The PCB routing of our most complex board – IMX8QM-Tukhla is complete and ready for first prototype build.
We started this project June-July 2020. Due to the Covid19 the development took 10 months although only 6 month of active work was done, due to lock downs, ill developers and so on troubles.
Now the board is completely routed and has these features:
Main SOC MIMX8QM5AVUFFAB which is member of iMX8 Quad Max series – the most powerful iMX8 SOC line from NXP.
MIMX8QM5AVUFFAB has 8 cores:
x2 Cortex-A72 running at 1.6Ghz
x4 Cortex-A53 running at 1.2Ghz
x2 Cortex-M4F running at 264Mhz
Memory:
64-bit LPDDR4 @1600 MHz
Connectivity:
1× PCIe (2-lanes)
1× USB 3.0 with PHY
1x USB 3.0 dual role with PHY
1× SATA 3.0
2× 1Gb Ethernet with AVB
1× CAN/CAN-FD
1x HDMI Rx
GPU:
2xGC7000 XSVX
16× Vec4 shaders with 64 execution units
Dual independent 8-Vec4 shader GPUs or a combined 16-Vec4 shader GPU
OpenGL 3.0, 2.1
OpenGL ES 3.2, 3.1 (with AEP), 3.0, 2.0, and 1.1
OpenCL 1.2 Full Profile and 1.1
OpenVG 1.1
Vulkan
VPU:
H.265 decode (4Kp60)
H.264 decode (4Kp30)
WMV9/VC-1 imple decode
MPEG 1 and 2 decode
AVS decodeMPEG4.2 ASP,
H.263, Sorenson Spark decode
Divx 3.11 including GMC decode
ON2/Google VP6/VP8 decode
RealVideo 8/9/10 decode
JPEG and MJPEG decode
2× H.264 encode (1080p30)
Display:
Supports single UltraHD 4Kp60 display
or up to 4 independent FullHD 1080p60 displays
2× MIPI-DSI with 4 lanes each
1× HDMI-TX/DisplayPort
2× LVDS Tx with 2 channels of 4 lanes each
Camera:
2× MIPI-CSI with 4-lanes each, MIPI DPHYSM v1.
Security:
Advanced High Assurance Boot (AHAB) secure & encrypted boot
Operating temperature:
Automotive AEC-Q100 Grade 3 -40+125C
To the best of our knowledge there is no Open Source Board so far which to be so complex and advanced.
Now we are running the first prototypes and crossing fingers everything to work 🙂
With the current state of the semiconductor industry production will not be possible to be run soon.
Linux support will need attention as NXP has no mainline Linux for this SOC, but only Yocto build for old kernel (4.14.98_2.3.3).
If there are people with experience and interest in this SOC we may share one of the first samples we build, so they can help on the Linux support.
The schematic of IMX8QM-TUKHLA Revision A is uploaded for review on out ftp.
A64-OLinuXino is Open Source Hardware Quad core 64 bit Linux Computer.
We also offer nice metal box for it named BOX-A64-BLACK:
The only problem was that A64-OLinuXino have option for on board WiFi-BT but it uses PCB antenna and when put in box the communication range was decreasing signiificantly.
New revision of A64-OLinuXino board now supports both internal PCB antenna and U.FL externally attached 2.4Ghz antenna.
So A64-OLinuXino can be put inside the metal box and have the antenna outside:
We have new product category: Soldering components which include solder paste and soldering wires.
SAC305 solder paste is with the industry standard Sn96.5Ag3Cu0.5 composition. It’s ROHS compliant and has melting temperature 217C. The paste is Class 4 with 20-38um solder particles and is good for printing down to 0.4mm pich components. The packing is 0.5KG, we recommend to use fast shipment when order this paste as it must be kept at low temperature of 5-10C to prevent solder flux separation. The paste is good for 6 months from the date of manufacture.
Some applications are ROHS exempt and still use SnPb solder paste. This paste is with Sn63Pb37 composition and melting temperature 183C. The paste is Class 4 with 25-38um solder particles and is good for printing down to 0.4mm pich components. The packing is 0.5KG, we recommend to use fast shipment when order this paste as it must be kept at low temperature of 5-10C to prevent solder flux separation. You should not use this paste in ROHS compliant products as it contains Lead. The paste is good for 6 months from the date of manufacture.
For manual soldering we offer no clean SAC0307ROHS compliant soldering wire with 2.2% Flux core and 0.6mm, 0.8mm and 1.0mm diameter. This alloy has melting temperature between 213 and 228C. Soldering iron temperature should be set between 245 and 375C depend on the components size.
For non ROHS compliant manual soldering Sn60Pb40 solder wire with 0.7mm diameter and 2% core Flux is available. This alloy has melting temperature 190C. Soldering iron temperature should be set between 240 and 350C depend on the components size.
A10 was one of most successful chips made by Allwinner, for couple of years it was top seller in tablets and other devices, A10 also was selected for our EUR 30 low cost Linux board the LIME.
Then Cortex-A8 single core become obsolete, then Allwinner released A20 – Dual Core more powerful and power efficient Cortex-A7 processor with pin to pin backward compatibility to A10.
This was incredible wise move for Allwinner as people could just re-use their old PCB designs without spending time to change PCBs.
A10/A20 had one nice feature – they have LCD, HDMI, SATA, Ethernet, in A20 Allwinner even add Gigabit Ethernet on top of the normal 100M Ethernet. All other new devices they release have either LCD either HDMI but not both and we miss SATA interface in all new Quad core devices they released.
Now they did it again – we got information from Allwinner that they are about to release Quad core more powerful processor which to be pin to pin compatible with A10/A20 we still don’t know the name, maybe A40 ? 🙂
Anyway this is very clever move as all existing designs which people have can be re-used. This means more modern SoC with more power but without forcing you to re-design your boards.
So expect Quad core LIME soon and I guess at same price range like other LIMEs!
In January 2015 Allwinner announced that start working on their Cortex-A53 chip with name A64. Today we got notice that A64 now is in production and ready for ordering.
A64 target is tablets, it have quad core Cortex-A53 inside, with Mali400MP2 GPU, supports MIPI, RGB, LVDS, HDMI with 4K output. The video engine supports H.264 and H.265 encoding and decoding, Audio codec and 5Mpix camera sensor.
The connectivity is weak – no native Ethernet, but just USB-OTG and USB-Host, SPI, I2C, UARTs and LRADC.
The price is again smashing $5 for the A64 SoC probably this is the lowest cost Quad Core Cortex-A53 chip on the market.
A64 comes in small sexy 13×13 mm BGA443 package with 0.5 mm step which makes PCB escape a little bit expensive and minimum 6 Layer PCB design with quite demanding technology.
Just few months ago the only ARM 64-bit platform to test apps was iPhone6 and development boards with 64-bit processors cost $3000.
Now Allwinner announced that they will release entry level tablet Cortex-A53 Quad core processor for $5, this means there will be sub $100 development boards for ARM 64-bit as soon as Allwinner start selling these chips 🙂
Still no complete info about the features, Allwinner made practice to announce chips when they start working on them, not when they have them finished which is a bit annoying as these chips are released about year later (like the announcement for A80 one year ago).
No word for connectivity if this SOC will have SATA/Ethernet or will rely on USB3.0 as in Allwinner A80.
One more great news is that they finally decided to move to Linux 3.10 kernel and to start using device tree. This will make mainline Linux support much easier.
Allwinner just posted on Twitter and made press release on their web that they work on new octa core processor named A83T.
So far there are no much info than it will be on 28 nm TSMC process and will be very power efficient. If we make analogy with A20 and A23/A33 the A83T will be lower cost feature cut version of A80.
The 8 cores will run up to 2Ghz! They name the architecture big.LITTLE but with 8 Cortex-A7 cores it should be more little.LITTLE 🙂
The question is how many applications will use all 8-cores? We all know the many-core is more sale buzzword than real performance improvement for most of the daily use cases.
At least in PC world 2 core at higher frequency will feel faster than 4 core at lower frequency for most of daily work and 4-core benefit will be seen just in some software products which really use the 4 cores.
As always software is way behind the hardware development.
Allwinner just announced that in July they start the mass production of their A33 Quad core Cortex-A7 processor targeting low end tablets and media players.
With 1080p playback, MALI400MP2, integrated HIFI Audio codec, low power consumption the target is clear – handheld media player devices and tablets, so far nothing new.
The new is that A33 comes from the very beginning at shocking low price of only $4 i.e. $1 per core or about same price as ATmega328 in single quantity in Digikey 🙂
So either 8-bit processors are overpriced either the competition of these tablet SoC is so crazy that it drives the vendors to fall on the rock bottom from the start.
Allwinner used to keep the prices of the newly released chips high at the beginning then to decrease them at half after a year. A31 was something like $20 when they start selling it now is under $10.
Unfortunately A33 have no Ethernet connectivity, so not quite good choice for Linux computer.
So far A20 is Allwinner best solution with both SATA and Ethernet interfaces, even their newest and most powerful A80 missing SATA.
Today our next SOM with RK3188 successfully was tested and OK.
This one is little beast comparing to A20 it have 4x Cortex-A9 vs 2x Cortex-A7 and runs on 1.6GHz vs. 1GHz so RK3188 makes total 16000 DMPIS vs. 3800 DMIPS for A20 (4.2 times faster) and vs. 965 DMIPS for RaspberryPi (16.6 times faster).
On the SOM there is:
RK3188 running at 1.6Ghz
1GB DDR3 memory
Power Managment Unit IC
optional 4GB NAND Flash
micro SD-card to boot Llinux or Android
two buttons
three status LEDs
debug UART console
5 GPIO connectors 2×20 pins 0.05″ step
RK3188-SOM and RK3188-SOM-4GB will be available for sale in June. The price of RK3188-SOM will be EUR 40 / 1000 pcs, the price of RK3188-SOM-4GB will be EUR 45 / 1000 pcs
RK3188-SOM-EVB is also available with Eagle CAD files, so any one can tailor board to his needs:
The RK3188-SOM-EVB reference design have:
RK3188-SOM-4GB module
4x USB Hosts
1x USB OTG
HDMI output
100MB Ethernet
RTC with backup battery
LCD connector compatible with A13-LCDxx A10-LCDxx, A20-LCDxx displays we have
2x UEXT connectors
2x 40 pin GPIO connectors
RK3188-SOM-EVB will be available for sale in June too and the price is EUR 85.00
Android and Debian Linux will be provided.
cpuinfo:
root@rk3188-som:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor : ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v7l)
processor : 0
BogoMIPS : 1631.46
processor : 1
BogoMIPS : 1631.46
processor : 2
BogoMIPS : 1631.46
processor : 3
BogoMIPS : 1631.46
Features : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant : 0x3
CPU part : 0xc09
CPU revision : 0
Hardware : RK30board
Revision : 0000
Serial : 0000000000000000
olimex 
Recent Comments