Today we assembled our first AM3352-SOM prototypes.
You can see on the picture above how they look, they are very tiny with only 61 x 38 mm size and 5 mm height.
The features are:
- AM3352BZCZ100 1Ghz Cortex-A8 Sitara processor from Texas Instruments
- 512MB of DDR3 RAM
- 6 layers PCB design
- power supply managment
- UART for console debug
- micro SD-card
- optional NAND flash 4GB
- reset circuit
- RESET and NMI buttons
- status LED
- all SoC ports on 0.05″ low profile, low cost connectors
We are going to test these modules and if everything is OK these will be manufactured in September after our summer vacation.
The volume price for 1000 pcs of AM3352-SOM (512MB RAM, 0GB FLASH) will be only EUR 26
AM3352-SOM-EVB low cost 2 layer design evaluation board is also designed with these features:
- receptacle connectors for AM3352-SOM module
- 4 USB hosts (LOW-FULL-HIGH Speed)
- 1 USB-OTG
- VGA connector
- LCD connector for our A13 range of LCDs : 4.3″, 7″, 10.1″
- CAN driver
- Dual Ethernet 100MB
- JTAG
- GPIO connector
- two UEXT connectors
- wake-up button
- 2 status LEDs
- power supply 6-16VDC
AM3352-SOM-EVB template could be used the customer to build their own solution on only 2 layers.
The software support for AM3352 is very good thanks to BeagleBone community, also AM3352 is in Texas Instruments production program which means no problems with supply for next 5 years.
As all AM335X Sitara series share same pinout AM3352-SOM could be manufactured with processors from the same series, also with 256MB of DDR3 memory upon customer request.
AM335X-SOM series will allow companies to reduce their design cycle, as only 2 layers mother board should be designed, not worrying for high speed DDR singals integrity problems associated with complete board design.
olimex 
Jul 25, 2013 @ 12:37:52
Is there extended temperature version available for the new SOM? This will enable lots of new apps. Thanks.
Jul 25, 2013 @ 12:43:23
the base EUR 26 SOM uses AM3352BZCZ100 which is 0-90C, but as you can see on the end of the post we can make these modules with any Sitara processor including parts with extended temperature range
Jul 25, 2013 @ 14:20:57
Looks quite interesting, Is there a way to get gigabit ethernet by using gigabit phy on base board? what about mounting holes? is it sufficient to let the board supported by 2 connectors?
Is there a plan to develop different SOM’s based on other SoCs with same 0.05″ connector interface?
If Olimex can develop cheap SOM’s with Q7 or SMARC interface, this would really fit into existing industrial application designs.
But anyway, its a great initiative by olimex to get the prices down.
Jul 25, 2013 @ 14:34:53
A20-SOM is completed with same 0.05″ connectors but they are not exchangeable as have different ports and features
with SOM concept you can do either to provide all features for the SoC (like we do) either to restrict yourself just to few interfaces which overlap in the different SoCs and to cut all other features which we think is not good
Gigabit PHY would be simple to add on the motherboard
mount holes just increase size without adding value, these 4 connectors snap very tight to the receptacles and is quite hard to take them off
Aug 27, 2013 @ 01:58:36
You have forgotten the option to use a connector that breaks out the largest set of interfaces of all the chips in your portfolio and have same interfaces always use the same positions in the connector. That way, smaller chips would leave some connector pins unused but modules could be made interchangeable, i.e., one base board could be used with all modules, though not all modules would use the entirety of interfaces of the base board. The Wandboard does this with the SATA connector, which is present on all base boards, though only the WB Quad modules actually connect them to the processor.
Aug 27, 2013 @ 08:23:36
wandaboard uses one same processor imx6 so the example is not very proper, make me connector assignment which is same for AM3352 and A20 as I do not see way this to be exchangable and to cover all ports on these two and all futures processors which may came in future like RK3188, new Allwinner processors which will come etc.
Jul 25, 2013 @ 22:45:03
Thanks for listening– you made my year!
https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=1141.0
Jul 26, 2013 @ 08:01:59
Great that Olimes has started to get in SoM’s there are almost no companies providing SoM’s for companies , most are quite expensive.
Jul 26, 2013 @ 08:03:09
I meant low cost SoM’s .
Jul 26, 2013 @ 11:09:15
This is turning out even better that i had anticipated! Great work! Do you already have documentation about what signals are available on the connectors or are all (relevant) pins on there?
Also you indicate that mounting holes do not provide value but for industrial purposes vibrations are very common and i dont think connectors alone could stand up against vibrations; you need some sort of fastening system.
Jul 26, 2013 @ 11:44:02
Based on nothing, I also see this as a problem. But very nice work.
Jul 26, 2013 @ 11:14:31
When will be released?
Jul 26, 2013 @ 11:53:48
Very very nice to see this SOM as prototype. And very nice that you design plans include that it could be attached to a customized 2 layer PCB.
Do you have any plans on designing this kind of SOM, but with the Freescale IMX6 solo processor instead?
I like your low cost target.
Jul 26, 2013 @ 12:01:44
imx6 quad is $40+ alone, so low cost SOM with imx6 is not going to happen soon 😉
Jul 26, 2013 @ 12:11:32
I was talking about the imx6 SOLO which regarding to their website is available for about $14 at 1000 pcs.
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX6S&tab=Buy_Parametric_Tab&nodeId=018rH3ZrDRB24A&pspll=1&fromSearch=false
Has I missed something?
Is seems like the specs overrule the AM3352 by far. What is your point of view?
Jul 26, 2013 @ 12:30:16
there are plenty of SOMs with imx6
we are not interested in solo as we already have low cost A20 Dual core boards, RK3188 is interesting as is 4 core Cortex-A9 running at 1.8Ghz and cost $12 in volume 😉
Jul 26, 2013 @ 14:28:10
But how about the longevity program and documentation. I thought that this was why you choose the AM3352?
Jul 26, 2013 @ 14:37:16
read my blog post below for Allwinner availability 🙂
AM3352 have dual Ethernet and PRUs something we cant see in other SoC vendors we cover, also Beagle Bone community made great Linux support
imx6-Solo offers nothing more than A10 I may be wrong but I even think due to Linux-Sunxi community the Linux support for A10 is better than imx6
Jul 26, 2013 @ 14:49:12
I have read your blog post, but I can’t see any guarantee.
On the docs, I can see your point. I think I will ask the engineers behind Wandboard for their point of view.
But thank you for your thoughts:) Great ones;)
Jul 26, 2013 @ 16:21:57
Community support and documentation for the imx6 is miles ahead of any of the Chinese manufacturers.
The documentation avaiable from Freescale is very impressive.
Jul 26, 2013 @ 16:39:55
great to hear this, as my imx / freescale linux support observations are mostly based for imx233 where the only kernel which supports all hardware is 2.6.x, thanks to Fabio things move slowly to 3.x but the video support is still missing and this is 5 years old device
friend of mine bought imx6 tv android dongle and try to install linux but said the hardware support is less than the support for A10, this was few months ago, probably things have changed since then
Jul 26, 2013 @ 17:38:40
@Olimex “AM3352 have dual Ethernet and PRUs”
I know that all AM335x have dual Ethernet MACs, but thought that AM3352/4 lacked the PRUs that AM3356/8/9 have. Any chance of getting these modules with one of the parts that has PRUs?
Jul 26, 2013 @ 17:48:41
we start with AM3352 0-90C 1Ghz and have already the devices in stock
there is no way to stock all seven different devices from Sitara serie in 5 different speed grades and two different operating temperatures waiting somebody to order :), later if some company decides to use our modules with different devices and place order for at least 1000 we can combine orders and stock these different devices as well, you will see this when these are add to our web shop
Jul 28, 2013 @ 12:27:52
I’m sorry but you are greatly misinformed. Freescale and TI have great (community) support and would be my choice over a Chinese manufacturer any day. Price is not the only thing one has to look at!
Jul 26, 2013 @ 16:50:17
They seem to provide great documentation and sources for linux and android and even some windows stuff.
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX6Q&fpsp=1&tab=Design_Tools_Tab
They have alot of things on there it’s a little overwhelming, but I think what you mentioned before is true that the high price of the quads means its used in less devices and the community around it is smaller.
Jul 26, 2013 @ 17:03:13
its hard to find imx6 quad device for less $100 while you can buy RK3188 quad device which runs at 80% faster clock for $38 on ebay 🙂 Rockchip plans to sell 50 millions RK3188 this year, even if the support now for RK3188 is at the very beginning with so many devices in circulation there will be definitely good Linux support soon
Jul 26, 2013 @ 17:18:52
Yeh, I’ve found that’s the problem with most western products and services. good support and docs but high cost. The Rk3188 market penetration is quite impressive.
Do you know where the EVB schematic is? I saw the RK3066 was released late last year, any ideas or clues as to the 3188? Do you guys have a relationship with rockchip at all?
Jul 26, 2013 @ 17:49:15
I have several blog posts for RK3188 which you can read below
Jul 27, 2013 @ 12:53:48
The SOM / EVM module both have no JTAG support, right?
Is there any plan to add JTAG support later?
I’m asking because I’m planing to use the TI Starterware for some bare metal programming with live debugging.
Jul 27, 2013 @ 22:14:18
these modules and the EVB have JTAG as written in the post 🙂
Jul 27, 2013 @ 20:26:01
Great news! This guys (http://www.tianyeit.com/pro_disp.aspx?id=400) sells their AM3352 SoM with 128M DDR3+256M NAND for ~27EUR@1k. So, it looks like you’ve already got a competitors, which is by no means good thing for us, your customers 🙂
By the way, how about adding a small mounting hole to the (future) SoM’s? AFAIK, these 0.05” pitch connections are not very secure without additional support.
Jul 27, 2013 @ 22:15:55
right, just these modules use the old buggy revision of AM3352 at 720Mhz 🙂
the connectors we use are so tight that you will have hard time to disconnect the modules once inserted
Jul 28, 2013 @ 15:05:13
Will android core have enabled access to USARTs? Does A13/Axx have enabled this to simly use android serial api?
Jul 30, 2013 @ 14:16:27
Amazing board and such good value – thanks team Olimex.
I cannot find a reference to this, but do y’all know if the Sitara has secure boot capability ?
(Like as found in the very similar Freescale Vybrid or Atmel’s SAMA5-D3 ?)
Aug 07, 2013 @ 19:01:02
This is an awesome looking SOM, can’t wait to get my hands on one. Do you have an eagle library part (receptor) we can use to add this to our own boards designs please?
regards
Al
Aug 24, 2013 @ 21:41:25
How about adding an audio codec on the AM3352-SOM-EVB ?
Sep 13, 2013 @ 15:18:12
The Freescale Vybrid VF6xx is a little different. It has A5 and M4 cores, for application and real-time separation. That could be a good SOM for Olimex
Sep 27, 2013 @ 13:18:59
Is there any progress on this SOM, when will it be available?
Sep 29, 2013 @ 11:34:48
Is it already ready for selling?
Oct 28, 2013 @ 12:53:05
Any information about the availability?
Oct 28, 2013 @ 14:50:36
not yet
Nov 17, 2013 @ 12:53:32
I am still very interested on this board, any news?
Jan 22, 2014 @ 00:51:15
Would be nice to have a dual Ethernet board as mini-firewall, perhaps it could run openbsd and/or pfsense 🙂
Jan 22, 2014 @ 10:06:39
Would be nice to hear to hear if this SOM is still planned for production, or if it was only a showcase
Jan 22, 2014 @ 10:12:59
Last update I have seen was on 24 nov 13: https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=2198.0
“sure it will be 🙂
just there was much more interesing stuff to deal with meantime like: A10-OLinuXino-LIME, A20-SOM, A13-SOM, RK3188-SOM which we wanted to finish first, A10-OLinuXino-LIME and A20-SOM are now in production status, A13-SOM and RK3188-SOM are on prototypes, so soon we will have time to spend on AM3352-SOM too 🙂 but do not hold your breath as something else interesting my occur meantime 🙂 ”
I’m still trying to be patient, but I still think it would be nice if they Olimex have some kind of status update site for the projects.