It’s a pleasant surprise to see our AM3352-SOM in High-End Audio product at M.O.C. Messegelände München

It was noticed by our friend and Audiophile Boris Ribov from Technical University in Plovdiv, who went to visit M.O.C. Messegelände München.

Our guess is AM3352-SOM is used as communication board there handling USB, Ethernet etc communication.

Sitara System On Modules expands with new processor AM3359 and SLC NAND Flash option

We have more Sitara SOMs in stock:

• AM3352-SOM with AM3352CZBZ100 running at 1Ghz
• AM3352-SOM-IND with AM3352CZBZA100 running at 1Ghz (-40+85C)
• AM3352-SOM-512-IND with 512MB SLC NAND Flash on board
• AM3359-SOM-IND with AM3359CZBZA80 running at 800Mhz(-40+85C)
• AM3359-SOM-512-IND with 512MB SLC NAND Flash on board

Sitara internal bootloader do not handle well big NAND Flash memories, so for the moment 512MB is what we can use with current design.

SOM204 version with eMMC will be available by the end of this year and it will allow up to 64GB eMMC Flash options.

 

A20-SOM204 and SOM204-EVB preliminary info is uploaded on our web

SOM204 is SODIMM form factor System-On-Module we are working for a while (actually from so long time ago that SOM204-EVB platform is made in Eagle which we dropped to use officially from quite some time ago).

The SODIMM connector has these signals:

• Power supply: +5V, GND, LiPobattery, RTC_backup, Stepup-Output, Stepup-enable, USB+5V
• Interfaces: Gigabit Ethernet, Megabit Ethernet, CAN, SATA, PCIe, USB2.0 HOST x2, USB-OTG, USB3.0 HOST, HSIC, UARTx3, SPIx2, I2Cx2, CSI, microSD, GPIOs with interrupts,
• Display: HDMI, VGA
• Audio: SPDIF, Line-in/out, Microphone, Headphone.

You can see complete SOM204 platform signals here.

The idea behind SOM204 is to make Universal interchangeable SOM with different performance and resources.

Our first SOM204 module is with A20 processor, it’s now in production and will be available for purchase next week.

The second SOM204 module is with A64, the third is with RK3328 which we expect to be ready for production around June. Next to follow is AM335X which will be ready by end of the year together with RK3399. The goal is to have 5 different modules by the end of the year.

A20-SOM204 comes with 1GB RAM, optional SPI Flash or eMMC Flash up to 64GB, two native Ethernets (this is the only A20 board with dual native Ethernets) Gigabit and Megabit, SATA and so on. The USB3.0 interface and PICe interfaces are not wired. On top on SOM204 platform LCD and additional GPIOs are exposed on FPC connectors:

The A20-SOM204 schematic is here.

A20-SOM204-EVB is evaluatuon board with A20-SOM204

A20-SOM204 software is Armbian with mainline kernel and support for all SOM peripherials.

 

The most anticipated AM3352-SOM-EVB boards are now in stock

The development of this board was epic, mostly because of the messed up Linux SDK for Sitara and the absence of any real help neither from TI neither from Beagle Bone community, which do not care for anything but BB 🙂 Also the comprehensive and confusing TI documentation.

Finally we have got working clean Linux with cut off vendor locked crap (we don’t say this is done perfectly, probably there are people who can do this better and faster than us), but we wanted to do it the hard way and to learn something meanwhile.

What we have on AM3352-SOM-EVB is:

• AM3352 Sitara running on 1Ghz
• 512MB of DDR3 RAM
• power management without using expensive TI PMU parts
• VGA output
• Dual Ethernet 100Mbit
• 4 USB hosts with power management
• USB OTG
• CAN with driver
• LCD connector where you can connect our LCD-OLinuXino with 4.3″ 7″ and 10″, 15.6″ LCD will not work as it require LVDS which Sitara do not have
• UART console
• JTAG
• 2x UEXT connectors with SPI, I2C and UARTs
• GPIO connector with Analog Inputs, PWMs, GPIOs etc.

all this for EUR 60

For these who want to build their own Sitara boards the AM3352-SOM modules start from EUR 25.90 for 1000 pcs and cost only EUR 27.75 for 100 pcs.

Industrial version of AM3352-SOM can be build on request, it will cost EUR 5.00 more and the minimum order is 100 pcs.

Preliminary Product info: AM3352-SOM and AM3352-SOM-EVB Sitara processors System On Module

AM3352-SOM is system on module with Sitara AM3352 Cortex-A8 microcontroller. AM3352BZCZ100 with temperature range 0-90C and clock 1Ghz is used, but the SOM module could be build with any of Sitara family processors as they share same pinout. AM3352-SOM have option for 4GB NAND Flash, have console UART and micro SD-card.

All AM3352 ports are available on 4 x 40 pin 0.05″ connectors.

The prices of AM3352-SOM module without NAND Flash start from EUR 25.90 for 1000 pcs.

AM3352-SOM-EVB is evaluation board for AM3352-SOM with these features

• one AM3352-SOM
• AM3352-SOM matching connectors
• CAN driver
• VGA output
• LCD output
• 2x 100MB Ethernet interface
• 2x UEXT connectors
• 4x USB host
• USB-OTG
• 4 GPIO connectors x40 pin 0.1″
• status LEDs

AM3352-SOM-EVB price is EUR 75 for single quantity.

AM3352-SOM and AM3352-SOM-EVB will be for sale at the end of May. AM3352-SOM-EVB will be available free of charge to selected developers who work on TI Sitara Kernel support. To apply for free board e-mail us to info@olimex.com.

AM3352-SOM module with 1Ghz Sitara Cortex-A8 SoC prototypes are ready

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.

AM3352-OLinuXino design is planned

New AM3352-OLinuXino design is planned, based on Texas Instruments’ Sitara AM335X Cortex-A8 processor, same serie which is used in BeagleBone

The board features will be:

• AM3352 720Mhz, Cortex-A8 processor
• 512MB DDR3 RAM (optional we will make 1GB RAM version also)
• power supply 6-16VDC
• 4 USB 2.0 hosts
• 100Mbit Ethernet
• SD-card
• VGA
• CAN
• GPIO connector
• LCD connector with touchscreen to work with A13-LCD7TS and A13-43TS LCDs
• UEXT connector
• JTAG

Comparing to Allwinner, Texas Instruments provides complete users manual, datasheets, and AM335X Linux support is already in mainline kernel, so this compensates the little bit higher price than A1X and the less performance at only 720Mhz.

The plan is to complete the schematic by end of December and to have prototypes in February, the price of AM3352-OLinuXino 512MB RAM version will be around EUR 50.