Zoom i.MX 8M Mini Development Kit supports power usage monitoring

NXP i.MX 8M Mini 14nm Cortex-A53/M4 processor has been around for a couple of years, and several SoM-based development kits are available including Variscite Symphony starter kit, HummingBoard Ripple SBC, or congatec conga-SEVAL007010 evaluation board.

Beacon EmbeddedWorks’ Zoom i.MX 8M mini development kit is based on the company’s i.MX 8M Nano System on Module (SOM) and offers features not found on most other devkits or single board computers such as power usage monitoring and control through their Wattson power measurement application.

Zoom i.MX 8M mini development kit key features & specifications:

System-on-Module
- SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor with up to four Arm Cortex-A53 cores @ up to 1.8 GHz, an Arm Cortex-M4 real-time core at up to 400 MHz, Vivante 3D & 2D GPU’s
- System Memory – Up to 8GB of 32-bit wide LPDDR4 memory
- Storage – eMMC flash, QSPI NOR flash
- Networking
  - Gigabit Ethernet PHY
  - Wireless module – 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2
- Dimensions – 38 x 28 mm
Baseboard
- Display – Connector for LCD touchscreen panel part of the devkit
- Video Output – HDMI port
- Audio – Stereo input/output jacks
- Networking – Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- 3x USB ports
- “PC card expansions”

As you can see from the specifications above, the company did bother going into much details about the baseboard and complete details, at least in the publicly available documentation. But instead, they highlighted their “suite of software programs and Board Support Packages (BSPs)”, notably the ability to use the Wattson power measurement application to monitor and control power usage, rapid start-up support with LogicLoader bootloader, and support for Android, Linux, and Windows Embedded CE operating systems.

I registered and verified a free account on the company website to get more details about Wattson software and the development, and there’s indeed plenty of the documentation, as well as links to Android & Linux BSP’s and the Linux and Windows version of Wattson software, but all of those, baring the product brief, are only available to customers with a registered product.

Beacon EmbeddedWorks says i.MX 8M Mini SOM is suitable for “next-generation medical, military, aerospace, and industrial applications where space is at a premium”. The company did not provide information about pricing and availability but usually sell its solutions through distributors such as Arrow and Future Electronics. Additional details may be found in the press release and product page.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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.