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Set Up Your Host

At the end of this page your computer has the SDK, the build tools, the RISC-V toolchain and the IntelProCube flash tool, recognises the Reef's console port, and builds the out-of-box firmware of the IPRO7AI Reef EVK from the SDK root. Each step has a tab per operating system; the full Windows procedure is on Windows Setup & VS Code.

Prerequisites

Item Requirement
Host macOS or Linux with bash, or Windows x64
Rights installing packages and writing /opt/toolchain/ need administrator rights
Network to download the SDK; Windows Online Setup needs access to GitHub
Obtained separately the RISC-V toolchain: from INTELPRO for macOS / Linux, installed by Online Setup on Windows
Flash tool IntelProCube 0.7.0.1: download it from GitHub, see Install IntelProCube; installed by Online Setup on Windows
Hardware IPRO7AI Reef EVK, USB-C cable, console cable; see What you need

Get the SDK

  1. Download IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1.tar.gz from the IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1 release and note the SHA-256 published on that page.

  2. Verify the download:

    shasum -a 256 IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1.tar.gz

    sha256sum IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1.tar.gz

    Get-FileHash .\IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1.tar.gz -Algorithm SHA256

    The 64 hexadecimal characters printed must match the value on the release page (case does not matter). If they differ, download again.

  3. Unpack and check the version. Unpack into a new directory; do not overwrite an older SDK.

    tar xzf IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1.tar.gz
cd IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1
cat VERSION.txt

    tar -xzf .\IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1.tar.gz
Get-Content .\IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1\VERSION.txt

    VERSION.txt reads:

    IPRO SDK Release
========================================
IPRO7: IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1
IPRO6: IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1

Release Date: 2026-11-10
Base Commit: 60afd4ab

    IPRO-SDK-V2.2.1/ is the SDK root (<SDK> on this site); it holds apps/, bsp/, components/, build_freertos.sh and VERSION.txt.

Install the build tools

  1. Install CMake, GNU Make and Python.

    xcode-select --install          # provides make
brew install cmake python3

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y cmake make python3

    Debian / Ubuntu shown; on other distributions install the equivalent packages. On Linux x86-64, when no cmake is on PATH, the build falls back to the CMake 3.15 in the SDK's tools/cmake/.

    Online Setup installs CMake, Ninja and Python with Full environment or Build tools only; see Windows Setup & VS Code.

  2. Check the versions (macOS / Linux):

    cmake --version     # 3.15 or later; Zephyr needs 3.20 or later
make --version      # first line: GNU Make
python3 --version   # 3.8 or later

Install the RISC-V toolchain

  1. Put it at the default path.

    Unpack the archive from INTELPRO so that this file exists:

    /opt/toolchain/riscv_ipro7/bin/riscv64-unknown-elf-gcc

    Online Setup installs the Windows toolchain GCC 13.1.1 and prepares the SDK for it, so SDK V2.2.0 builds as it is; the images differ from those GCC 14 builds on macOS and Linux. See Windows Setup & VS Code.

  2. Check that it runs (macOS / Linux):

    /opt/toolchain/riscv_ipro7/bin/riscv64-unknown-elf-gcc --version

    The first line starts with riscv64-unknown-elf-gcc and shows version 14.x.

  3. Somewhere else? Set the compiler prefix CROSS_COMPILE (with the trailing hyphen). The build takes CROSS_COMPILE from the command line or the environment first, then CONFIG_CROSS_COMPILE from the application's .config, then the default path.

    export CROSS_COMPILE=<toolchain dir>/bin/riscv64-unknown-elf-

    To keep it, add the line to ~/.zshrc (macOS) or ~/.bashrc (Linux).

Install IntelProCube

IntelProCube, the flashing and OTA tool for IPRO6 and IPRO7, is published on GitHub; this site uses 0.7.0.1. On Windows, Online Setup installs 0.7.0, whose files for IPRO7 and the Reef are the same as 0.7.0.1's; see Windows Setup & VS Code. To flash an IPRO6S, install 0.7.0.1 as well, following the IntelProCube README.

  1. Download and check it.

    curl -LO https://github.com/INTELPRO-INC/ipro-cube/releases/download/v0.7.0.1/IntelProCube-0.7.0.1-macos-arm64.tar.gz
shasum -a 256 IntelProCube-0.7.0.1-macos-arm64.tar.gz

    You should see c3a8bf7eca2a48c3f9bf40c3241ddf6aec5155688f2a92f40a84cc47f7633bc4. The macOS package needs Apple silicon. If you download it with a browser instead, run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine IntelProCube-0.7.0.1-macos-arm64.tar.gz before extracting, or macOS stops the programs inside.

    curl -LO https://github.com/INTELPRO-INC/ipro-cube/releases/download/v0.7.0.1/IntelProCube-0.7.0.1-linux-x64.tar.gz
sha256sum IntelProCube-0.7.0.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

    You should see efc5765ca402d0af00b42489dd61a74481531875b871517af5c0bca9d7387df9. The Linux package is for x86-64.

    If the value differs, download the file again. The values for every version are in the release's SHA256SUMS.txt.

  2. Extract it.

    mkdir -p ~/ipro
tar xzf IntelProCube-0.7.0.1-macos-arm64.tar.gz -C ~/ipro

    mkdir -p ~/ipro
tar xzf IntelProCube-0.7.0.1-linux-x64.tar.gz -C ~/ipro

    This gives ~/ipro/IntelProCube, written <IntelProCube> on this site. Run the command-line tool from that directory: it reads the chip settings, partition tables and boot2 images from chips/.

  3. Check that it runs.

    cd <IntelProCube>
./ipro_iot_tool_macos --help

    cd <IntelProCube>
./ipro_iot_tool_linux --help

    cd <IntelProCube>
.\ipro_iot_tool.exe --help

    The output starts with the usage summary:

    usage: ipro_iot_tool_macos [-h] [--list-ports] --chipname CHIPNAME
                           [--interface INTERFACE] [--port PORT]
                           [--baudrate BAUDRATE] [--xtal XTAL]
                           [--chip-variant CHIP_VARIANT] [--dts DTS] [--pt PT]
                           [--boot2 BOOT2] [--firmware FIRMWARE] [--mfg MFG]
...

  4. Let build_freertos.sh find it (macOS / Linux): set IPRO_FLASH_TOOL, or put <IntelProCube> on PATH.

    export IPRO_FLASH_TOOL=<IntelProCube>/ipro_iot_tool_macos

    export IPRO_FLASH_TOOL=<IntelProCube>/ipro_iot_tool_linux

Connect the console cable

The Reef has no USB-to-UART chip on board: its USB-C carries power and the board's own USB device functions, while the console and flashing go through the adapter or IPRO Debug Probe on U6.

  1. Plug the adapter or Debug Probe into the computer (the board can stay disconnected) and look for the new serial port:

    ls /dev/cu.*

    A USB-to-UART adapter appears as /dev/cu.usbserial-XXXX (the name depends on the adapter). The IPRO Debug Probe adds two /dev/cu.usbmodem… ports; the one ending in 02 is the console.

    ls /dev/ttyUSB* /dev/ttyACM*

    An adapter usually appears as /dev/ttyUSB0; the IPRO Debug Probe adds two /dev/ttyACM* ports.

    Open Device Manager → Ports (COM & LPT) and compare before and after plugging in: the new entry is the port, for example COM5. The IPRO Debug Probe adds two.

  2. No new port? Try a cable that carries data. If the system does not recognise the adapter, install the driver from the adapter's maker; for the Debug Probe, contact INTELPRO.

  3. Linux permissions: if opening the port fails with Permission denied, check the group that owns it with ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0 (often dialout), add yourself to that group and log in again:

    sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER

How to tell the Debug Probe's two ports apart, and the USB devices each Reef application presents on USB-C: Flashing & Serial Console: Recognise the ports.

Verify

Build the out-of-box firmware from the SDK root (macOS / Linux):

./build_freertos.sh ipro7ai_reef_demo

A successful build prints:

Project: ipro7ai_reef_demo  (platform/ipro7ai_reef_demo)

→ Building ipro7ai_reef_demo...
✓ Build succeeded (14s)
  Binary: <SDK>/apps/platform/ipro7ai_reef_demo/build/build_out/ipro7ai_reef_demo_IPRO7.bin (244 KB)
  Log: <SDK>/apps/platform/ipro7ai_reef_demo/build/build.log

Build time and image size vary slightly with the host and toolchain. On Windows, check with IPRO: Build in the VS Code Extension or with build_freertos.ps1; see Windows Setup & VS Code.

How the two environments differ

Task macOS / Linux Windows
Install the tools system package manager, plus the toolchain from INTELPRO and IntelProCube from GitHub Online Setup (toolchain, CMake / Ninja / Python, IntelProCube, OpenOCD, VS Code Extension)
Build make -C apps/<category>/<app> or ./build_freertos.sh IPRO: Build in the VS Code Extension
Flash the IntelProCube command-line tool, or ./build_freertos.sh … flash ipro_iot_tool.exe
Console a terminal program such as screen or picocom; tools/serial_monitor.py a terminal program such as PuTTY, or the Extension's Serial Monitor
Automation (build_freertos.sh, tools/serial_monitor.py) available not available: both need bash and POSIX termios
Zephyr (tools/zephyr/) available no Windows procedure in the SDK

Command-line examples on this site are written for macOS / Linux.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Cause Fix
The computed SHA-256 differs from the release page incomplete or damaged download delete the file and download it again
No cmake found. Install cmake or provide bundled cmake at … no cmake on PATH, and the bundled one cannot run on this host (it is Linux x86-64 only) install CMake 3.15 or later as in Install the build tools
riscv64-unknown-elf-gcc: No such file or directory the toolchain is not at /opt/toolchain/riscv_ipro7/ set CROSS_COMPILE as in Install the RISC-V toolchain
Flash tool not found: ipro_iot_tool_macos IPRO_FLASH_TOOL is not set and IntelProCube is not on PATH step 4 of Install IntelProCube
No new serial port after plugging in the adapter charge-only USB cable, or a missing driver change the cable; install the adapter maker's driver
Permission denied when opening the port on Linux you are not in the port's group join dialout (or the group shown) and log in again
A terminal hangs after opening /dev/tty.* on macOS tty.* waits for carrier detect use /dev/cu.*

Next steps