TB-96AI & TB-96AIoT are the First 96Boards Systems-on-Module

96Boards SoM Carrier Board

First introduced in 2015, 96boards specifications define mechanical, electrical, and software specifications for single board computers, but in 2017 Linaro asked companies to provide some feedback on what they’d like for a 96boards system-on-module standard. And for the first day of Linaro Connect Bangkok 2019, the 96Boards SoM specifications have now been announced, together with the introduction of Rockchip RK3399Pro powered TB-96AI and Rockchip RK1808 based TB-96AIoT, the first compliant 96Boards SoMs, and corresponding 96Boards SoM Carrier Board. 96Boards System-on-Module Specifications Two 96Boards SoM specifications have been unveiled with the Compute Module Specification and the Wireless Specification. The 96boards Compute Module Specification defines a SoM with up to four 100-pin connectors, but only one is mandatory (X1), and two form factors are specified: SOM-CA (85 x 50 mm) and SOM-CB (50 x 50 mm). List of signals associated to each connectors: X1 – SoM managements, 1x UART, 2x I2C, 1x […]

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 855 Hardware Development Kit

Snapdragon 855 HDK

Snapdragon 855 processor is found in premium smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy S10 or Xiaomi Mi 9, but Snapdragon 855 Mobile Hardware Development Kit has now started to show up on Qualcomm developer website. Beside the octa-core processor, the platform comes with WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, GNSS, Gigabit Ethernet, multiple MIPI DSI and CSI interfaces, DisplayPort over USB-C and HDMI outputs and more. Snapdragon 855 HDK preliminary specifications: SoC –  Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Octa-core processor with 1x Kryo 485 Gold Prime core at up to 2.8 GHz, 3x Kryo 485 Gold cores at up to 2.4 GHz, and 4x Kryo 485 Silver low-power cores at up to 1.7 GHz, Adreno 640 GPU System Memory – TBD Storage – TBD flash, micro SD card slot Video Output 2x MIPI 4-lane DSI + touch panel 1x HDMI DisplayPort over USB 3.1 type-C port Camera Input – 3x MIPI 4-lane CSI with support […]

Ultra96-V2 96Boards AI Platform Adds Certified WiFi, PMICs, Industrial Temperature Range

96Boards Xilinx Ultrascale+ Board

Avnet Ultra96 was unveiled last year as one of the four 96Boards AI platforms designed to develop applications leveraging hardware to accelerated artificial intelligence workloads. The 96Boards CE compliant board comes with a Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC, 2GB RAM, a 16GB microSD card, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and more. The company has now launched an upgraded version with Ultra96-V2 featuring most of the same specifications but with a WiFi & Bluetooth module certified in 75 countries, industrial temperature range, and Infineon’s PMIC’s for additional power control and monitoring. Ultra96-V2 specifications: SoC – Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC ZU3EG A484 with four Cortex A53 cores, two Cortex-R5 core, Arm Mali-400MP2 GPU, and FPGA Fabric System Memory – 2 GB (512M x32) LPDDR4 Memory Storage – 16 GB MicroSD card + adapter pre-loaded with PetaLinux environment Video Output – Mini DisplayPort (MiniDP) Connectivity – Microchip ATWILC3000 certified 802.11 b/g/n WiFi 4 / Bluetooth […]

NXP i.MX 8X/8M based AI-ML and Thor96 Boards Target AI and IoT Applications,

AI-ML 96boards

We’ve already covered several 96boards platforms announced at Embedded World 2019, but we’re not quite done yet, as Arrow Electronics also introduced two NXP i.MX 8X/8M powered 96Boards CE Extended development boards with AI-ML board equipped with i.MX 8M quad core Arm Cortex-A35 processor coupled with 2GB RAM, an mPCIe slot for cellular connectivity, and Thor96 SBC featuring NXP i.MX 8M processor with 2GB RAM as well, but also two HDMI ports, a Thread and Zigbee module, and more. Arrow AI-ML Board AI-ML key features and specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8X quad core Arm A35 processor @ 1.2 GHz, Cortex-M4F real-time core @ 266 MHz, Tensilica HiFi 4 DSP Core, GC7000 Lite 3D GPU with 4x Vec4 Shaders with 16 Execution Units System Memory – 2 GB LPDDR4 @ 1,600 MHz Industrial Temp by Micron Storage – Micro SD card slot Video Output / Display Interface HDMI Output Dual […]

MapleBoard MP130 Allwinner H3 Board Almost Follows 96Boards CE Extended Form Factor

MapleBoard MP130

There are so many Allwinner H3 SBCs or development boards that new ones are often uninteresting, but with the release of Linux 5.0, I discovered a new board that I had never heard of: MapleBoard MP130. The board is equipped with 1GB RAM, Fast Ethernet, four USB ports, and various I/O expansion headers. But the form factor looked familiar, and it seems compliant with 96Boards CE Extended, except for some reasons they decided to swap the low speed and high speed connectors, so I doubt the board is compatible with any of the 96Boards mezzanines. MapleBoard MP130 specifications: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Arm Cortex-A7 processor at up to 1.3GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3L 1600 MHz Storage – 8GB eMMC 4.41 flash, microSD slot Video Output – HDMI 1.4 output with HDCP1.2 Connectivity – 10/100Mbps Ethernet Audio 2-ch 92dB ADC, 2-ch 100dB DAC, I2S/PCM Interface,  […]

Oxalis 96Boards Enterprise Edition Board Targets Low Power IoT and Networking Applications

96Boards EE Standard Motherboard

Most 96Boards on the market follow 96Boards Consumer Edition (CE) specification, and while 96Board Enterprise Edition (EE) specification was first announced in 2015 we had yet to have a board available for purchase after previous failed attempts with AMD Opteron (Arm Cortex-A57) powered Cello board. But there’s finally a 96Board Enterprise Edition available today thanks to Systart Oxalis board powered by NXP LayerScape LS1202 Cortex-A53 processor with a packet accelerator, designed for low power IoT and networking applications, and following 96Boards EE “standard” form factor. Systart Oxalis key features and specifications: SoC – NXP Layerscape LS1012A single core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with hardware packet forwarding engine System Memory – Up to 3GB  RAM Storage – 64MB SPI Flash for bootloader and RCW, MicroSD Card slot, 1x mSATA connector Networking – 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports (RJ45) USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports Expansion 40-pin low speed (LS) expansion connector with +1.8V, […]

Qualcomm Robotics RB3 Development Platform is Powered by Snapdragon 845 SoC

96Boards TurboX 845 SoM

[Update: The board is now known as “Qualcomm Robotics RB3 Development Platform” instead of DragonBoard 845c”, the rest of the article is unchanged] Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 is one of the fastest Arm processors found in consumer devices, and if you ever wanted a development platform with access to various I/Os, you’d have to go with fairly expensive kits (>$1,000) such as Intrinsyc Open-Q 845 HDK. The good news is that there’s now a cheaper Snapdragon 845 development board, compliant with 96Boards CE specifications, thanks to Thundercomm’s Robotics DragonBoard 845c that combines with processor with 4GB RAM, 64GB UFS storage, and the usual 96boards ports and expansion headers. Robotics DragonBoard 845c specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with 8x custom 64-bit ARMv8 CPUs up to 2.8 GHz Adreno 630 GPU  with support for OpenGL ES 3.2 + AEP, DX next, Vulkan 2, OpenCL 2.0 full profile, and RenderScript Hexagon 685 DSP […]

Renesas RZ/G2 64-Bit MPUs Target Industrial Applications Leveraging SLTS Linux

RZ/G2M 96 Development Kit

Renesas RZ/G1 Cortex-A15/A7 processor series was introduced in 2016 targeting industrial human machine interface, and RZ/G1M was one the the first processors supported by the industrial-grade CIP Super Long-Term Support (SLTS) Linux kernel – as part of Renesas RZ/G Linux Platform – with commitment of over 10 years of support. The company has now launched a 64-bit version of the industrial processors with Renesas RZ/G2 family featuring up to eight Cortex-A53/A57 cores and supported by RZ/G Linux Platform for long term Linux support. Renesas RZ/G2 family is now comprised of four SKUs with the following key features and specifications. RZ/G2 Series RZ/G2E RZ/G2N RZ/G2M RZ/G2H Economical Mid-Range (Pin Compatible) Highest Performance CPU (64-bit ARMv8A) 2x Cortex-A53 @ 1.2GHz L1, L2 Parity/ECC 2x Cortex-A57 @ 1.5GHz L1, L2 Parity/ECC 2x Cortex-A57 @ 1.5GHz 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.2GHz L1, L2 Parity/ECC 4x Cortex-A57 @ 1.5GHz 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.2GHz L1, L2 Parity/ECC […]