We’ve had a fair amount of boards and modules based on NXP i.MX 8M dual or quad core Cortex A53 processor this year, including one pico-ITX motherboard with F&S Elektronik ArmStone MXM8 supporting up to 8GB RAM.
Another i.MX 8M pico-ITX board will soon be launch courtesy of Kontron. pITX-iMX8M will also features the dual or quad core version of the processor, but will differ thanks to the presence of dual Gigabit Ethernet, mini DP and HDMI video outputs, an M.2 PCIe/USB 3.0 socket, and built-in TPM 2.0 security.
Kontron pITX-iMX8M preliminary specifications:
- SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Dual or QuadLite Arm Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.5 GHz, Arm Cortex-M4 real-time core, and Vivante GC7000Lite GPU with support for OpenGL/Es 3.1, OpenGL 3.0, Vulkan
- System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4
- Storage – 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash, micro SD card / SIM slot combo
- Video Output – mini DisplayPort, HDMI 2.0a, dual channel LVDS
- Video Playback – 4K UltraHD with HDR (Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG)
- Audio – HDMI audio output, LINE in, LINE out, microphone input, S/PDIF header
- Connectivity – 2x Gigabit Ethernet
- USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0 interface via headers
- Expansion Header
- 8x GPIOs
- M.2 slot with PCIe, USB 3.0 and micro SIM interfaces
- Security – TPM 2.0 and built-in hardware security device
- Power Supply – Power barrel connector
- Dimensions – 100 x 72 mm (Pico-ITX form factor)
The board targets the manufacturing industry, and small server solutions such as IoT gateways.
The company will offer both Yocto Linux BSP and an Android BSP, as well as Kontron’s security solution APPROTECT powered by Wibu-Systems CodeMeter security chip combined with a specifically developed software framework that provides IP and copy/reverse engineering protection. Beside the copy protection, the solution also enable “pay per use” business models or demo versions that can be activated/deactivated via a predetermined set of variables.
Kontron pITX-iMX8M pico-ITX motherboard is shown as coming soon on the product page, pricing is still not available, and we just know the board will have long term availability (e.g. 10 years) after launch.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Wow, looks impressive. And expensive: 4GB, dual GigE, LTS … so 250 Euro? … Oh, wait, Kontron is German … so 500 Euro?
If you have to ask for the cost, you won’t like the answer.
Have to see if a former colleague is still with kontron…
Since WandBoard i.MX8M / PICO-PI-IMX8M has been delayed about a year and had a price increase. Given the specs, this is quite reasonable.