Ambiq® is an Austin-based SoC vendor who at the forefront of enabling ambient intelligence on billions of devices with the unique SPOT platform and extreme-low power semiconductor solutions.

Whether it's the Real Time Clock (RTC) IC, or a System-on-a-Chip (SoC), Ambiq® is committed to enabling the lowest power consumption with the highest computing performance possible for our customers to make the most innovative battery-power endpoint devices for their end-users. Ambiq Products

Status

As of now, Ambiq provides zephyr support for a set of peripherals/drivers:

Driver	Apollo510	Stable codes at	Sample	Board
ADC		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\adc\adc_dt	All
AUDADC		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\audio\amic	All
BLE		ambiq-stable	samples\bluetooth	blue boards only
COUNTER		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\counter\alarm	All
CRYPTO	coming soon
DISPLAY		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\display	ap510_disp
FLASH		ambiq-stable	samples\subsys\mgmt\mcumgr\smp_svr	All
HWINFO		ambiq-stable	tests\drivers\hwinfo\api	All
I2C		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\eeprom	apollo510_eb only
I2S		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\i2s\dmic_i2s	All
INPUT		ambiq-stable	samples\subsys\input\draw_touch_events	ap510_disp
JDI		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\display	ap510_jdi_disp
MIPI_DBI		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\display	display_8080_card
MIPI_DSI		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\display	ap510_disp
MSPI		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\mspi\mspi_flash	All
PDM		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\audio\dmic	All
PM		ambiq-stable	tests\subsys\pm\power_wakeup_timer	All
PWM		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\led\pwm	evb boards only
RTC		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\rtc	All
SDHC		ambiq-stable	tests\subsys\sd\mmc	All
SPI		ambiq-stable	samples\boards\ambiq\spi_serial_flash	apollo510_eb only
TIMER		ambiq-stable	samples\philosophers	All
TRNG		ambiq-stable	tests\drivers\entropy\api	All
UART		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\uart\echo_bot	All
USB		ambiq-stable	samples\drivers\subsys\usb\mass	All
WDT		ambiq-stable	samples\subsys\task_wdt	All

And also there are supports for some third-party libs:

Lib	Apollo510	Stable codes at	Sample	Board
coremark		ambiq-stable	samples\benchmarks\coremark	All
fatfs		ambiq-stable	samples\subsys\fs\fs_sample	All
mbedtls	software only	ambiq-stable	tests\crypto\mbedtls	All
lvgl		ambiq-stable	samples\modules\lvgl\demos	ap510_disp

Together with generic support for ARM Cortex-M peripherals like cache, interrupt controller, etc.

Getting Started

Welcome to Ambiq Zephyr! See the Introduction to Zephyr for a high-level overview, and the documentation's Getting Started Guide to start developing.

Check Ambiq SoC for Ambiq Apollo SoCs documents.

Setup Development Environment

Follow Getting Started Guide to install denpendencies and use west tool to get the Zephyr source code to local. Install Zephyr SDK and check whether the environment variables are set properly.

Upstream Repository Synchronization

Execute git remote -v to check if upstream has been configured.

If not, execute git remote add upstream https://github.com/AmbiqMicro/ambiqzephyr to configure the ambiqzephyr base to your upstream repository.

Execute git remote -v again to check if it configures successfully.

Execute git fetch upstream to fetch the upstream repository.

Execute git checkout ambiq-stable to get the latest ambiq soc development branch.

Get to Know Ambiq Components

zephyr/
│
├── boards/
│   ├── ambiq/
│   └── shields/
│       ├── ap4_evb_disp_shield_rev2
│       ├── ap510_disp
│       ├── ap510_jdi_disp
│       └── apollo5_eb_display_8080_card
├── drivers/
│   ├── adc/
│   │   └── adc_ambiq.c
│   ├── audio/
│   │   ├── amic_ambiq_audadc.c
│   │   └── dmic_ambiq_pdm.c
│   ├── bluetooth/
│   │   └── hci/
│   │       ├── apollox_blue.c
│   │       └── hci_ambiq.c
│   ├── clock_control/
│   │   └── clock_control_ambiq.c
│   ├── counter/
│   │   └── counter_ambiq_timer.c
│   ├── display/
│   │   ├── display_co5300.c
│   │   └── display_ls014b7dd01.c
│   ├── entropy/
│   │   └── entropy_ambiq_puf_trng.c
│   ├── flash/
│   │   └── flash_ambiq.c
│   ├── gpio/
│   │   └── gpio_ambiq.c
│   ├── hwinfo/
│   │   └── hwinfo_ambiq.c
│   ├── i2c/
│   │   ├── i2c_ambiq.c
│   │   └── i2c_ambiq_ios.c
│   ├── i2s/
│   │   └── i2s_ambiq.c
│   ├── jdi/
│   │   └── jdi_ambiq.c
│   ├── mipi_dbi/
│   │   └── mipi_dbi_ambiq.c
│   ├── mipi_dsi/
│   │   └── dsi_ambiq.c
│   ├── mspi/
│   │   ├── mspi_ambiq_ap3.c
│   │   ├── mspi_ambiq_ap4.c
│   │   ├── mspi_ambiq_ap5.c
│   │   └── mspi_ambiq_timing_scan.c
│   ├── pinctrl/
│   │   └── pinctrl_ambiq.c
│   ├── pwm/
│   │   ├── pwm_ambiq_ctimer.c
│   │   └── pwm_ambiq_timer.c
│   ├── rtc/
│   │   └── rtc_ambiq.c
│   ├── sdhc/
│   │   └── sdhc_ambiq.c
│   ├── serial/
│   │   └── uart_ambiq.c
│   ├── spi/
│   │   ├── spi_ambiq_bleif.c
│   │   ├── spi_ambiq_dcif.c
│   │   ├── spi_ambiq_spic.c
│   │   └── spi_ambiq_spid.c
│   ├── timer/
│   │   └── ambiq_stimer.c
│   ├── usb/
│   │   └── udc/
│   │       └── udc_ambiq.c
│   └── watchdog/
│       └── wdt_ambiq.c
├── dts/
│   └── arm/
│       └── ambiq/
├── modules/
│   └── hal_ambiq
└── soc/
    └── ambiq/

Build and Flash the Samples

Make sure you have already installed proper version of JLINK which supports corresponding ambiq SoC, and added the path of JLINK.exe (e.g. C:Program FilesSEGGERJLink) to the environment variables.

Go the Zephyr root path, execute west build -b <your-board-name> <samples> -p always to build the samples for your board. For example, build zephyr/samples/hello_world for apollo510_evb: west build -b apollo510_evb ./samples/hello_world -p always.

Execute west flash to flash the binary to the EVB if the zephyr.bin has been generated by west build.

In default we use UART COM for console, and the default baudrate is 115200, so after west flash, open the serial terminal and set proper baudrate for the UART COM of plugged EVB.

You should be able to see the logs in the serial terminal.

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v4.1.0-7246-gad4c3e3e9afe ***

Hello World! apollo510_evb/apollo510

For those samples that require additional hardware, such as the ap510_disp shield, you need to set the shield option when building. For example:

west build -b apollo510_evb --shield ap510_disp ./samples/drivers/display -p always

For Bluetooth samples, you need to program the BLE Controller firmware via JLINK once before running samples. The programming script and binary locate in ambiq SDK ambiqsuite. Please get the SDK from Ambiq Content Portal.

For MSPI samples, please refer to How_to_Run_Zephyr_MSPI_Samples_and_Tests.rst

For USB samples, please refer to How_to_Run_Zephyr_USB_Samples.rst

For MCU_Boot samples, please refer to How_to_Run_MCUBoot_Samples_and_Tests.rst

Power Management Instructions

To achieve lowest power consumption, customer needs to follow the following process for inspection and configuration optimization:

1. According to the actual usage of memory, adjust the memory configurations (e.g., SRAM, DTCM, NVM) in soc_early_init_hook;
2. Make sure CONFIG_PM=y, CONFIG_PM_DEVICE=y.
3. There are 2 ways for drivers PM to operate: the first one is to keep CONFIG_PM_DEVICE_RUNTIME=y and CONFIG_PM_DEVICE_RUNTIME_DEFAULT_ENABLE=y, so the drivers that have runtime PM ability should be power-managed automatically; and the other one is to keep CONFIG_PM_DEVICE_SYSTEM_MANAGED=y and drivers will be suspended automatically before deep sleep. Note: These two methods can coexist. Devices with runtime PM enabled will be managed by runtime PM, while other devices will be managed by system-managed PM if enabled.
4. If choose the first way (runtime PM) in step 3, in application code, call pm_device_runtime_put() / pm_device_runtime_get() around peripherals that should power-cycle on demand to ensure their usage count returns to zero after use.
5. In order to run CI without print log error, we keep the console UART always on by default. Users need to set CONFIG_PM_DEVICE_RUNTIME_DISABLE_CONSOLE=n in their own project to resume PM control on it.
6. Configure CPU performance mode to low power mode when high performance is not required. This can be done via devicetree (set ambiq,perf-mode = <AMBIQ_POWER_MODE_LOW_POWER>) or by calling apollo5x_set_performance_mode(AMBIQ_POWER_MODE_LOW_POWER) in application code.
7. Disable unused peripheral power domains in soc_early_init_hook (e.g., DEBUG, CRYPTO, OTP) if they are not needed in your application.
8. Disable unused peripherals in devicetree by setting status = "disabled" for nodes that are not used in your application.
9. Reduce log level in production builds by setting appropriate CONFIG_LOG_* options to minimize logging overhead and power consumption.

Check Zephyr Power Management for more detailed information.

Community Support

Community support is provided via mailing lists and Discord; see the Resources below for details.

Resources

Here's a quick summary of resources to help you find your way around:

Getting Started

📖 Zephyr Documentation

🚀 Getting Started Guide

🙋🏽 Tips when asking for help

💻 Code samples

Code and Development

🌐 Source Code Repository

🌐 Ambiq HAL Repository

📦 Releases

🤝 Contribution Guide

Community and Support

💬 Discord Server for real-time community discussions

📧 User mailing list ([email protected])

📧 Developer mailing list ([email protected])

📬 Other project mailing lists

📚 Project Wiki

Issue Tracking and Security

🐛 GitHub Issues

🔒 Security documentation

🛡️ Security Advisories Repository

⚠️ Report security vulnerabilities at [email protected]

Additional Resources

🌐 Zephyr Project Website

📺 Zephyr Tech Talks