Boardcon MINI1126B-P is a system-on-module (SoM) powered by a Rockchip RV1126B-P 64-bit Arm SoC with a 3 TOPS NPU and a 4K H.264/H.265 encoder and decoder designed for AI vision applications.
Rockchip RV1126 quad-core Arm Cortex-A7 camera SoC with a 2 TOPS AI accelerator has been around since 2021, but the RV1126B(-P) is a new chip with four Cortex-A53 cores and a 3 TOPS NPU. The MINI1126B-P SoM is one of the first hardware platforms with the new SoC, and an update to the company’s MINI1126 with the RV1126 SoC, so let’s have a closer look.
Rockchip RV1126B-P AI camera SoC
Since Boardcon has released the datasheet of the new Rockchip processor, we can list the RV1126B-P key features and specifications:
- CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 up to 1.6 GHz with 32KB L1 I-Cache and 32KB L1 D-Cache, unified 512KB L2 Cache for Cortex-A53
- GPU – 2D Graphics Engine
- VPU
- Video Decoder – H.265/H.264 up to 3840×2160 @ 30fps
- Video Encoder – H.265, H.264, JPEG up to 12Mbps @ 30fps
- JPEG Decoder
- AI accelerator – Rockchip NPU engine up to 3 TOPS (INT8); supports TensorFlow, Caffe, Tflite, Pytorch, Onnx NN, Android NN, etc.
- ISP – 12Mbps @ 30 FPS; AI-ISP: 8 Mbps @ 30 FPS
- Memory
- 64KB system SRAM, 8KB PMU SRAM
- Up to 4GB 32-bit DDR3/DDR3L, DDR4, LPDDR3/LPDDR4/LPDDR4X
- Storage I/F – Flexible SPI, eMMC 4.51, SD 3.0/MMC 4.51 interfaces, all bootable
- Display Interfaces
- Up to 24-bit MCU/RGB LCD interface
- BT.656/BT.1120 Interface
- 4-lane MIPI DSI interface, 1.5Gbps/lane
- Max output resolution – 1080p60
- Video Input
- 2x MIPI CSI/LVDS/SubLVDS DPHY with 4 lanes, 2.5Gbps per lane
- 8/10/12/14/16-bit DVP interface
- Audio – 3x SAI, 8-channel PDM, 2x 2-channel ADRC
- Networking – Gigabit Ethernet
- USB – USB 2.0 host, USB 2.0 OTG
- Other peripherals
- 2x SPI, 6x I2C, 8x UART, 4x PWM (28 channels)
- 2x CAN Bus with CAN FD support
- GPIOs
- Analog
- 6x channel SARADC
- Temperature Sensor
- Security
- Arm TrustZone
- Symmetrical algorithms
- AES-128, AES-192, AES-256, SM4
- ECB/CBC/OFB/CFB/CTR/CTS/XTS/CCM/GCM/CBC-MAC/CMAC mode for AES and SM4
- Hash algorithm
- SHA-1, SHA-256/224, MD5, SM3 with hardware padding
- HMAC of SHA-1, SHA-256, MD5, SM3 with hardware padding
- Asymmetrical algorithms – RSA (up to 4096 bits), ECC (up to 256 bits), SM2
- Key-ladder (KL)
- Secure OTP
- Secure debug
- Secure OS
- Package – FCCSP 409-pin (14 x 14mm) with 0.3mm ball size, 0.65mm ball pitch: 0.65mm
Boardcon MINI1126B-P system-on-module
Boardcon MINI1126B-P SoM specifications:
- SoC – Rockchip RV1126B-P described above
- System Memory – 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4
- Storage – 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB eMMC flash
- Networking – Realtek RTL8211F-CG GbE PHY
- 2x 80-pin, 0.5mm pitch female board-to-board connectors
- Storage – SDMMC, SDIO
- Display I/F – RGB, MIPI DSI
- Camera I/F – 2x MIPI CSI
- Audio – PDM
- Networking – Gigabit Ethernet
- USB – USB 2.0 Host, USB 2.0 OTG
- Other peripherals – 3x UART, 2x I2C, SPI, 4x ADC IN, CAN, SNS, GPIO, etc..
- Supply Voltage – 5V DC; PMIC: RK809-9 (also audio codec)
- Dimensions – 38 x 30 mm (8-layer PCB)
- Weight – 6.1 grams
The company provides a Linux BSP with Buildroot, kernel 6.1.118, U-Boot 2017.09, and drivers for all peripherals. I could not find documentation for the new module, but a wiki for the earlier MINI1126 is available. The module is suitable for IPC/CVR devices, AI camera devices, intelligent interactive devices, and mini robots.
EM1126B-P single board computer
Boardcon provides the EM1126B-P SBC to quickly evaluate the MINI1126B-P system-on-module and get started with software development.
EM1126B-P SBC specifications:
- Supported SoM – MINI1126B-P described above. Fitted with a module featuring 2GB LPDDR4 and 8GB eMMC flash by default.
- Storage – MicroSD card slot
- Display I/F – 26-pin MIPI DSI header
- Camera I/F – 2x 24-pin MIPI CSI FPC connectors.
- Audio
- 3.5mm Audio out jack
- 2-channel Speaker (4-pin connector)
- Built-in digital MEMS MIC, differential MIC connector
- Networking
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port
- 2.4GHz WiFi (802.11b/g/n) and Bluetooth 4.2
- USB
- Micro USB OTG 2.0 port
- 4x USB 2.0 host ports
- Serial
- 3-pin serial debug connector
- 6-pin UART connector
- 3-pin RS485 connector
- Expansion – Various connectors for GPIO, SPI, I2S, ADC, CAN, IR
- Misc
- Recovery and Power keys
- RTC battery connector
- Power Supply
- 12V/3A DC input jack
- 7.4V Lion Battery connector
- Dimensions – 120 x 95 mm
Boardcon will not usually provide public pricing information about their modules and SBCs, and this time is no different. Additional details may be found 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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This is a fairly powerful chip and it costs about $30 just for the chip. I’d guess SOM around $50 and the board+SOM around $150. I don’t work directly with it, but the big feature is the ability to run two cameras and do binocular vision. So don’t compare it to a cheap security camera.
The other SOM by Runwelltek is $33. A whole assembly is $125.
Any official info on this new RV1126B chip?
Also by “3 TOPS” do they actually mean 3 “dense” or sparse TOPS? I do remember Rockchip exaggerating their NPU performance figures by putting asterisks and footnotes behind these numbers.
You can access the datasheet. It’s hard to get more official than that.
That’s 3 TOPS (INT8).
Emm, if you read the datasheet carefully, on Page 10 where it says “3 TOPS* for INT8”, the asterisk says “sparsity”, but they do not clarify what’s the sparsity level at which this figure is obtained.
So 3 TOPS might just be 1.5 or 1 (or even lower) real TOPS. Inflated marketing as usual.