Freescale/NXP i.MX6 based Gateworks Ventana single board computers have been around at least since 2013 and were initially targeting networking processing applications for the industry. They could be used into all sort of gateways with cellular or WiFi connectivity for instance, thanks to the presence of mini PCIe sockets.
But the latest Gateworks Ventana GW5910 SBC does not exclusively relies on mini PCIe cards for wireless connectivity, as it includes an onboard Laird Sterling 802.11b/g/n WiFi & Bluetooth module, as well as optional TI CC1352P dual-band Wireless MCU supporting Sub-1GHz and 2.4GHz RF, and an optional on-board u-blox GPS module, which should lower the total cost compared to solutions with mini PCIe cards.
Ventana GW5910 specifications:
- SoC – NXP i.MX6 Dual Core Arm Cortex-A9 SoC Processor @ 800MHz
- System Memory – 512MB DDR3-800 SDRAM
- Storage – 256MB Flash System Memory, microSD card slot, mSATA socket
- Connectivity
- Gigabit Ethernet Port
- Onboard Laird Sterling 802.11b/g/n WiFi & BLE v4.2 BR/DR/LE
- Optional onboard Ti CC1352P Sub-1GHz & 2.4 GHz Wireless transceiver for 802.15.4g, 6LoWPAN, Thread, Zigbee
- Optional onboard u-blox ZOE-M8 GNSS Receiver
- Expansion
- 2x High-Power Gen 2 Mini-PCIe Sockets + Cellular nanoSIM card socket
- DIO header
- SPI header
- RS232 serial header
- Debugging – JTAG header
- Misc – LED, coin cell battery for RTC/GSC, volt/temp monitor
- Power Supply
- 8V to 60V DC input via power barrel jack
- 36 to 60V Passive or 802.3af PoE
- 4-pin power output header
- Dimensions – 100 x 70 mm
- Temperature Range – -40°C to +85°C
- Humidity (non-condensing) – 20% to 90%
- MTBF – 55 Years at 55°C (Is that believable? How can it be determined?)
The two Mini-PCIe sockets provide expansion for various off-the-shelf Mini-PCIe peripherals such as LTE/CATM1 cellular modems, satellite modems and other industrial I/O interfaces with one Mini-PCIe socket supporting both PCIe and USB signaling, and the other supporting USB signaling with a Nano-SIM socket.
Ventana GW5910 also features the Gateworks System Controller (GSC) for support of features such as RTC, voltage and temperature monitor, serial EEPROM, programmable push-button switch, tamper switch, full power on/off watchdog and advanced power management.
OpenWrt and Ubuntu BSPs are supported, and you should find detailed technical information in Ventana Wiki, although I could not find a section specific to Ventana GW5910 yet.
The board is available now either as an individual computer board or as part as a development kit, but pricing has not been made public. You can request a quote or/and find more information, such as the operating manual, on the product page.
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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