When Cubietech announced the availability of the Cubieboard2 last week, some people seemed disappointed it only came with 1GB RAM and no Gigabit Ethernet. We already knew a board called Cubietruck was in the work with those features, but work has gone faster than I expected as pictures of the Cubietruck board are already available. Instead of simply listing the specifications, I’ll show a comparison table of the specifications against Cubieboard2. Cubietruck Cubieboard2 SoC AllWinner A20 Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A7 with Mali400 MP2 AllWinner A20 Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A7 with Mali400 MP2 System Memory 1GB or 2GB DDR3@480MHz 1GB DDR3@480MHz Storage SATA 2.0 interface + NAND + Micro SD slot (or 2x micro Sd slot) SATA 2.0 interface + 4GB NAND flash + micro SD slot, Video Output Connectors HDMI & VGA HDMI Audio I/O 1x TOSLINK (Optical SPDIF), 1x headphone jack 1x headphone jack, 1x line in Connectivity 10M/100M/1G Ethernet 10M/100M […]
Beyond Semiconductor Announces BA21 Processor Core for Embedded MCUs
Beyond Semiconductor, a Ljubljana, Slovenia based company, has recently announced BA21, a 32-bit processor core, with 2.5 Coremark per megahertz, and clocked up to 125 MHz, that’s roughly equivalent to a Cortex M3 core @ 120 MHz. Target applications include mixed signal embedded processing, wireless communications ICs (e.g. Bluetooth, Zigbee, GPS), industrial Microcontrollers, and battery-powered or ultra-low-cost devices.If you’ve never heard about Beyond Semi, you may want to read my previous article about their BA25 core (Cortex A7/A8 equivalent) for a bit more details about the company. Here are the key features of BA21 core: 32-bit Processor Small silicon footprint (less than 10k gates) for lower leakage and dynamic CPU power Two-stage pipeline architecture Extreme Code Density for lower instruction fetching energy Advanced power management Dynamic clock gating and power shut-off of unused units Software- and hardware-controlled clock frequency Wake-up on tick timer or external interrupt Performance Up to 2.5 […]
Cubieboard2 Powered By AllWinner A20 is now Available for $59
Cubieboard is a low cost board based on AllWinner A10 with lots of ports and expansion pins, that supports Linux and Android. There’s now a new version called Cubieboard2 based on the same board but powered by AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 processor instead, and still with 1GB RAM and 4GB Flash. As you can see the specifications are the same as the original Cubieboard except for the SoC: SoC – AllWinner A20 Dual core ARM Cortex-A7 processor with Mali-400 MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4GB internal NAND flash, up to 64GB on micro SD slot, and up to 2TB on 2.5″ SATA disk Video Output – HDMI Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, plus optional Wi-Fi module USB – 2x USB 2.0 HOST, 1x USB 2.0 OTG Expansion headers – 96 pins including I2C, SPI, RGB/LVDS, CSI/TS, FM-IN, ADC, CVBS, VGA, SPDIF-OUT, R-TP, and more Misc […]
F&S armStoneA9 is a Pico-ITX Board Powered by Freescale i.MX 6 with up to 4GB RAM
F&S Elektronik Systeme GmbH has announced the armstoneA9, a pico-ITX board featuring Freescale i.MX 6 Solo/Dual or Quad Cortex A9 processor with up to 4GB DDR3 SDRAM, and 128 MB flash (1GB+ flash optional) that available in both commercial and industrial temperature range. Here are the specifications of the board: SoC – Freescale i.MX 6 Cortex-A9 (Quad-/ Dual-/ Single-Core) @ 800 MHz to 1 GHz with Vivante GPU System Memory – 1GB (standard version) to 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – 128MB Flash (1GB+ optional), micro-SD Card Slot, and SATA interface Display: up to SVGA (800 x 600, 65536 colors) via RGB up to WUXGA (1920 x 1200, 18Bit/ 24Bit) via 2x LVDS up to FullHD (1920 x 1080, 24Bit) via HDMI Touch Panel – 4-wire, analogue resistive and PCAP-Touch Interface via I2C Interfaces: 1x 10/100/1000MBit Ethernet 3x Serial (2x RS232, 1x TTL 3.3V Level) 1x USB 2.0 Host, 1x […]
Emcraft Systems STM32F4 SoM and Starter Kit Run uCLinux From On-Chip Flash
Emcraft has recently announced a new system-on-module based on STMicro STM32F437 Cortex M4 micro-controller, as well as a starter kit based on the module that can run uCLinux directly from STM32F437’s 2MB on-chip flash, allowing a faster boot time, and AFAIK, this is the only Linux-ready STM32 platform available on the market. Here are the specifications of Emcraft Systems SOM-STM32F4: MCU – STMicro STM32F437 Cortex M4 @ 168 MHz with 256KB RAM and 2MB flash External Memory – 16MB PSRAM External Storage – 16MB NOR Flash Ethernet PHY (Optional) Connectors – 2x SoM Connectors with access to I/Os: USB, Ethernet, I2C, SPI, UART, LCD I/F, ADC, DAC, GPIO… Dimensions – 30 mm x 46 mm To speed-up development and for evaluation, the company also provides a starter kit composed of the STM32F4 SoM, and a baseboard (SOM-BSB-EXT) with the following main features: USB interface using USB-UART bridge connected to UART […]
Aithon Motor Control Board Runs Chibios/RT RTOS
The Aithon board is a board powered by an STM32 Cortex M4 MCU destined at controlling motors and robotics applications. The board runs Chibios/RT, an open source RTOS, and a set of libraries are also provided to make programming the 2-channel motor driver, and other peripherals/sensors easier. Here are the specifications of the board: MCU – STMicroelectronics STM32F407 ARM Cortex-M4 @ 168 MHz, FPU, 512KB flash and 192KB RAM, up to 17 timers, an RTC, and 12-bit ADC I/O (All digital I/Os are 5V tolerant): 15 GPIO 8 ADC inputs and 8 PWM servo outputs Up to 3 USART (one shared with 1 I2C port + XBee) Up to 4 I2C (split between two independent buses) 1 SPI header 1 SWD header 1 12-bit DAC output (shared with SPI SCLK) USB – mini-USB (device) and standard USB (host) ports Expansion Headers: XBee socket Bluetooth header for optional Roving Networks RN42 […]
$129 Wandboard Quad Board With Freescale i.MX 6Quad and 2GB RAM
When Wandboard launches their Wandboard Solo and Wandboard Dual boards, many people asked when there would be a quad core version. At the time, the company said they had no plan for a quad core version to keep costs low. If we are to believe a Wandboard Quad listing on mouser.com, they must have changed their mind of they now offer a Freescale i.MX6 Quad version with 2GB RAM, and SATA support, which will sell for $129 (as shown on Wandboard site) or $139 (mouser.com) once it becomes available. The Specifications are very similar to Wandboard Dual, except for the quad core processor, 2GB RAM, and working SATA connector: SoC – Freescale i.MX 6Quad quad core Cortex A9 processor @ 1.2 GHz + Vivante GC2000 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 2x micro SD card slot + SATA connector Video Output – HDMI Audio I/O – HDMI, S/PDIF […]
UDOO QUAD vs BeagleBone Black vs Wandboard Dual vs ODROID-X2 vs Raspberry Pi
UDOO QUAD is a development board featuring both Freescale i.MX 6Quad and an Atmel SAM3 Cortex M3 MCU, that’s currently having a very successful campaign on Kickstarter, as the total amount pledged is now close to $500,000 US. UDOO decided to put a comparison table against four other ARM Linux boards they consider their main competitors: the BeagleBone Black for its numerous I/O options, Wandboard Dual, also a Freescale i.MX6 powered board, the ODROID X2 for its powerful Exynos 4412 processor, and Raspberry Pi model B which is ubiquitous. The Cubieboard board would also have been an interesting addition, but they did not include it. As you would have guessed the green parts in the tablet shows the winner for each features according to UDOO team. These 5 boards vary greatly in terms of price, and since this is not included in the table above, I’ll mention the price of […]