Add support for Realtek MCUs

[kissste]

Contains ARM Cortex-M3 processor

• http://www.realtek.com/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=33&PFid=45&Level=4&Conn=3
• RTL8720 / RTL8710 / RTL8711 / RTL8195, etc.

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RTL8720DN

Realtek RTL8720DN is a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth IC that supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz dual bands for Wi-Fi communication, and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.0. BW16 is a module manufactured by B&T, this module is a highly integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module with the RTL8720DN as the main SoC (System on Chip), it can be regarded as an SoC for the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth application with typical SBCs.

• https://www.amebaiot.com/en/amebad-bw16-arduino-getting-started/
• https://github.com/ambiot/ambd_arduino
• Board Support: REALTEK AMB82-Mini #4809
• AMB82 and AMB82-mini - What a shame there's no support for those boards #4906
• Please add supprot for IRIS-W106 - NXP: RW612 & RealTek: RTL8721DM #5046

[joscha]

Is there any news on this? Anyone working on it?

[Alxandr]

$15 bounty added to the issue.

[treii28]

I would be interested as well. How does one add a bounty? I'll match any bounty (up to $50 - i.e. I'll match that $15 and up to $35 more if anyone else follows suit)

[Alxandr]

@treii28 https://www.bountysource.com/issues/37603319-add-platform-rtl8710-rtl8711-rtl8195

[treii28]

Cool, matching $15 added.

[ivankravets]

Could someone explain how do you program these chips now? Does Realtek have own SDK/IDE?

[mtiutiu]

@ivankravets It seems to be supported by this arduino core Ameba IOT. Works with rtl8710/8195 only and the project seems to be still alive. Regarding the flashing part it works via swd using openocd and a stlink device because it's stm32 based. I gave it a try some time ago and it worked. For openocd integration I used this. I didn't played too much with it so I cannot offer more details. Hope it helps.

[kgunnar]

While not immediately noticeable due to their re-branding, it's clear when looking at the specifications that PINE64's $1.99 PADI IoT Stamp is a RTL8710AF module.

In addition to the Ameba link above providing Arduino support, there is also RtlDuino.

[chris-hatton]

@ivankravets Yes, Realtek do provide their 'Standard SDK', based on mbed/RTOS, for these RTL8710 / RTL8195 chips. I am also interested in the potential of interfacing PlatformIO directly with this SDK and not via the Arduino support.
I will happily add US$25 to the bounty for this feature.
Presumably with the mbed + RTOS + gcc basis for the Realtek 'Ameba' SDK, most of the interface mechanisms have already been build and it will not be a huge work to drive from PlatformIO?

[ivankravets]

Could someone help us with adding new dev-platform? There are a lot of examples how to do it https://github.com/platformio/platform-espressif32

Thanks in advance!