MSC Q7-MB-EP4 Is a QSeven Starter Kit Powered by Freescale i.MX6

MSC Embedded, a company specialized in the design and manufacturing of embedded boards, has recently announced MSC Q7-MB-EP4, a complete Starterkit for the company’s Qseven modules based on Freescale i.MX6 Solo, Dual or Quad processors. The starter kit comes with a suitcase comprise of a heatspreader with heatsink, a 12V power supply, a cable kit (SATA data and power cable),  a DVD, a getting started guide, and more importantly a 3.5″ Qseven carrier board (Q7-MB-EP4) with socket for Qseven modules Rev. 1.20 with the following specifications: CPU Module Interface –  Socket for Qseven Rev. 1.20 compatible modules based on the Freescale i.MX6 Storage – 1x SATA connector + mSATA Socket with support for mSATA and mSATAmini cards, MMC/SD Card, and serial EEPROM for EPI/DP extensions Standard Interfaces: 7x USB 2.0: 4x USB (Series-A Jack), 1x USB internal pin header, USB on mini USB connector, USB at Mini PCI Express socket […]

VIA Announces $99 Springboard Platform for Android and Linux Development

Back in May 2013, VIA unveiled VAB-600 Pico-ITX board powered by WonderMedia WM8950 with an ARM Cortex A9 processor @ 800 MHz and a Mali-400 GPU. At the time they provided a starter kit with a 7″ display. The company has now announced the VIA Springboard Platform based on VAB-600 that is available without Wi-Fi for $99 or with Wi-Fi for $129. Here are the items included in the kits: VAB-600 Pico-ITX board with WM8950, 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, 4GB eMMC Flash memory and microSD slot. See VAB-600 post for detailed specifications. VIA VAB-600-A I/O extender card: 1 x Line-Out jack 1 x Mic-In jack 2 x USB 2.0 A-type ports 1 x Suspend LED power indicator 1 x Power On/Off button 3 x board-to-board connectors 1 x USB board-to-board connector VIA VNT9271 Springboard USB WiFi module (Wi-Fi Kit only) – Supports IEEE 802.11b/g/n standards and 802.11e WiFi Multimedia (WMM). Based […]

ISEE IGEP COM AQUILA Powered by TI Sitara AM3354 Processor is now available for 79 Euros

Back in February, ISEE announced 2 new computers-on-module based on TI AM335x at Embedded World 2013. IGEP COM AQUILA, one of those 2 modules based on AM3354, is now available and we have a more information about software support, and baseboard availability. AQUILA specifications do not appear to have changed since the earlier announcement: Processor – Texas instruments Sitara AM3354 Cortex A8 @ 720 Mhz + PowerVR SGX GPU System memory – 256 MB DDR3 SDRAM, 303 MHz, 16-bit Storage – 128 MB SLC NAND FLASH + on-board micro-SD socket Networking – 1x Ethernet PHY Debug Interface – JTAG Sitara AM335x interfaces – USB Host/OTG, I2C, SPI, CAN, UART, LCD controller, GPIOs, etc… Power – 4V to 5,5V DC via SODIMM connector. 1x Linear 3V3@1A regulator Dimensions – 67,6mm x 26 mm (SODIMM form factor) Temperature Range – Industrial: -40 to +85 C What’s new to me, is the tiny […]

Tessel ARM Cortex-M3 MCU Board Brings Hardware Hacking to Web Developers with JavaScript and Node.js

People who are proficient with JavaScript or web technologies may not be completely comfortable with programming MCU in assembler and/or C programming language. Node.js, written in JavaScript, seems to be quite popular this days for diverse projects, but technical.io has decided to design a board called Tessel, powered by a Cortex M3 MCU. that can be fully programmed with JavaScript/Node.js. Tessel hardware specifications: MCU – NXP LPC1830 ARM Cortex-M3 @ 180mhz System Memory – 32MB SDRAM Storage – 32MB Flash Connectivity – Wi-Fi via TI CC3000 Expansion – 16-pin GPIO bank for prototyping Power – Micro USB or battery The board is said to be compatible with 1000’s of Node.js modules from NPM, can be programmed via USB or Wi-Fi using your own IDE, and support Tessel modules, as well as Arduino Shields. There are two (price) classes for Tessel modules: Class A: Relay — turn devices on and off (up […]

SolidRun Announces Cubox-i Platform with Freescale i.MX6 for as low as $45

SolidRun has been providing tiny development platform such as Cubox and Cubox Pro featuring Marvell ARM compatible processors. However, the price of those platforms are well over $100, so the company decided to provide lower cost development platforms (Cubox-i) based on Freescale i.MX6 Solo/Dual Lite/Dual/Quad that sells for $45 and up. There are four versions: Cubox-i1 – Freescale i.MX6 Solo, 512 MB RAM, 10/100M Ethernet, optional Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module. Price: $44.99 Cubox-i2 – Freescale i.MX6 Duallite, 1GB RAM, 10/100M Ethernet, optional Wi-Fi Bluetooth module. Price: $69.99 Cubox-i2Ultra – Freescale i.MX6 Dual, 1GB RAM,  Gb Ethernet (470 Mbit real), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, SATA II. Price: $94.99 Cubox-i4Pro – Freescale i.MX6 Quad, 2GB RAM, Gb Ethernet (470 Mbit real), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, SATA II. Price: $119.99 The devices measure 55mm x 55mm x 42mm. The full specifications are better seen in the comparison table found in SolidRun website. The 4 models all boot […]

$249 Terasic SoCKit Development Kit Features Altera Cyclone V SX Dual Core A9 + FPGA SoC

There seems to be a lot a development going on around dual core A9 + FPGA SoCs from Xilinx or Altera these days, and Terasic has recently announced SoCKit, a development board based on Altera Cyclone V SX SoC with 2GB RAM (1GB for ARM cores, 1GB for FPGA), 110K logic elements, etc… Here are the specifications listed on Terasic website: FPGA Device – Cyclone V SX SoC—5CSXFC6D6F31C8NES: 110K LEs, 41509 ALMs 5140 M10K memory blocks 6 FPGA PLLs and 3 HPS PLLs 2 Hard Memory Controllers 3.125G Transceivers ARM-based hard processor system (HPS) @ 800 MHz, Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore Processor with 512 KB of shared L2 cache, 64 KB of scratch RAM,  Multiport SDRAM controller (DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR1, and LPDDR2), and  8-channel direct memory access (DMA) controller Configuration and Debug: Quad Serial Configuration device – EPCQ256 for FPGA On-Board USB Blaster II (micro USB type B connector) Memory […]

Lantronix Unveils xPico Wi-Fi Module For the Internet of Things

With Texas Instruments SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3000 and Qualcomm Atheros AR4100P embedded Wi-Fi processors that fully handle Wi-Fi internally, and transfer data to an MCU with an SPI interface, and solutions such as Electric Imp, there are already ways to add Wi-Fi at relatively low cost to appliances. There’s now another solution available on the market with Lantronix xPico Wi-Fi Module. Listed features and specification of xPico Wi-Fi: SoC – ARM Cortex M3 class processor with 1MB on-chip Flash and 128 KB SRAM Storage – SPI Flash storage Wireless LAN Interface IEEE 802.11 b/g and IEEE 802.11n (single stream) WLAN interface (2.4 GHz only) IEEE 802.11 d/h/i/j/k/w/r WPS 2.0 support u.FL connector for external antenna Serial Interface Two Serial CMOS Ports (3.3V, 5V tolerant) 300 to 921.6 Kbps Flow control XON/XOFF, RTS/CTS (SPort 1 only) Lantronix tunneling application (SPort 1 only) Host Interface –  Dual Serial Port, SPI, USB 2.0 (device), […]

Emcraft Systems Announces Freescale Vybrid VF6 SoM With Cortex A5 CPU and Cortex M4 MCU

Emcraft Systems has recently announced Vybrid VF6 SoM, a System-on-Module powered by Freescale Vybrid VF6 dual core Cortex A5/Cortex M4 SoC with 128MB DDR3, and 512MB Flash, as well as a starter kit composed of VF6 SoM and a carrier board. Emcraft VF6 System-on-Module specifications: SoC – Freescale Vybrid VF6 dual-core microprocessor with the ARM Cortex-A5 (up to 500 MHz) and Cortex-M4 cores (up to 167 MHz). Either MVF61NN151CMK50 (No Security), or MVF61NS151CMK50 (with Security). System Memory – 128 MBytes DDR3 SDRAM; Storage – Up to 512 MBytes NAND Flash, 32 MBytes dual QSPI Flash; Connectivity – Two 10/100 Ethernet interfaces with L2 switch; External interfaces using two 80-pin 0.4 mm-pitch connectors: Two USB 2.0 OTG interfaces Serial console interface at the UART CMOS levels; JTAG interface to the Vybrid VF6 TFT LCD interface Synchronous audio interface (SAI) supporting I2S, AC97 and CODEC/DSP interfaces Multiple serial digital (UART, SPI, I2C, […]