PixiePro Board Combines NXP i.MX6Q Processor with WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS, and a 3G Modem

Saying that the market now provides a wide range of development boards is probably an understatement, but Code Ing has found out that most hobbyist boards had limited on-board wireless connectivity with WiFi and Bluetooth basically the best you could expect, with any extra wireless functionality requiring USB dongles. So the company designed PixiePro single board computer powered by NXP i.MX6Q quad core Cortex A9 processor with on-board wireless connectivity including WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/GLONASS, NFC and a 3G module. PixiePro board specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX6Q quad core Cortex A9 processor @ 1 GHz with Vivante 2D and 3D GPUs System Memory – 2GB 64-bit DDR3 Storage – 2x UHS-I micro SD card slot up to 104 MB/s Video Output – micro HDMI up to 1080p60 Audio Output – HDMI and 3.5mm mini TOSLINK optical port/Line Out Connectivity WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2×2 MIMO with two antenna connectors Bluetooth […]

Review of EzeeCube Media Hub and Private Cloud Server

EzeeCube is a Linux Kodi based media hub powered by Freescale i.MX6 Quad processor that includes a 1 or 2 TB hard drive by default and is expandable with extra 2TB hard drive modules that you simply stack on top of each other to get up to 10TB storage. I had a look at EzeeCube hardware last October, but due to one issue with the Android app that prevents syncing pictures between my phone and the hard drive on the device, one of the key selling point of the system, I decided to postpone the review. EzeeCube developers finally found a workaround in early December, but as I was busy with other tasks and the end of year holidays, I only managed to finally review the device in the last few days. Initial Setup The first thing that you go through after connecting all cables, and powering up the media […]

Fleye is a Safe, Robust and Developer Friendly Drone Powered by NXP i.MX6 Processor (Crowdfunding)

In most cases, it’s a pretty bad idea to touch a drone while it’s flying, as you could potentially hurt yourself and others with the blades, so a startup based in Belgium has decided to design a safe drone with the blades hidden under a shell surrounded by protective grids, and with features such as obstacles avoidance. The design also makes the drone sturdier, and less prone to breakage should it fall or hit obstacles. The drone, dubbed Fleye, is based on NXP i.MX6 dual core processor, runs a Linux OS built with the Yocto Project, and the company also plans to provide APIs, and mobile SDKs to allow the developer community to experiment with the drone, and/or create mobile apps. Main hardware features of Fleye drone: SoC – Freescale NXP i.MX6 dual or quad core ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 800 MHz with Vivante GPU System Memory – 512 […]

iMX6 TinyRex Module and Development Board Support HDMI Input in Linux (Video Demo)

A couple of years ago, I wrote about iMX6 Rex open source hardware project combining a Freescale i.MX6 SoM and baseboard that aimed a teaching hardware design (schematics and PCB layout). I had not followed the project very closely since then, until I watched a video showcasing HDMI input capabilities in Linux using the new version of the module and baseboard called i.MX6 TinyRex. i.MX6 Tiny Rex module specifications: SoC – Freescale iMX6 processor up to 1.2GHz and 4 cores System Memory – Up to 4GB DDR3-1066 (533MHz) Storage – EEPROM Connectivity – 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet PHY I/Os via 3 board to board connectors: Display / Video Output 1x HDMI (up to QXGA 2048×1536) 1x LVDS (up to WUXGA 1920×1200) 1x 20-bit parallel LCD display (up to WXGA 1366×768) or 1x Video Input (CSI) 1x MIPI DSI differential display output (up to XVGA 1024×768) Video Input 1x 20-bit parallel video input […]

Segger emPower is an embOS RTOS Evaluation Board with a J-Link OB Debug Interface

Segger, a company specializing in embedded software and hardware debugging tools, has recently launched Segger emPower, an evaluation board powered by Freescale Kinetis K66 Cortex M-4 MCU and including a J-LInk OB debug probe (JTAG/SWD), specially designed to evaluate the company’s embOS real-time operating system. emPower board hardware specifications: MCU – Freescale Kinetis K66 (MK66FN2M0VMD18) ARM Cortex M4F MCU @ 180MHz with with 256KB SRAM and 2MB flash memory Storage – 1Gbit NAND Flash + micro SD card connector Display I/F – 20-pin display adapter connector (5 V/3.3 V, SPI, PWM for backlight control) for small TFT displays Connectivity – Fast Ethernet USB – 1x USB device, 1x USB host (Full speed) Debugging On-board debug probe J-Link-OB with drag & drop (STM32F072, mini A/B-type connector); SWD/SWO only, no CDC/VCOM port support External debug interface (19-pin Cortex-M) including trace Expansion 3x Sensor Expansion Interface Devices (SExI) headers providing I2C, SPI buses, […]

OpenEmbed SOM6360 is a $69 Freescale i.MX6 SoloX System-on-Module

Apart from UDOO Neo development board, which is currently shipping Kickstarter backers, I hadn’t seen many Freescale i.MX 6SoloX based hardware so far. But Shenzhen OpenEmbed has now launched a system-on-module powered by Freescale Cortex A9 and Cortex-M4 SoC with their SOM6360 CPU module. OpenEmbed SOM6360 Rev. A computer-on-module specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX 6SoloX ARM Cortex-A9 core @ 1GHz with ARM Cortex-M4 Core @ 200 MHz, and 2D and 3D multimedia accelerators System Memory – 512MB DDR3L (1GB optional) Storage – 4GB to 32GB eMMC flash, 32MB QSPI  flash Video Input/Output 18-bit digital RGB 24-bit LVDS (up to WXGA) Analog/digital camera interface (YUV4:2:2 CCIR-656) Connectivity – 2x Gigabit Ethernet interfaces (2x on-board AR8033 PHYs) Other I/Os via 2x 120-pin connectors: 1x USB 2.0 host, 1x USB 2.0 device 5x serial,2x CAN 2.0 2x I2C, 2x SPI 2x SDIO PWM Optional 12-bit ADC PCIe 2.0 Misc – Watchdog Power Supply – […]

Kondor AX FPGA + ARM Networking Board Targets Base Stations, IoT Gateways and IP Cameras

Mikro Project, a company based in Zagreb, Croatia, has recently introduced Kondor AX “Advanced System Development Board” combining  Freescale i.MX6Solo processor with Lattice ECP5 FPGA, and targeting “low power applications at the network edge including HetNet (Heterogeneous Networks), Small Cells, Industrial IoT gateways and IP Cameras.” Kondor AX development board specifications: Category Lattice ECP5 LFE5UM-85F-BG756 FPGA Freescale i.MX6 Solo SoC Description 84.000 LUTs 207 Block RAMs 156 18×18 Multipliers 365 IO pins 4 SERDES channels (In/out) 400 MHz LPDDR3 Memory Support 4 PLLs, 4 DLLs ARM Cortex A9 @ 1 GHz 512 KB L2 cache GPU 3D – Vivante GC880 Video Decode: 1080p30 + D1 Video Encode: 1080p30 H.264 BP/ Dual 720p encode Programming options On-board USB JTAG interface 10-pin JTAG header Using i.MX6 processor Memory & Storage 512MB LPDDR3-1600 800 MHz Clock Rate 1x 32-bit channel 512 MB 32-bit DDR3 64Mbit SPI Flash 8GB eMMC Micro SD Card Connectivity  […]

Compulab Unveils CL-SOM-iMX7 Freescale i.MX7 System-on-Module and SBC-iMX7 Single Board Computer

After a few years of speculations and developments about i.MX7 and i.MX8 processors, Freescale announced Freescale i.MX7 family this summer. The new processors are based on one or two Cortex A7 cores coupled with a Cortex-M4 MCU for real-time tasks, and are a low power alternative to Freescale i.MX6 processors. But so far I had only seen a few announcements such Toradex i.MX7 SoM or Freescale 96Boards, without any product actually shipping, and Compulab claims to the first to market with a Freescale i.MX7 system-on-module, namely their CL-SOM-iMX7 SoM which will ship in quantities in early January 2016. CL-SOM-iMX7 system-on-module specifications: SoC Freescale i.MX 7Solo single core Cortex-A7 @ 800MHz with NEON SIMD and VFPv4 + ARM Cortex-M4 @ 200Mhz Freescale i.MX 7Dual dual core Cortex-A7 @ 1GHz with NEON SIMD and VFPv4 + ARM Cortex-M4 @ 200Mhz System Memory – 256MB to 2GB DDR3L-1066 Storage – 128MB – 1GB […]