Back in April last year, Allwinner released the T536 SoC, and since then, we’ve seen MYiR Tech and Forlinx introduce SoM and SBC based on it. The latest to join the lineup is Boardcon, which has recently launched the PICOT536 SoM and EMT536 SBC for industrial HMI, machine vision, robotics, and other edge computing applications.
As a reminder, the Allwinner T536 SoC features a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 CPU, XuanTie E907 and E902 RISC-V coprocessors, and a 2 TOPS NPU for edge AI. The module comes with up to 8GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4X memory, up to 64GB eMMC flash, an optional WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4 module, and a 314-pin MXM edge connector exposing I/Os such as MIPI DSI and LVDS, camera inputs, audio inputs and outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, PCIe, USB 3.0, and more.
PICOT536 System-on-Module
PICOT536 specifications:
- SoC – Allwinner T536
- CPU – Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 at up to 1.6GHz, RISC-V XuanTie E907 at up to 600MHz, and RISC-V XuanTie E902 at up to 200MHz
- VPU – Video decoding up to 4K (3840 x 2160) @ 15fps (MJPEG) or 1080p @ 60fps (JPEG); Video Encoding up to 4K @ 25fps (H.264)
- NPU – 2 TOPS AI accelerator supporting INT8, UINT8, and INT16
- System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4/LPDDR4X with inline ECC
- Storage – 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC flash
- Wireless – Optional on-module WiFi 6 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax) and Bluetooth 5.4 via the VS6621S80 module
- Board-to-board connector – 314-pin MXM 3.0 edge connector
- Display – LVDS, MIPI DSI
- Camera – 2x 4-lane or 4x 2-lane MIPI CSI
- Networking – 2x EPHY
- USB
- 4x USB 2.0 Host
- 1x USB 2.0 OTG
- 1x USB 3.0/PCIe 2.1 interface
- Other I/Os – 11x UART, 2x Debug, SD, 3x PWM, 3x I2C, SPI, Audio I/O, 17x GPADC, 1x LRADC
- Dimensions – 82 x 50 mm (8-layer PCB)
- Temperature Range – Commercial: 0°C to +70°C; Industrial: -40°C to +85°C
On the software side, Boardcon provides a Buildroot environment with Linux kernel 5.15.147 and U-Boot 2023.04 with boot from eMMC and firmware download via USB OTG. The company recommends using a development machine running Ubuntu 22.04, and provides a cross-compilation toolchain and tools such as SecureCRT, ADB, and PhoenixSuite for debugging. The software stack includes drivers for eMMC 5.1, USB, Ethernet, audio, display (LVDS/MIPI), and industrial interfaces like CAN, RS485, SPI, and ADC, along with support for peripherals such as WiFi and Bluetooth modules, 4G LTE via mPCIe, and NVMe SSD storage.
Boardcon EMT536 Development Board
EMT536 specifications:
- SoM – Boardcon PICOT536 as described above with Allwinner T536 SoC, up to 8GB RAM, and up to 64GB eMMC flash
- Storage
- MicroSD card slot
- M.2 socket for NVMe SSDs
- Display
- LVDS up to 1920×1080 @ 60fps
- MIPI DSI up to 1920×1200 @ 45fps
- Only one can be used at a time
- Camera – Camera input supporting OV5640 sensor
- Audio
- 3.5mm headset jack (input/output)
- Speaker output header
- Networking
- 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports
- mPCIe slot and SIM card socket for 4G LTE cellular connectivity (multiplexed with USB 3.0 host)
- 1T1R WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.4 (via SWT6621-based VS6621S80 module)
- USB
- 1x USB 3.0 host (multiplexed with mPCIe slot)
- 2x USB 2.0 host
- 1x USB Type-C (for OTG/ADB, switchable to host mode)
- Serial – 9x UART header, 2x RS485, 2x CAN bus
- Expansion
- M.2 M-Key socket for 2280, 2260, or 2242 NVMe SSDs
- mPCIe slot for 4G LTE module
- 2x GPIO headers
- 1x ADC header
- Debugging – Standard Debug serial port and E902 Debug CPUS
- Misc
- Power, Reset, and FEL buttons
- RTC with coin cell battery
- Power – 12V/3A DC input via DC jack and box-type connector
- Dimensions – 180 x 120 mm
- Temperature Range – 0°C to +70°C
After checking the specifications, we can see that some features like USB 3.0, display interfaces, and PCIe are multiplexed, meaning only one can be used at a time. This is similar to the company’s previous SBCs, like the Boardcon EM3566 Linux SBC, but it uses a Rockchip SoC.
Availability and price information are not available, but you can find more details on the product page and the press release.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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