Conclusive Engineering KSTR-SAMA5D27 is an ultra-compact (70x50mm) single board computer (SBC) powered by a Microchip SAMA5D27 Arm Cortex-A5 processor microprocessor clocked at 500 MHz paired with 256MB LPDDR2 (system-in-package).
The board also features a microSD card slot and EEPROM for storage/configuration, Fast Ethernet, WiFi 4, and Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity, a USB-C port, two GPIO headers, and supports USB and battery power. It’s designed for IoT devices, smart systems, and edge computing applications.
Conclusive Engineering KSTR-SAMA5D27 specifications:
- SiP – Microchip SAMA5D27
- CPU – Arm Cortex-A5 microprocessor @ 500 MHz
- System Memory – 256 MB LPDDR2
- Storage
- MicroSD card slot
- 4KB EEPROM
- Networking
- 10/100Mbps Ethernet RJ45 jack
- 2.4 GHz WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.1
- USB
- 1x USB 2.0 OTG Type-C connector
- 1x USB 2.0 Host on expansion header
- Expansion
- 34-pin and 30-pin connectors
- 2x Flexcom (configurable: I2C, SPI, UART)
- I2C
- 6-channel ADC with Vref
- 10-bit ISC (Image Sensor Controller), 10-bit and 12-bit sensors support
- 4-channel PWM
- Timer I/O
- CAN Bus
- USB
- PDMIC audio input
- Console UART
- 3.3 V, 2.5 V, 1.8 V, 5.0 V, and VBAT power supply pins
- Qwiic connector
- 34-pin and 30-pin connectors
- Debug
- Console debug UART on the expansion header
- Conclusive Developer Cable connector
- System UART
- JTAG port
- System I2C bus (EEPROM programming)
- Security
- Arm TrustZone
- Secure Boot
- Hardware encryption engine
- Memory Integrity Monitor
- Misc
- Reset button
- 3x status LEDs – Power Indicator, System Heartbeat, user programmable
- Real-time clock (RTC) on MPU
- Battery backup (CR1220) for RTC and static RAM
- VDDIO voltage switch pins (3.3 V or 1.8 V selection)
- Power Management
- 5V DC via USB Type-C port
- External Li-Ion battery with charging, charge level, and temperature monitoring support via 3-pin connector and solder pads.
- Consumption (SoC)
- Less than 200 μA low power state with fast wake-up
- 5 μA backup mode
- Dimensions – 70 x 50 mm
Conclusive Engineering provides support for Linux 6.1 & 6.5, U-Boot, the Yocto Project, Buildroot, and Ubuntu, while FreeBSD support is available on request. You’ll find documentation to get started and links to OS images and the source code on the wiki.
The SAMA5D2 family was first unveiled in 2018, and most boards and modules we covered were introduced from 2019 to 2021, including the Jupiter Nano, the tiny HaneSOM system-on-module, Arrow Shield96, and the misnamed “Giant” board with Adafruit Feather form factor. While the chip itself is about 8 years old, the KSTR-SAMA5D27 appears to be relatively new, and samples have been available on the company’s online store since last year.
Samples of the Microchip SAMA5D27 SBC can be purchased for $119 (+ VAT) on the Conclusive store. Additional information 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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Cortex-A5 🤔
From what I had read on that one back in the day, this one is *the* real replacement for the venerable ARM926TEJ-S that everyone used in the SAM9 family, and is also super low power. I used to have a 9G20 on a robot and you could almost power it using a coin cell, you couldn’t tell if it was on or off by touching the chip, and there are plenty of use cases which do not require 8 A720 cores 🙂
What can you do with this?
Anything you can do with a pi without hdmi plus it has can, etc. The difference is the complete stack is OS.