.. _overview:


Overview
========

This is a handbook for Nuclei Board Labs which is a part of courses in Nuclei University Program. 
This handbook describes how to develop with |nuclei_board| through a step-by-step way, it can be used as lab teaching metarials. 
Anyone interested in |nuclei_core| can also take this handbook as a quick start-up to develop with |nuclei_core| in the field of embedded systems.

The hierarchy of Nuclei Board Labs are shown in the block diagram below.

.. _figure_overview_1:

.. figure:: /asserts/medias/overview_fig1.jpg
   :width: 600
   :alt: overview_fig1

   Hierarchy of Nuclei Board Labs

The labs are developed based on the `Nuclei Software Development Kit (Nuclei SDK) <https://github.com/Nuclei-Software/nuclei-sdk>`__ which is an open software platform to facilitate the software development of systems based on |nuclei_core|. 

In |nuclei_sdk|, the `Nuclei MCU Software Interface Standard (NMSIS) <https://github.com/Nuclei-Software/NMSIS>`__  is a vendor-independent hardware abstraction layer for micro-controllers that are based on |nuclei_core|.

This handbook only introduces how to run the applications in Nuclei board labs, if you want to get more details about |nuclei_sdk| and |nuclei_core|, please click the links in the following table to get the corresponding online docs.

.. _table_overview_1:

.. table:: Online reference documents
   :widths: 60,120

   +-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   |        Item             |    Online Docs                                                                   |
   +-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Nuclei processor core   |   `Nuclei ISA Spec <http://doc.nucleisys.com/nuclei_spec/>`_                     |
   +-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Nuclei software library |   `Nuclei SDK <http://doc.nucleisys.com/nuclei_sdk>`_                            |
   |                         +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   |                         |   `NMSIS <http://doc.nucleisys.com/nmsis/>`_                                     |
   +-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+


.. note::
    As different SoCs has different peripherals, so about the details of SoC peripherals, please refer to the specified SoC reference mannual.


This handbook includes a series of labs (more labs will be added in the future), which are roughly classified into two levels:

* Level 1: Basic Labs 

The labs in this level cover the basic topics of |nuclei_board|. 
For example, the usage of on-board peripherals, the basic features of |nuclei_core|, and so on.

* Level 2: Advanced Labs

The labs in this level cover the advanced topics of |nuclei_board|. 
For example, basic applications (additional hardware needed), Real-Time Operating System (RTOS), and so on.