OSD3358 SiP Integrates TI Sitara AM3358 SoC, Memory, PMIC, LDO and Passive Components into a Single BGA System-in-Package

Octavo Systems has created a BeagleBone Black reference design that’s exactly like the original board, except for one detail: It’s based on the company’s OSD3358 system-in-package (SiP) that combine Texas Instruments AM3358 Cortex A8 processor with up to 1GB RAM, TI LDO and PMIC, and over 140 passive components into a single 400-ball BGA package. The only three other main components on the reference design are the eMMC flash, Ethernet transceiver and HDMI framer. Key specs of OSD3358 SiP: Texas Instruments AM335x (AM3358 or AM3352) Cortex A8 processor @ 1 GHz 256MB, 512 MB or 1GB DDR3 memory Texas Instruments TPS62217C PMIC Texas Instruments TL5209 LDO Over 140 passive components Package – 400 1.27mm pitch BGA – 27 x 27 mm package size Temperature Range – Base version: 0 to 85°C; Industrial version: -40° to 85° C Some of the advantages of a SiP package over using multiple chips include faster […]

Orange Pi Lite Quad Core ARM Linux Development Board with WiFi is Now Available for $12

Shenzhen Xunlong Launched Orange Pi One Allwinner H3 board with Ethernet for $9.99 a couple of months ago, and the company has now started to sell Orange Pi Lite featuring a WiFi module, two full-size USB ports, an IR receiver, and an on-board microphone for $12 + shipping. Orange Pi Lite specifications: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU up to 600 MHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – micro SD card slot up to 64GB Video & Audio Output – HDMI with CEC support Audio Input – Built-in microphone (not part of the listed specs, but clearly on the board) Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi via Realtek WiFi module with u.FL connector USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port Camera – CSI Interface Expansions – 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header Debugging – 3-pin […]

Olimex iCE40HX1K-EVB Open Source Hardware Lattice FPGA Development Board To Sell for 22 Euros

Olimex has showcased a prototype of their small (5×5 cm) iCE40HX1K-EVB development board powered by Lattice Semi iCE40 FPGA, programmable with OLinuXino development boards via the UEXT interface, and compatible with Project Icestorm open source toolchain for Lattice iCE40. iCE40HX1K-EVB specifications: FPGA – Lattice Semi iCE40HX1K-VQ100 FPGA @ up to 533 MHz with 1280 gates, 160 Logic Array Blocks, and 64 kbit memory System Memory – 256Kx16 SRAM (Samsung K6R4016V1D-TC10 ) Storage – 2MB serial flash Expansion UEXT connector for programming 34-pin header to access FPGA I/Os Misc – 2x user buttons, reset button, 2x user LEDs Power Supply – 5V via power jack Dimensions – 5×5 cm (4-layer PCB) The company has also made four stackable add-on boards to connect to the 34-pin expansion header: iCE40-ADC fast 100Mhz ADC with BNC input connector for Digital Storage Oscilloscope (DSO) with up to 512 KB buffer iCE40-DAC fast 100Mhz DAC with […]

Qualcomm DragonBoard 600c 96Boards Development Board Includes Ethernet and SATA

A few weeks ago, I was informed that some code about DB600c board powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor (APQ8064T) was making it into mainline Linux, and more recently I found a website listing DragonBoard 600c with a low resolution picture of the board. While we don’t have the complete specifications yet, the form factor of the board is quite interesting, as we’ll find the typical 96Boards CE form factor on the right, and some extra interfaces on the left with Ethernet and SATA. It turns out, as we’ll see below, it’s perfectly compliant (hardware wise) with 96Boards CE “Extended Version” specifications. Preliminary specifications of DragonBoard 600c board: SoC- Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064 Fusion 3) quad-core Krait processor  @ 1.7 GHz with Adreno 320 GPU @ 400MHz System Memory – 1GB or more RAM (TBD) Storage – eMMC Flash + micro SD slot + SATA port Video Output – HDMI […]

Debian on DragonBoard 410c Development Board

I purchased Qualcomm DragonBoard 410c development board last year, and first tested it and run some benchmark on the 96Boards compliant hardware with Android. I found that it was still work-in-progress, and decided to wait before trying Debian on the board. I’ve now done so, and will report by experience installing Debian Linux, playing with the board, and running Phoronix benchmarks to compare it to other ARM Linux boards. Installing Debian on DragonBoard 410c The first challenge is to navigate through the documentation that is not always clear or up-to-date. I eventually ended up on DragonBoard 410c Wiki on Github. You then have to decided which image you want. While there are two official operating systems with Android and Debian, you can three “entities” releasiong their own images. For Debian specifically, you have the Linaro image, and Reference Platform Build (RPB) image. I could not find any changelog or known […]

BeagleBone Air is a BeagleBone Black & Green Compatible Development Board with WiFi, Bluetooth LE, and Zigbee Connectivity

So far, if you wanted to add wireless connectivity to BeagleBone Black or BeagleBone Green, you’d either use a USB dongle, or a wireless CAPE, but Neuromeka, a Korean company  has recently launched BeagleBone Air “IoT gateway” board, fully compatible with the two aforementioned boards (minus HDMI output), but adding on-board WiFi, Bluetooth LE, and Zigbee connectivity. BeagleBone Air specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358BZCZ100 Cortex A8 @ 1 GHz with NEON + PowerVR SGX530 GPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3L @ 800 MHz Storage – 4GB eMMC + micro SD slot USB HS USB 2.0 client port (micro USB) HS USB 2.0 host poty (USB type -A) HS USB 2.0 host port on expansion header Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet (RJ45) WiFi 802.11 b/g/n via Realtek RTL8188US with SMA connector for antenna Bluetooth 4.0 LE via TI CC2541 with SMA connector for antenna Zigbee via TI CC2531 with SMA […]

Olimex A20-OLinuXino-LIME2-eMMC Board Replaces NAND by eMMC Flash for Better Performance & Reliability

A20-OLinuXino-LIME boards are the most popular development board sold by Olimex, likely thanks to reasonable pricing, and Allwinner A20 is one of the rare low cost processor to features an actual SATA interface and Gigabit Ethernet support. The company has now launched a new version A20-OLinuXino-LIME2-eMMC, based on A20-OLinuXino-LIME2-4GB, but replacing the NAND flash by an eMMC flash that should offer both better performance and reliability. A20-OLinuXino-LIME2-eMMC specifications: SoC – Allwinner A20 dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU @ 1.0 GHz  with dual-core Mali 400 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4GB eMMC flash (Micron), SATA data and power connectors, micro SD slot, 2KB EEPROM for MAC address and custom data Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet Video Output – HDMI up to 1080p60 USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports with power control and current limiter, 1x micro USB-OTG with power control and current limiter Expansion – 160 GPIOs on four […]

Arduino UNO WiFi Board Combines Atmel ATmega328P MCU with ESP8266 SoC

Arduino.org (Arduino Srl) has launched Arduino UNO WiFi board, bringing Arduino (Atmel ATMega328P MCU) and ESP8266 together, and adding WiFi to the popular Arduino UNO board, while keeping all existing interfaces and headers. Arduino UNO WiFi (A000133) board specifications: Arduino part MCU – Atmel ATmega328 8-bit AVR MCU @ 16 MHz with 32 KB flash Memory, 2KB SRAM, 1KB EEPROM Digital I/O pins – 14, with 6 PWM and UART Analog Input Pins – 6 DC Current per I/0 –  40 mA Misc – Reset button Operating Voltage – 5 V ESP8266 part SoC – Expressif ESP8266EX Tensilica Xtensa LX106 processor @ 80 MHz Storage – 4MB SPI flash Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi @ 2.4 GHz, wake up time < 2 ms; Antenna: PCB and IPX Misc – Bootloader button, WiFi LED Operating Voltage – 3.3 V Common specs USB – 1x USB device port Input Voltage – 5-12 […]