuad, Smart DMA, etc. | |
| Memory Expansion | DNP Micro SD card socket | |
| Connectivity | Ethernet Phy and connector HS USB Type-C connectors SPI/I2C/UART connector (PMOD/mikroBUS, DNP) WIFI connector (PMOD/mikroBUS, DNP) CAN-FD transceiver |
FS USB ports with USB Type-C connector for host or device functionality HS USB Type-C connectors (On-board MCU-Link debugger) SPI/I2C/UART connector (Arduino, PMOD/mikroBUS, DNP) Wi-Fi connector (Arduino, PMOD/mikroBUS, DNP) |
| Debug | On-board MCU-Link debugger with CMSIS-DAP JTAG/SWD connector |
On-board MCU-Link debugger with CMSIS-DAP JTAG/SWD connector |
| Sensor | P3T1755 I3C/I2C Temp Sensor, Touch Pad | P3T1755DPJ I3C/I2C temp sensor |
| Expansion Options | Arduino® Header (with FRDM expansion rows) FRDM Header FlexIO/LCD Header SmartDMA/Camera Header Pmod™ *DNP mikroBUS™ |
Arduino® Header FRDM Header Pmod™ *DNP mikroBUS™ |
Side by side comparison:
Watch DigiKey unbox the FRDM dev board:
DigiKey Unboxing the FRDM boards Video
Helpful links:
NXP Application Code Hub
DigiKey’s NXP Page
MCX N Series:
Buy FRDM-MCXN947
MCX N Series Product Highlight
NXP’s page for MCX N FDRM Dev Boards
FRDM-MCXN946 Quick Start Guide
MCX A Series:
Buy FRDM-MCXA153
MCX A Series Product Highlight
NXP’s page for MCX A FDRM Dev Boards
FRDM-MCXA153 Quick Start Guide
FRDM-MCXA153 User Manual