Toradex Luna SL1680 is a credit card-sized single board computer heavily inspired by the Raspberry Pi 5 design, but powered by a Synaptics SL1680 quad-core Cortex-A73 SoC suitable for Edge AI applications thanks to a built-in 7.9 TOPS NPU.
Designed for pro consumer and light industrial Edge AI applications, the Luna SL1680 ships with up to 4GB RAM and 256GB eMMC flash, and offers many of the same ports as the Pi 5, including a Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port with optional PoE support, four USB 3.0 ports, two micro HDMI ports (but one Tx, one Rx), MIPI DSI and CSI connectors, and a 40-pin GPIO header. The 16-pin PCIe FFC connector is gone, making way for an M.2 Key-E socket, mostly useful for adding wireless connectivity.
Toradex Luna SL1680 specifications:
- SoC – Synaptics SL1680
- CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 processor @ 2.1 GHz
- GPU – Imagination PowerVR Series9XE GE9920 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.1, OpenCL 1.2
- NPU – 7.9+ TOPS secure NPU (Edge AI Engine) with support for multiple DNN frameworks
- VPU
- Decode – 4K (2160p60) AV1, H.265/HEVC, H.264, VP9/8, MPEG2
- Encode – 1080p60 H.264, VP8
- Memory – Up to 4GB 32-bit LPDDR4 at 4266 MT/s
- Storage
- Up to 256GB eMMC flash
- EEPROM for configuration and calibration data
- MicroSD card slot
- Video Output
- Micro HDMI port
- 22-pin 4-lane MIPI DSI FPC connector
- Up to two independent displays supported
- Camera/Video Inputs
- Micro HDMI port
- 2x 22-pin MIPI CSI FPC connectors (4-lane and 2-lane)
- Audio
- 2x I2S, 2x PDM via 40-pin headers
- Digital audio output/input via micro HDMI ports
- Networking
- Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port with optional PoE support
- Optional WiFi and Bluetooth via M.2 Key-E socket
- USB
- 4x USB 3.0 ports
- USB Type-C port for recovery mode and power
- Expansion
- M.2 Key-E socket (PCIe, SDIO, UART, PCM) for wireless or additional AI accelerator
- 40-pin GPIO header with I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, 5x GPIO, 2x analog inputs
- Debugging – UART header, JTAG test points
- Misc
- Power button
- Fan control header
- DS1339AU+T RTC with battery connector
- Boot selection jumpers (eMMC, microSD card, USB)
- Power Supply
- 5V via USB-C port
- Optional PoE via 4-pin header
- Dimensions – 85 x 56 x 17 mm
- Temperature Range – Operating: -25 to +85°C; storage: -40 to +105°C
The Luna SBC runs the Torizon Linux distribution. The board is integrated with the Toradex VSCode Extension, which includes multiple templates to get started using frameworks or programming languages such as Python, Rust, C/C++, C#, .Net, Qt, Slint UI toolkit, or LVGL. It also supports remote debug capabilities and integration with CI/CD toolchains.
For Edge AI applications, we’re told the NPU in the SL1680 is “optimized for TensorFlow Lite inferencing through the Synaptics SyNAP toolkit“. It’s not the first SL1680 platform around, and others include Synaptics Astra platforms and Calixto Systems SL1680 OPTIMA SOM and EVK.
Most embedded systems companies will focus on the B2B market, and if you contact them as an individual or with a Hotmail or Gmail email address, they may just ignore you. Toradex is one of those companies, but they’ve now decided go beyond industrial consumers, and started to cater to Pro Consumers with products such as the Luna SL1680 SBC. It won’t have the same temperature range and offers shorter field time than Industrial products when exposed to harsh environments. It may be suitable for applications where cost efficiency matters and in light industrial applications in a way that’s an improvement over the Raspberry Pi 5 and other cheaper SBCs.
Toradex will sell the Luna SL1680 SBC for $105 and up once it becomes available. More details, including a 57-page datasheet and a link to a waiting list, can 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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