Page 55 - EE Times Europe Magazine | April2019

EE|Times EUROPE — Boards & Solutions Insert 55

EMBEDDED COMPUTING
SODIMM-Format SoM

Targets Embedded Designers

By Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio

irect Insight presented the board,” said David Pashley, Direct
TRITON-TX8M system-on-module Insight’s managing director.
(SoM) in a SODIMM format at Unlike an SoM, an SoC can contain various
Dembedded world. The module is digital and analog functions on a single sub-
based on NXP’s affordable i.MX8M Mini Quad strate. One of the most significant advantages
Arm Cortex-A53 processor, which has four of an SoC is that it is usually more energy-
64-bit Arm Cortex-A53 cores running up to efficient. At the hardware level, the SoC still Figure 2:
1.6 GHz (Figure 1). has one significant disadvantage: You are TRITON-TX8M
A system-on-module is one step above an stuck in that configuration for life, and this development kit
SoC. It incorporates connectivity, multimedia limits the manufacturer-related applications. (Image: Direct Insight)
and display, GPIO, an operating system, and Integrating everything on a single board
others in a single module. On the other also creates some problems. Once the SoC
hand, SoM-based designs are usually scalable is built, it can no longer be modified. That’s advantage of the time-to-market opportunity,
to achieve a fully customized electronics why it’s vital to know what its destination is it all needs to go smoothly.
assembly in terms of interfaces and form before you design it. Despite this precaution, “The only limitations you have from a
factors. SoMs can be replaced or upgraded the programmer will have to do somersaults system-on-module compared with designing
within a carrier board. Some advantages of to create software that does not exceed the from the ground up with a system-on-chip
the SoM approach over SoC development limits imposed by the hardware. To overcome is that, obviously from a hardware standpoint,
include cost savings, reduced market risk, this limitation, SoM comes to our aid and there are fewer pins. The SODIMM module
reduced customer design requirements, and offers us much more flexibility. has 200 pins. The actual system-on-chip
reduced footprint. “There are problems with the adoption of has over 400 pins, so you’ll appreciate that
“SODIMM modules are very good because system-on-modules,” said Pashley. “It’s not there is some limitation in the number of
they use a standard format; you can plug, just as a component, because you have APIs interfaces.”
unplug, and reprogram them into your carrier and complex integrations to do, and to take The tiny TRITON module, 68 × 26 mm
(LVDS version: 28 mm), comes with
1,024-MB or 2,048-MB DDR3L and a 4-GB
Multimedia
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) Core Complex 1 Core Complex 2 eMMC. A second complex core is equipped
3D GPU — 1-shader, OpenGL ES with an Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller,
2.0, Open VG 1.1 1× Arm Cortex-M4 core and full graphics capabilities are provided by
2D GPU — BitBlt and 1×/2×/4× Arm Cortex-A53 cores 16-KB L1 I-cache 16-KB L1 D-cache powerful 3D and 2D GPUs.
Composition Engine 32-KB L1 I-cache 32-KB L1 D-cache 256-KB TCM (SRAM) The module provides a wide range of con-
NEON FPU
Video Processing Unit (VPU) nectivity, including an Ethernet port, two USB
Connectivity & I/O
1080p60 HEVC/H.265, 512-KB L2 Cache 2.0 ports, a MIPI-DSI display or an alternative
H.264, VP9, VP8 Decoder 1× PCle 2.0 with I1 substates (1-lane) construction with an LVDS display, MIPI-CSI
Security camera input, and many other interfaces. The
1080p60 H.264, VP8 Encoder 2× USB2.0 Dual Role and PHY
HAB, SRTC, SJTAG, TrustZone i.MX8M Mini’s VPU provides 1080p encoding
1× Gb Ethernet
Display Controller AES256, RSA 4096, SHA-256, 3DES, (with IEEE 1588, EEE & ABV Support) and decoding capabilities. The TRITON-TX8M
DES, Elliptic Curve (ECC), ARC4, MD5 comes with Linux or Windows 10 IoT Core
Display Support up to 1080p Secure Real-Time Clock (RTC) 4× UART 5 Mbps BSP, providing an ideal platform for
mission-critical projects. Direct Insight is also
eFuse Key Storage 4× I 2 C
Display and Camera I/O developing a BSP for QNX 7.0. The modules in
True Random-Number Generator (RNG) 3× SPI
1× MIPI-DSI (4 lanes) the TRITON-TX family based on i.MX6- and
32-KB Secure RAM 4× PWM i.MX8 based on i.MX8 all take a single 3.3- to
1× MIPI-CSI (4 lanes) 5.5-V power supply and provide up to 300-mA,
System Control 3.3-V output power for use on the baseboard.
Audio I/O External Memory
2× Smart DMA Direct Insight also offers a TRITON-TX8M
20× I 2 S 6× Timer, 3× Watch Dog x32/x16 LPDDR4/DDR4/DDR3L development kit with a 10-inch touchscreen,
Up to 3,000 MTps
1,280 × 800 resolution, and other interfaces
SPDIF Tx & Rx Boot ROM 3× SDIO3.0/eMMC5.1 such as a MiniPCI expansion port, RJ45 Eth-
Resource Domain Controller ernet connector, 3.5-mm audio jack, 120-pin
DSD512 NAND CTL (SLC/MLC) — BCH62
PMCI Interface expansion head, MIPI-CSI camera port, and
8-ch. PDM Mic Temp Monitor Sensor 1× QuadSPI (XIP) micro-SD card (Figure 2). ■
Optional Capacity Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio is a staff
correspondent at AspenCore, editor of Power
Figure 1: i.MX8M Mini block diagram (Image: Direct Insight) Electronics News, and editor-in-chief of EEWeb.

www.eetimes.eu | APRIL 2020