F&S Elektronik Systeme PicoCore RT1 is a System-on-Module powered by NXP i.MX RT1050 crossover processor designed to offer the real-time capabilities of microcontrollers and the performance of application processors thanks to an Arm Cortex-M7 core clocked at up to 600 MHz. The 40×35 mm module is also equipped with 32MB SDRAM, 256MB “high-reliability QSPI NOR flash, and 16KB EEPROM, and offers various interfaces including Ethernet, RGB LCD, and USB via board-to-board connectors. PicoCore RT1 (V1) SoM specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX RT1050 Arm Cortex-M7 processor @ up to 600 MHz with 32KB L2 cache, 2D graphics accelerator System Memory – 32MB SDRAM Storage – 256MB QSPI Flash, 16KB EEPROM; optional NAND flash 2x 80-pin board-to-board connector with Storage – SD Card Display – 16-bit RG interface, analog resistive and PCAP touch via I2C Networking – 1x 10/100M Ethernet Audio – Line-In, Line-Out, microphone, headphone, I2S USB – 1x USB 2.0 […]
Nordic Semi nRF21540 RF front end module Extends the Range of nRF52/nRF53 Bluetooth SoC’s
A little while ago, we wrote about RFCat N32 board integrating Meshtek-H52 module with nRF52832 2.4GHz multi-protocol SoC and a Skyworks power amplifier increasing power by up to 30 times to extend the wireless range to up to 200 meters. It turns out Nordic Semi outed its own range extender module late last year with nRF21540 RF front end module (FEM) that integrates a power amplifier (PA) and low noise amplifier (LNA) optimized to boost the link budget of the nRF52 and nRF53 multi-protocol wireless SoCs. nRF21540 key features and specifications: Supported wireless standards Bluetooth Low Energy (incl. Bluetooth mesh) Thread and Zigbee (802.15.4) Proprietary 2.4 GHz Output Power – Adjustable in small increments up to +21 dBm Receive Gain – +13 dB with 2.5 dB noise figure Antennas – 2x antenna ports for antenna diversity Host Interface – I/Os, SPI, or a combination Supply Voltage – 1.7 V to […]
J721E DRA829/TDA4VM/AM752x – Texas Instruments Cortex-A72 based Monster SoC’s
Texas Instruments unveiled their first 64-bit processor in 2018 with TI AM654 “Keystone III” quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 + dual lockstep Cortex-R5F processor designed for general embedded and industrial applications. The company is now working on a more powerful processor with J721E SoC with Cortex-A72 cores belonging to the K3 Multicore SoC architecture platform appearing in TI Linux git repository. Ti J721E is a monster of an SoC, not necessarily in terms of CPU processing power, but it has an amazing amount of features and peripherals. I’m not going to list all specifications of this monster SoC, and we’ll do with J721E highlights instead: CPU Dual Cortex-A72 up to 2.0 GHz in a single cluster Up to three clusters of lockstep capable dual Cortex-R5F MCUs @ 1.0 GHz AI Accelerator / DSP Deep-learning Matrix Multiply Accelerator (MMA) @ up to 1.0 GHz (8 TOPS for 8-bit inference) C7x floating-point Vector DSP […]
Exor GigaSOM GS01 SoM and Devkit Combine Intel Atom E39xx CPU and Cyclone 10 GX FPGA
EXOR International has worked in collaboration with Arrow Electronics to design and manufacture GigaSOM GS01 system-on-module combining an Intel Atom E39xx Apollo Lake processor and Cyclone 10 GX FPGA. The module and corresponding development kit are specifically designed for smart factory & “Industrie 4.0” applications with the processor running Intel’s time-coordinated computing plus a real-time “IoT stack”, and the FPGA supporting IEEE 802.1 time-sensitive networking (TSN) and 10Gbps connectivity. GigaSOM GS01 module specifications: Apollo Lake SoC (one or the other) Intel Atom x5-E3930 dual-core processor @ 1.3 GHz / 1.8 GHz (Turbo) with 12EU Intel HD Graphics 500; 6.5W TDP Intel Atom x5-E3940 quad-core processor @ 1.6 GHz / 1.8 GHz with 12EU Intel HD Graphics 500; 9.5W TDP Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad-core processor @ 1.6 GHz / 2.0 GHz with 18EU Intel HD Graphics 505; 12W TDP FPGA – Intel Cyclone 10 GX up to 220 KLE System Memory […]
iWave Systems i.MX8M Mini Devkit Targets Low-cost Facial Recognition Systems
iWave Systems i.MX8M Mini Board is a development platform based on an update versions of the company’s iW-RainboW-G34M-SM i.MX 8M Mini system-on-module and designed specifically for low-cost facial recognition systems thanks to NXP eIQ ML software, and MIPI display and camera. iWave Systems i.MX8M Mini (aka iW-RainboW-G34D) specifications: SoM SoC – NXP i.MX8M Mini Q/QL/D/DL/S/SL with up to 4x Cortex-A53 cores, 1x Cortex-M4F real-time core, Vivante 3D and 2D GPUs System Memory – 1GB LPDDR4 (Expandable up to 4GB) Storage – 8GB eMMC Flash (Expandable), optional 2MB QSPI Flash optional Micro SD slot Wireless – Dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0. PMIC – BD71847AMWV i.MX8M SODIMM Carrier Board Storage – MicroSD slot Display I/F – MIPI DSI display connector Camera I/F – MIPI CSI camera connector Audio – Audio codec, 3.5mm Line In/Out jack Networking – Up to 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports (One is Optional) USB – 2x USB […]
NVIDIA Introduces Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit, and Cloud-Native Support
NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX SoM was launched last month for $459. But while some third-party carrier boards were also announced at the time, the company had yet to offer Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit as they did for Jetson Nano. But as GTC 2020 conference is now taking place in the kitchen of Jensen Huang, NVIDIA CEO, the company had plenty to announce including Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit as well as “Cloud-Native” support for all Jetson boards and modules. NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit Specifications: CPU – 6-core NVIDIA Carmel ARMv8.2 64-bit processor with 6 MB L2 + 4 MB L3 cache GPU – NVIDIA Volta architecture with 384 NVIDIA CUDA cores and 48 Tensor cores Accelerators 2x NVDLA Engines 7-Way VLIW Vision Processor Memory – 8 GB 128-bit LPDDR4x 51.2GB/s Storage – MicroSD slot, M.2 Key M socket for NVMe SSD Video Output – HDMI and DisplayPort […]
TransferFi Wireless Power Network Lights Up Sensors up to 55 Meters Away
Wireless charging has been around for a while, and it usually placing a phone or other device on a charging pad. But back in 2018, Energous started to promote its near-field, mid-field, and far-field wireless charging solutions, with far-field meaning within a room. But so far, they only have released near-field devkits and products. Singapore based TransferFi Pte has come up with its own wireless charging solution. TranferFi wireless power network (TFi WPN) aims to power sensors up to 55 meters away and specifically targets building and factory automation in order to help companies save on installation and cabling costs. The solution works with a gateway powering up and receiving data from sensors wirelessly with a range of up to 55 meters. The TFi Gateway Max Turin-1 covers up to 32 TFi Sense devices via multichannel beamforming supporting up to 16 channels and can be connected to Modbus, BACnet & […]
ARM9 in 2020 – Meet Microchip SAM9X60 SoC & Evaluation Kit
In my first job, I wrote code for a MIPS processor for VoIP phones, then I switched to NEC/Renesas MCUs for CD and DVD players, before going back to Linux and my first experience with an Arm processor: Cirrus Logic EP9307 with a single ARM9 (ARM920T) core clocked at 200 MHz. That was in 2005, and according to Wikipedia various ARM9 cores were released between 1998 to 2006, and now such cores are not recommended for new IC designs with most companies now building their chips around Arm Cortex-A/M/R cores. At the end of last year, we wrote about Banana Pi BPI-F2S SBC based on Sunplus SP7021 “Plus1” quad-core Cortex-A7 processor with ARM9 and 8051 co-processor. Odd enough but at least the ARM9 core is not the main processor, however, while looking at the upcoming Linux 5.6 Linux kernel log I read an entry about a new SAM9X60 ARM926-based SoC […]