CNXSoft – Embedded Software Development

VIA Technologies has recently announced the VAB-600 Pico-ITX embedded board featuring WonderMedia WM8950 ARM Cortex A9 SoC clocked at 800MHz. VIA targets in-vehicle infotainment as well as mobile and healthcare applications for the board despite an operating temperature range between 0°C and 60°C.

VIA VAB-600 Pico-ITX Board (Click to Enlarge)

Here are the key features of this embedded board:

• SoC – Wondermedia WM8950 Cortex-A9 @ 800MHz  + Mali-400 GPU
• System Memory – 1GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash memory + 512KB SPI Flash for Boot Loader + microSD slot
• Video Output – Mini HDMI, on-board DVO (Digital Video Output) for TTL or LVDS display
• Video Codecs – MPEG2 MP@HL, MPEG4, H.264 BP/MP/[email protected], VC-1 SP/MP/AP, VP8 and JPEG/MJPEG.
• USB -  2x mini USB 2.0 host ports
• Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet (VT6113), 3G (SIM card slot) and optional WiFi support (VIA VNT9271B6050 WiFi module shared with one USB port)
• On-board Connectors:
  • 2x COM connectors
  • 1x RTC battery pin header
  • 1x USB 2.0 connector
  • 1x SPI connector for programming SPI Flash ROM
  • 1x Keypad connector
  • 1x CIR connector
  • 1x Front audio pin header for Line-in, Line-out and MIC-in
  • 1x Front panel pin header for system power-on, reset and power LED
  • 4-wire resistive touch screen FPC connector (through VT1603A)
  • 1x pin header for 1 I2C pair and 8 GPIO
  • Optional battery charger connector with Smart Battery function
• Operating Temperature Range – 0°C to 60°C
• Operating Humidity – 0% ~ 95% (relative humidity ; non-condensing)
• Dimensions – 10cm x 7.2cm Pico-ITX form factor

The company provides board support packages (BSPs) for Android 4.0 and/or Embedded Linux (Kernel 3.0.8). Android 4.0 EVK is available for download here, but there’s nothing for Linux yet. Before downloading the file you’ll have to agree to a “Non-Disclosure and Recipient Acknowledgment for Short Term Sample Products Evaluation”, which I find a bit silly for a publicly available file…

VIA also offers a startker kit including VIA VAB-600 Pico-ITX board, VAB-600-A I/O card, VAB-600-C TTL Converter card, a 7” touch screen TTL panel, cables and a 18W AC adapter.

VIA VAB-600 Starter Kit (Click to Enlarge)

Sample units of the VIA VAB-600 Pico-ITX board are available now at an undisclosed price. Further information, including the board user’s manual and product brief, is available on VIA’s VAB-600 page.

I’ve only seen Qualcomm SoC in smartphones and tablets, as well as their own development boards, but Inforce Computing has just changed that thanks to IFC6410 single-board computer powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 quad core krait processor @ 1.7GHz. This Pico-ITX SBC comes with 2GB RAM and 4GB eMMC flash, HDMI out, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi and more.

IFC6410 Single Board Computer (Click to Enlarge)

Here are the specifications of this board:

• SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 Quad Core Processor (1.7GHz) + Adreno 320 GPU
• System Memory – 2GB on-board PCDDR3, up to 533MHz
• Storage – 4GB eMMC + μSD card connector + SATA interface
• Connectivity:
  • 802.11 b/g/n WiFi (Atheros QCA6234)
  • Bluetooth 4.0 (Atheros QCA6234)
  • 10/100/1000bps Ethernet (Atheros 8151)

• Video and Audio Interfaces:
  • μHDMI (1080p)
  • LVDS
  • MIPI-CSI2 (4-lane, up to 20MP camera)
  • HD Audio and Mic-in

• USB – 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB OTG
• Misc I/O – 1x I2C, 1x SPI, 1x UART, UIM, 8x GPIO
• Debugging – via serial console on 3-pin header
• Power – 5V/5A
• Dimensions – 10cm x 7cm (Pico-ITX)
• Temperature Range – Operating: 0 to 70 C | Storage: -20 to 80 C
• Relative Humidity – 5 to 95% non-condensing

IFC6410 SBC Block Diagram

The company will provide board support packages for both Linux and Android. You may want to watch the board introduction video below for an overview of the board.

IFC6410 is a production-ready board with compliant with RoHS and WEE standard. It will be available in May, but you can pre-order it now, or rather register your interest, for just $149 (+shipping) via IFC6410 page. With the cancellation of OPENBRIX Zero board, this is the cheapest “Cortex A15 class” board that I know of (Even though technically speaking Krait is not Cortex A15, but the performance is about the same), and with 4 cores it will even more powerful than the Arndale board.

Via Linuxgizmos

iWave Systems has just launched the RainboW-G15S, a Pico ITX single board computer featuring Freescale i.MX 6 Solo and Dual Lite processor at Embedded World 2013, in Nuremberg, Germany. This embedded board targets intelligent industrial control systems, industrial human machine interface, ultra portable devices, home energy management systems, and portable medical devices.

• Expansion Header – 84-pin header with access to MIPI DSI, 1x SPI, CSI0 Camera interface, CAN2 Interface, 3x UART, 3x I2C, GPIOs, optional LVDS1 interface, and optional MLB Interface.
• Operating Temperature – -20°C to +85°C
• Power Input – 5V, 2A
• Form factor – Pico ITX (100 x 72mm)

The company provides support for Linux 3.0.35, and can support Android 4.0.4, and WEC7 on request.

RainboW G15S Block Diagram

In some ways iWave Systems boards are similar to Wandboard Solo and Dual boards, but they target industrial customers rather than hobbyists, come in Pico ITX form factor, and the company provides technical & quick customization support for over 5 years.

Pricing and availability information were not provided. You may find out more information on iWave Systems RainboW-G15S page.

VIA Technologies announced the VIA ARTiGO A1250 slim system featuring a 1.0 GHz VIA QuadCore E-Series processor and VIA VX11H media system processor (MSP). The VIA ARTiGO A1250  is a low profile system targeted at home or office applications such as home server, home automation, hotel management, media streaming, digital signage, surveillance as well as medical and healthcare applications.

Here are the key features of ARTIGO A1250:

• VIA QuadCore E-Series processor (U4650E) @ 1.0 GHz
• Up to 8GB of DDR3 1333 SDRAM SODIMM
• Supports one 2.5″ SATA HDD or Flash SSD installation
• Quiet, ultra slim profile design (3cm high)
• VIA VX11H media system processor with DirectX11 support
• 3D and HD video up to 1080p
• HDMI & VGA display ports with dual independent display support
• I/O: HDMI, VGA, 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, GigaLAN, Audio-in/out/mic-in
• Average power consumption of 27W TDP
• Dimensions: 17.7cm x 12.5cm x 3.0cm

I understand that inside the device there’s the EPIA-P910 pico-ITX board which allows its small form factor. VIA supports Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7 (WES), WES2009, Windows XP, Windows 7 & Linux based operating systems for the device.

If you prefer a video introduction of the device, watch the video below (It basically enumerate the specs and show you around the device).

I could not find information about availability or pricing. Further information is available on VIA Artigo A1250 page.

VIA Technologies has announced the VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX board powered by a Freescale i.MX537 (ARM Cortex A8) processor clocked at 800MHz or 1GHz depending on the requirements, with 1GB DDR3-800 SDRAM and support for eMMC Flash with a capacity of up to 64 GB. The VIA VAB-800 is an industrial board that can operate in a wide temperature range and targets high-end industrial and in-vehicle embedded applications.

VIA VAB-800 (Click to Enlarge)

Here are the specs of the board:

• Processor – Freescale Cortex-A8 single core iMX537 @800MHz
• System Memory – 1GB DDR3-800 SDRAM, using 128M x16 memory devices
• Flash – eMMC Flash, up to 64GB
• Graphics  – Supports two independent, integrated graphics processing units: an OpenGL® ES 2.0,  3D graphics accelerator and an OpenVG™ 1.1 2D graphics accelerator
• Ethernet – SMSC LAN8720A 10/100 PHY transceiver with HP Auto-MDIX support
• Audio – Freescale SGTL5000 low power stereo codec with headphone amp
• HDMI – Silicon image SiI9024A HDMI transmitter
• CAN – TI SN65HVD1050 EMC optimized CAN transceiver
• USB – Hub SMSC USB 2.0 high speed 4-port hub controller
• Onboard I/O
  • SATA I connector with voltage select jumper
  • SATA DOM power supply connector
  • 2 x COM connectors with power supply (one supports 8-wire, another supports 4-wire)
  • 2 x Single-channel, 18/24-bit LVDS connectors
  • CMOS sensor connector for BT.656 camera module
  • RTC battery connector
  • Front audio pin header for line-in, line-out and MIC-in
  • JTAG connector
  • 2 x Boot flash select pin headers
  • Miscellaneous pin header for 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB device port, 2 CAN bus ports, system power-on and reset
  • Miscellaneous pin header for 1 SDIO port, 4-wire resistive touch screen interface, 1 I2C pair and 8 GPIOs
  • 5V DC-in power connector
• Back Panel I/O
  • VGA port
  • 2 x USB 2.0 ports
  • Mini HDMI port
  • RJ-45 LAN port

• Watch Dog Timer
• Power – 2W typical, 5W max.
• Operating Temperature – 0 ~ 60°C (-20°C ~ 70°C for option)
• Operating Humidity – 0% ~ 95% (relative humidity ; non-condensing)
• Dimension:  10 cm x 7.2 cm (Pico-ITX)

The company provides Android 2.3, Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows Embedded Compact 7 (through third party) BSPs for the board.

VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX board samples are available now. You can find more information on VIA VAB-800 page.

VIA Technologies has just unveiled the VIA AMOS-3002, a fanless system based on VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board, targeting embedded applications such as telematics, in-vehicle control, machine to machine controller (M2M), digital signage and kiosks.

VIA AMOS-3002 System (Click to Enlarge)

The VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board is powered by VIA Eden X2 dual core processor (1GHz) together with VIA VX900H media system processor (MSP) and VIA Chrome 9 video processor which render VIA AMOS-3002 systems capable of handling hardware video decoding for MPEG-2, WMV9 and H.264 codecs at 1080p resolution.

Two models are available: AMOS-3002-2D10A1 and AMOS-3002-2D10A1. The latter features a 2.5” SATA hard disk drive bay which is not available in AMOS-3002-2D101A1.

Here are the specifications for both VIA AMOS-3002 Models:

• CPU – VIA Eden X2 @ 1.0GHz
• Chipset – VIA VX900H Media System Processor
• Memory – 1x DDR3 1066 204-pin SODIMM socket (Up to 4GB)
• Storage:
  • 1x CFast Flash disk socket
  • 1 x 2.5” SATA hard disk drive bay (Model AMOS-3002-2D10A1 only)
• Graphic Controller – Integrated VIA Chrome 9 HD DX9 3D/2D video processor with MPEG-2, DivX, WMV9/VC1, H.264 video decoding acceleration
• Video Output:
  • 1x External VGA port (Up to 2560 x 1600)
  • 1x Onboard HDMI 1 port connector
  • Dual View support with independent display of VGA and HDMI
• Ethernet – 2x Gigabit Ethernet
• Audio I/O – 1x Line-out and 1x Mic-in
• USB – 6x USB 2.0 ports
• Serial Ports:
  • 1 x RS-232
  • 1x RS-232/422/485
• GPIO – 1 x D-Sub 9-pin connector of 8-bit GPIO (4 inputs+ 4 outputs) + 5V power source
• Expansion:
  • 1x MiniPCIe slot
  • 1x SIM slot
• Watchdog timer
• Power Supply – [email protected] A
• Dimensions – 197mm (W) x 49mm (H) x 104mm (D)
• Weight – 1.4 kg
• Operating Temperature:
  • -10 °C up to 60°C
  • 0 °C ~ 45°C when system equipped with 2.5” hard disk drive
• Certifications – IEC 60068-2-64, IEC 60068-2-27, CE, FCC Class A and CCC

VIA EPIA-P900 Block Diagram (Click to Enlarge)

VIA AMOS-3002 systems support Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Embedded Standard, Windows Embedded
Compatibility Standard 7 and Linux operating systems.

You can find more information on VIA AMOS-3002 (Pico-ITX) page as well as EPIA-P900 page.