NXP S32Z270DC2 (real HW)

This guide builds the safety island firmware for the NXP S32Z270DC2 evaluation board (Cortex-R52, RTU0 core) and flashes it using the S32 Debug Probe.

Before you start, make sure you can complete the Quickstart on the FVP target — the S32Z flow reuses the same development container and build script.

Build for the S32Z

Inside the development container:

$ ./build.sh -t s32z270dc2_rtu0_r52@D

The @D variant selects the RTU0 core on domain D, which is the configuration the board overlay targets.

Resulting binary:

build/actuation_module/zephyr/zephyr.elf

Board-specific notes

The S32Z configuration lives in three files alongside the default prj_actuation.conf:

  • actuation_module/boards/s32z270dc2_rtu0_r52.overlay — base devicetree overlay. Places code in sram2 and pins a unique MAC address on enetc_psi0 (working around Zephyr #61478). Picked up automatically by Zephyr’s standard board-overlay discovery when building the s32z270dc2_rtu0_r52@D target (filename matches the board name).

  • actuation_module/boards/s32z270dc2_rtu0_r52@D.overlay — variant used by this project. Switches the console to UART9 and pins the PHY to index 2. Layered on top of the base overlay via EXTRA_DTC_OVERLAY_FILE, which build.sh sets when -t s32z270dc2_rtu0_r52@D is selected.

  • actuation_module/boards/s32z270dc2_rtu0_r52_actuation.conf — Kconfig fragment. Names the DDS interface ethernet@74b00000 and raises the NXP S32 RX thread stack to 16 KiB.

Flashing

Flash with the default Zephyr runner for the board (the NXP S32 Debug Probe is the official supported option):

$ west flash

Console output comes out over UART9. Configure your serial terminal for 115200 8N1.

Network setup

The S32Z and the Autoware main compute (e.g. an AVA Developer Platform or another host) must be on the same sub-network. The board is configured for DHCP and will obtain its address shortly after boot — watch the console for Zephyr dhcpv4 log lines announcing the acquired address.

Once the board has an address, bring up Autoware on the main compute and start the domain bridge so the safety island can receive planning data. See Arm Virtual Hardware deployment (section Start Autoware) for the Docker Compose flow.

If you have trouble with discovery or dropped messages, see Troubleshooting.