If you ever made a PCB, you quickly realized that the component library of the PCB design software is usually pretty limited for such sophisticated programs. Usually, one has to resort to external tools to access the schematic symbols, footprints and 3D models, or design our own in the designer, which takes some precious time and is arguably the least enjoyable step of the process. Autodesk released Library.io to help you in that process.
The idea behind Library.io is to simplify this process, by helping you generate PCB packages by entering a few dimensions from the datasheet of the desired component on the browser, from which you can export to your favorite software. Simple, right? Actually, it is! Library.io creates manufacturing-ready PCB packages, where the geometries are generated to meet IPC-7351B standards.
Autodesk’s Library.io in action
I decided to give it a try: after clicking on “Create a new package”, you are greeted with a package generator selector menu, containing a wide range of packages as a starting point (such as BGA, crystal, DIP, QFN, SOT23, among others) on the left, and a package inspector on the right, where you can observe a high-quality 3D rendering of your model, allowing you to move the camera to better inspect the package, glance at the footprint and the model. By selecting one of the available packages, you enter a detailed view, where the package’s measurements are shown, similarly to what you find in the mechanical section of the datasheet. There, you insert all the mechanical measures, choose the number of pads and their shape, along with the density level of the package, configure the silkscreen, and the tolerances for fabrication and placement. Finally, to export, you just hit finish and export it to your favorite CAD software, which may or may not be an easy process, depending on the software you are using, as Autodesk owns Eagle and they probably want you to use it.
Besides the ability to design your own package from scratch, the website also allows you to browse an extensive library of components, which might be a good idea to check before looking up the datasheet for the dimensions, saving you from the already small amount of work.
There are also some extra functionalities, some of which require a premium subscription: you can import and store component libraries on the cloud, create managed folders, that can be shared with an entire team, allowing you to share your component library with your coworkers.
To wrap this up: Autodesk delivers with Library.io an interesting tool that can help speed up the development of your future PCB’s. Do you intend to use it in your future projects?
Artila Electronics, which specializes in the development and manufacture of Linux-ready Arm embedded industrial computers, is glad to announce SBC-7530, an ARM based Cortex-A7 turnkey single board computer, delivers stable, strong system performance in a low power platform; it’s designed specifically for applications which require multiple I/O connection, networking connectivity and high performance graphic interfaces. With arm processor coupled and the open Linux operating system provides the backbone for innovative smart IoT solutions.
Artila brings SBC-7530 as ready solution for industrial HMI, an ideal single board computer based on Arm cortex-A7 for different automation and display applications. The use of our turnkey single board computer systems minimizes development risks for reliable, rugged design with arm processor also it’s compact size allow to be embedded in devices where space is very limited. The computers are also very efficient, giving them an edge where saving on power is concerned. Artila’s SBC-7530 is self-contained that generally less capacity than a multi-board computer. It makes a cost effective solutions for industry and, because they are it is relatively easy to swap one out for the other if a computer needs to be replaced.
To fulfill all requirements for industrial applications, it supports one miniPCIe slot that easily deploy connectivity technology / RF modules to achieve wireless network communication and position. Such as LTE/4G, Lora both wired / wireless LAN. It is also equipped 4 x UART ports with RS-232/485 support, 1 x CAN bus 2.0, 2 x OTG/HOST USB , 1 x SD card slot. SBC-7530 demonstrates it is not only the best hardware solution for industrial markets, but also flexible enough to be applied to various applications such as automation control, human-machine interfaces, industry controllers, and IoT device related applications.
With its high performance and rich I/O interface appeal, SBC-7530 is extremely power saving, with low power consumption and the reliable power circuit design, users can confidently develop the most solid, stable and durable industrial applications.
For more information regarding SBC-7530 or other Artila products, please visit www.artila.com, or email to sales@artila.com.
In the previous tutorials, we talked about the inverting op-amp and non-inverting op-amp, we considered configurations that take a single input on either pin “-” or “+” of the operational amplifier, while the other pin is grounded.
However, it is possible, as we will see during this article, to supply both inputs of an op-amp with signals in order to obtain an output that is directly proportional to the input difference. This new configuration is commonly known as a differential amplifier.
We introduce this new configuration in the first section where we present its functioning and demonstrate its output expression.
A simple example of a differential amplifier along with some basic differential-based applications is presented in the second section.
Finally, the last section briefly presents the instrumentation amplifiers which are essential differential-based configurations found in acquisition chains to treat sensor outputs.
Presentation
The goal of this section is to introduce the reader to the differential amplifier configuration and to demonstrate its output expression.
In Figure 1, we present the circuit representation of the basic differential amplifier. The inputs are labeled V1 and V2 and are in connection with the op-amp inverting and non-inverting pins through the resistors R1 and R2. The output is labeled Vout and the resistors Rf and Rg stand respectively for “feedback” and “ground”.
fig 1: General differential amplifier op-amp circuit
In the following, we will suppose the op-amp to be ideal, which is a very good approximation of modern real amplifiers. As a consequence, we have no currents entering through the pins – and + of the op-amp, moreover, the equality V+=V– between the potentials at the same pins is satisfied.
The voltage V+ is determined by the voltage divider formula linking R2 and Rg:
The voltage V– can be written thanks to Millman’s theorem which stipulates that the potential at a node can be written as the sum of the currents entering the node and divided by the sum of the admittances in each branch:
Since we suppose V+=V–, both previous equations are also equal. After rearranging this equality, we finally obtain the output expression for a differential amplifier in the general case, which is a superposition of both inputs V1 and V2:
eq 1: Differential amplifier output expression in the general case
Differential mode
The configuration R1≠R2≠Rf≠Rg is however never used in real circuits. What we should aim for when designing a differential amplifier is to get an output of the form Vout=A(V2-V1), with A being a common factor.
In the following paragraphs, we show under which condition (that we call differential condition) this common factor can be written.
In order to get a common factor for V1 and V2, the following equality must be satisfied:
After some basic simplification steps, the differential condition can finally be written Rf/R1=Rg/R2. In this case, we obtain indeed Vout=A(V2-V1) with A=Rf/R1.
We can even simplify the circuit by choosing R1=R2 and Rf=Rg (which still satisfies the differential condition and with again A=Rf/R1):
fig 2: Differential amplifier operating in differential mode
Subtractor mode
If we add the conditions R1=Rf and R2=Rg, not only we satisfy the condition to write the output under the form Vout=A(V2-V1) but also we get A=1.
In this case, we cannot talk of the circuit as a differential amplifier since the difference V2-V1 is not amplified, we instead label the configuration as a subtractor with Vout being directly equal to the input difference.
Differential amplifier examples
As stated in the introduction, differential amplifier op-amps can be very useful to process the output signal of a sensor. We first present some very simple sensors that are resistors which resistance value depends on an external physical parameter.
In the second part, we need to present what is a Wheatstone bridge before focusing on the third part which deals with the integration of these sensors in a differential amplifier circuit to understand how the signal is processed.
Dependent resistor
In the following, we present the basics of resistors which resistance values depend on the light intensity (photoresistor) or on the temperature (thermistor).
fig 3: Photoresistor and thermistor symbols
A good modelization for both photoresistor and thermistor resistance values is to consider an exponential decrease with an increase of the light intensity or temperature:
fig 4: Transfer function of dependent resistors
Wheatstone bridge
A Wheatstone bridge is a measuring circuit composed of 4 resistors interconnected in a loop configuration such as shown in Figure 5. One of the resistors has an unknown value (Rx), one is a variable resistor (Rv), and two have known and fixed values (R1 and R2).
fig 5: Circuit representation of a Wheatstone bridge
We won’t explain here the details about the measuring procedure of a Wheatstone bridge but we will assume that when no current is detected by the galvanometer (or amp meter) across the nodes R1-Rv and R2-Rx after adjusting the value of Rv, the resistance Rx is given by Equation 1.
This condition is also known as the balancing condition of the Wheatstone bridge.
eq 1: Unknown resistance value of a Wheatstone bridge
Light/temperature detection
In the following Figure 6, we present a light-detection circuit based on a differential amplifier configuration, including a Wheatstone bridge with resistors R1, R2, the photosensitive resistor RPh which plays the role of the unknown resistor, and a light-adjusting resistor RA which plays the role of variable resistor. The feedback resistor RH adjusts the hysteresis.
Note that a temperature-detection circuit consists only of replacing the photoresistor by a thermistor.
fig 6: Light-detection circuit
The goal of the resistance RA is used to set the “reference” light-level, indeed, when a certain level of light changes the value of RPh, we can adjust RA in order to balance the Wheatstone bridge and get a zero differential input V2-V1, and therefore no output signal as well.
When the light intensity changes, the circuit becomes unbalanced and a voltage difference V2-V1 appears. Even with a small luminosity change, the op-amp will amplify the differential signal in order to correctly detect it and eventually process it in the next stages of the circuit.
One possible way to process the signal is by connecting a LED to the output of the op-amp. The LED is only ON when the output voltage is above a certain value, it stays OFF otherwise. For the configuration presented in Figure 6, the LED would turn ON in the absence of light making it a “darkness detector”. To get the opposite effect and build a “light detector”, we simply need to exchange the positions of RPh and RA.
Instrumentation amplifiers
One of the limitations of differentials amplifiers when it comes to process sensors outputs is its relatively low input impedance. Indeed, the input impedance of the general configuration presented in Figure 1 is equal to R1+R2, which is much lower than the input impedance of a common non-inverting op-amp.
In practice, for this reason, differential amplifiers are never used alone for processing sensor outputs as their low input impedance can bias what the source (sensor in our case) provides (see the tutorial op-amp building blocks for more information).
The solution to increasing the input impedance is to connect voltage followers before the inverting and non-inverting inputs of the differential amplifier. This configuration, known as an instrumentation amplifier, is presented in Figure 7 below:
The voltage drop across the resistor R1, which is the input of the differential amplifier, is equal to V2-V1, except that this time, the sources of the signals V1 and V2 sees a very high input impedance thanks to both buffers.
Conclusion
The primary goal of a differential amplifier is to amplify a voltage difference, that corresponds to the difference between the two input signals applied at its inverting and non-inverting inputs.
We have seen that in the general case (with arbitrary resistors), the op-amp doesn’t really amplify the difference since a difference factor is found for V1 and V2. It is actually more interesting to equalize the input resistances and the feedback and ground resistances (which we called the differential condition) in order to get an output of the form Vout=A(V2-V1).
In the second section, we dealt with a light/temperature detector circuit based on a differential amplifier. First, we briefly presented how a photoresistor/thermistor and Wheatstone bridge worked. The circuit shown in Figure 6 merges these different circuits and elements in order to create a simple light/temperature sensor.
However, the low input impedance that this circuit presents is its bigger disadvantage. In order to solve this problem, buffers are usually placed as an input to the differential amplifier as we present in the last section about instrumentation amplifiers.
MPS’ quad-output, DC/DC stepdown power module features up to 2 A and 3 A per output
Monolithic Power Systems’ MPM54304 is a complete power management module that integrates four high-efficiency step-down DC/DC converters, inductors, and a flexible logic interface. This COT control DC/DC converter provides a fast transient response. Its default 1.5 MHz switching frequency greatly reduces the external capacitor size. The output voltage is adjustable through the I2C bus or preset by the three-time programmable MTP (multiple-time programmable) e-fuse. The power-on/off sequence is also programmable via the MTP. Full protection features include UVLO, OCP, and thermal shutdown. The MPM54304 requires a minimal number of external components and is available in a space-saving LGA (7 mm x 7 mm x 2 mm) package.
Specifications
Configurable, multi-functional GPIO pin
I2C and configurable parameters:
Paralleling channel 1 and 2
Paralleling channel 3 and 4
Switching frequency
Output voltage
Overcurrent and overvoltage protection threshold
Power-on and power-off sequencing
Forced PWM or auto-PWM/PFM
4 V to 16 V operating input range
Wide output voltage:
I2C programmable: 0.55 V to 5.4 V
External resistor divider: 0.6 V to 7 V or VIN x DMAX if VIN <7 V
Toshiba Electronics Europe continues to drive innovation forward in optoelectronics with the addition of more photorelays to its expansive portfolio. All three of these devices are housed in the new P-SON4 package format. They are able to deliver very strong performance characteristics while taking up significantly less board space than commonly used SOP packages.
The TLP3480, TLP3481 and TLP3482 each have OFF-state output terminal voltage ratings and ON-state current ratings that are comparable to larger SOP-packaged devices – with these parameters ranging from 30 V and 4.5 A (for the TLP3480), 60 V and 3 A (TLP3481) to 100 V and 2 A (TLP3482). They also have low ON-resistance figures, due to the incorporation of Toshiba’s proprietary trench MOSFET technology.
With 2.1 mm × 3.4 mm (typ.) dimensions, the new P-SON4 package format presents a very small mounting area. This means the photorelays are well suited to high-density board mounting, where there is very limited space available. Their 7.2 mm2 (typ.) mounting area is approximately 74% smaller than 2.54SOP4 and 84% smaller than 2.54SOP6 package types.
These highly compact photorelay devices are intended for use in a wide variety of measuring equipment and instrumentation – with semiconductor testers, probe cards and I/O interface boards among the key applications deriving benefits.
Have you ever wanted to simulate an Arduino? Either for convenience or to ensure the project works before implementing it or even buying the components, a simulator is an extremely welcome (and useful) tool, especially if it’s just right there, in your browser. With that said, Wokwi.com’s Arduino Playground is here to help you!
Arduino Playgroud is a free Arduino simulation tool in the browser, where you can write your own sketches in it and use it with other components, such as LED’s, buttons, displays (from seven segments to OLED’s), potentiometers, among others. It also allows you to monitor the I2C and serial peripherals. You are not very limited in terms of them, as there is already a rich set of components, with new additions coming all the time, where you can also request your favorite ones to be added. Aside from writing your own sketches, both the libraries and components come with multiple examples, so you’re not lost there. Besides the technical components themselves, you can also try some games and example projects, such as the traffic light, the Simon game, and my least beloved, the spaceship game. Try it, you will know why.
Left to right: NeoPixel matrix, keypad, servo and the spaceship game, all available in the Arduino Playground
Jokes aside, you can modify the code, tinker with all the simulated components and experiment with the libraries that you intend to use, to then see the results almost immediately in your browser without any hardware or even extra software. This is specially useful if you want to speed up the development of your project, by ensuring it works even before your components have arrived.
The interface is clean, providing you with your virtual components and the Arduino sketch side by side, which can also format your code and upload it to a real Arduino (in Beta). Since the website is mobile-friendly, you can even code on the road, always a nice touch. Unfortunately, you are unable to share or save your tinkered projects or bookmark/save them online for future use, but will soon be added to the already feature-packed playground. From an electronics simulator perspective, it would be nice to have current and voltage measurements. More features will be added soon, as this ongoing project seeks actively for the feedback of the Arduino community.
Performace-wise, the sketches run seamlessly without any issues. The Arduino simulator runs over the emulated AVR8jscore implemented in Javascript, meaning that every instruction is executed, not just simulated, making it a blazing fast experience. The emulator is downloadable via the NPM package manager, which means that you are free to try it out in your own Javascript projects.
The Arduino Playground’s interface
Right now, Wokwi is a very promising Arduino simulator, and it only looks like it’s gonna get better!
RF testing is getting quite popular these days, with many devices featuring wireless capabilities. However, RF test devices are quite expensive, therefore slowing down it’s popularity. However, there’s a new RF test device in town which is very affordable, called the TinySA. Under development since February, the RF is now available for pre-order. The tinySA is a small spectrum analyzer having dual inputs. One of the input enables working frequencies over the MF/HF/VHF bands of 100KHz to 350MHz and the second input enables a lower quality frequency measurements over the UHF band of 240MHz to 960MHz. The tinySA is part of Huyen’s stable of products aimed at radio amateurs, students, and electronic enthusiasts.
TinySA Test Chart
It features a switchable resolution bandpass filters for both ranges between 2.6kHz and 640kHz. The tinySA also features a 2.8” color display screen showing 290 scan points covering up to the full low or high-frequency range. It Input Step attenuator can be set from 0dB to 31dB for the MF/HF/VHF input, but the UHF input cannot exceed 10dBm. Another key feature of the tinySA is that when not used as Spectrum Analyzer it can be used as Signal Generator, MF/HF/VHF sinus output between 0.1MHZ-350MHz, it can output a sinusoid with harmonics lower than -40dB of fundamental at an output point that is pickable in 1 dB steps between -76dBm and -6dBm. It also features an optional AM and FM module or a moderate brush over the selective frequency range (UHF square wave output between 240MHz-960MHz).
The tinySA also features a built-in calibration signal generator that is used for automatic self-test and low input calibration. The tinySA can be connected to a PC via USB it becomes a PC controlled Spectrum Analyzer. The device also features a rechargeable battery allowing a minimum of at least 2 hours of portable use. Priced at just $49, the tinySA is a perfect device that enables the user to get a full experience of what an individual can derive from a controller like a microcontroller and a few distinct RF components. There are a lot of scopes and PC-based scopes that can do spectrum analysis, but at this price, having a tinySA instrument might be worth it to you, especially if you don’t care about frequency below 100 MHz. If TinySA is as competent as it is touted, it will be a winner and a very useful item for hobbyists and developers.
Specifications
Display resolution 320*240 pixels
Screen diagonal 2.8″
16 bits per RGB pixels
Resistive touch control
Jog switch control
USB serial port control
Optional TTL USART port (SW not yet implemented) on the internal PCB
Linear power supply to avoid switching noise.
The input/output specification of the tinySA is split over the 4 modes
Low input mode spec: Input frequency range from 100kHz to 350MHz
High input mode spec:Input frequency range from 240MHz to 960MHz
Low output mode spec:Sinus output with harmonics below -40dB of fundamental
High output mode spec:Square wave output. Output frequency range from 240MHz to 960MHz
Battery
Charging time max 1 hour on 500mA minimum USB port or USB charger
Operation on fully charged battery for at least 2 hours
Package inclued:
1x TinySA 2.8″ Spectrum analyzer
2x 20cm sma-sma rg174 rf cabe
1x USB Type-C Data Cable
1x Hand rope
1x SMA female to female connector
1x SMA telescopic antenna
There is currently no clone of tinySA. All are genuine and manufactured by Huyen. About pre-order, the company says
“Pre-order means there is currently no stock but a next batch of tinySA is being manufactured and as soon as these are available (usually within one month) the pre-ordered products will be shipped in order sequence.”
Due to the low cost and very small form factor, there are certain relevant limitations, which you can find here. You can pre-order the TinySA on Alibaba. For more information, visit the announcement page for full specs and a 7-minute video.
MYIR introduces FZ5 EdgeBoard AI Box which is a rugged and fanless AI (Artificial intelligence) edge computing box with a built-in FZ5 AI Accelerator Card. The AI Box is based on Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU5EV MPSoC which features a 1.5 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A5364-bit application processor, a 600MHz dual-core real-timeARM Cortex-R5 processor, a Mali400 embedded GPU, a H.264/H.265 Video Codec Unit (VCU) and rich FPGA fabric. It has memory and storage capacities of 4GB/8GB DDR4, 32GB eMMC, 64MB QSPI Flash and 32KB EEPROM as well as a Micro SD card slot for extension. It has exposed rich communication and transmission interfaces to the Box enclosure including 4 x USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, RS232, RS485, CAN, Debug,HDMI Input and Mini DisplayPort (DP).
The FZ5 EdgeBoard AI Box is able to run PetaLinux and supports PaddlePaddle AI framework which is fully compatible to use Baidu Brain’s AI development tools like EasyDL, AI Studio and EasyEdge to enable developers and engineers to quickly leverage Baidu-proven technology or deploy self-defined models, enabling faster deployment.
The FZ5 EdgeBoard AI Box has Computing Power up to 2.4TOPS and can run at 55 FPS for ResNet-50 in actual measurement. Power consumption is within 10W to 20W under typical working conditions. Measured data for some models are shown as below:
The FZ5 EdgeBoard AI Box has powerful AI capabilities to provide massive and iterative models to realize the image recognition of face, human body, animal, object, text, logo and various customized scenes. It can support 8- to 16-channel video decoding and 4- to 8-channel intelligent analysis and canbe used directly in many fields such as multimedia, automotive ADAS, surveillance, industrial quality inspection, medical diagnosis and more others with creation of customers’ own applications.
The inside FZ5 Card has provided a wonderful solution for AI Applications. MYIR also sell the card along for those customers who may expect to use it for their own AI box or many other embedded designs.
FZ5 Card Top View (delivered with active heat sink by default)FZ5 Card Bottom View
Advantech, a leading global provider of IoT systems and embedded platforms, is pleased to announce the latest 3.5″ SBC MIO-5393 powered by 9th Gen. Intel® Xeon®/Core™. Featuring a compact 146 x 102 mm (5.78 x 4.01 in) design, this single board computer offers impressive I/O functionality and domain-focused features like CANBus. Advantech’s embedded small form-factor SBC’s are designed to support wide operating temperature ranges (-40 ~ 85°C / -40 ~ 185°F) and harsh environments, making it an excellent choice for applications that require high processing speeds, such as Automated optical inspection machines, passenger information systems, outdoor kiosks, surveillance and medical devices.
High-performance Computing and Rapid NVMe Storage
Advantech’s platform is the first 3.5″ SBC to feature the latest 9th Gen. Intel® Xeon®/Core™ with six core computing power. This new generation SBC doubles USB speed by utilizing USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps). Using a built-in Gen9LP graphics engine, MIO-5393 supports three simultaneous displays with 48bit LVDS (eDP optional), HDMI (up to 4k@30Hz), and DisplayPort (up to 4k@60Hz). MIO-5393 supports up to 32GB(64GB*) memory size dual-channel DDR4 2400MHz and features a M.2 M-Key 2280 slot for NVMe/PCIE Gen3x4 high-speed PCIe SSD storage, providing high data rates for computing and storage. This makes the MIO-5393 an excellent solution for performance demanding applications that require computing power in a compact 3.5″ form-factor.
Advantech’s MIO-5393 features the innovative Quadro Flow Cooling System (QFCS) thermal solution for excellent temperature management. This advanced high-efficiency low profile cooling solution facilitates extreme computing performance. This thin and light thermal solution features a silent fan, enabling heavy CPU loading without CPU speed throttling. MIO-5393 utilizes two different TDP (25W/45W) SKUs with either active or passive heatsink to support extended temperature operation (-40 ~ 85°C / -40 ~ 185°F). Advantech’s advanced thermal-solution leverages four symmetrical screw holes around the CPU to drastically reduce the thermal resistance and to dissipate the heat quickly. Advantech’s 3.5″ SBC effectively solves the temperature and thermal issues confronting outdoor kiosks, railway applications and factory environments.
Domain-Focused I/O Facilitates Flexible Expansion
MIO-5393’s built-in iManager 3.0 is based on Advantech’s EIO-201 embedded board management controller. iManager 3.0 integrates power sequence control to improve reliability and enable GPIO, hardware monitoring, smart fan control and watchdog timer functions. iManager 3.0 also supports domain-focused features like high-speed RS-232/422/485 up to 1Mbps, I²C (100kb/400kb/1Mb) and CANBus. MIO-5393 facilitates two M.2 expansions: E-Key for WiFi+BT wireless modules or AI acceleration cards, and a B-Key for 3G/LTE modules or SATA SSD’s (optional with M-key for high-speed NVMe/PCIex4 SSD’s). Additionally, Advantech’s MIOe extension interface provides 4x PCIe x1 / DDI / USB / LPC / SMBus connectivity for vertically-focused or customized expansion. For example, MIO-5393 supports Advantech’s MIOe-260 I/O expansion module and provides additional 2x GbE, 8x UART, 4x USB, 2x isolated CANBus, 1x miniPCIe socket and 1x M.2 B-key socket. This diverse and expansive I/O capacity is suitable for factory-based AGV or CNC automation and medical applications.
Featuring Value-Added Software and Cloud-Based Manageability
MIO-5393 provides ready-to-use Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS images as well as iManager software API and SUSI utility. Advantech’s WISE-DeviceOn – an IoT device operations management and remote monitoring software – makes it easy to integrate, visualize and manage industrial IoT devices through a public or private cloud. WISE-DeviceOn’s easy-to-use interface enables users to monitor device health, to control in real-time the power on/off, to troubleshoot and to perform updates over-the-air (OTA), on-site and remotely.
*64GB DDR4 memory supported with selected SO-DIMM modules
Key Features:
9th /8th Intel® Xeon®/Core™ Processor supports up to 6 cores and TDP 45W/25W
Dual-channel DDR4-2400, with up to 64GB*, ECC for Xeon SKU
Triple simultaneous displays with 48-bit LVDS+HDMI+DP
Dual GbE, SATA III, RS-232/422/485, CANBus, SMBus, I2C
2 B-Key 2280/3042 (optional M-Key 2280) and M.2 E-Key 2230
Supports iManager 3.0, SW APIs, and WISE-DeviceOn
Advantech’s 3.5″ SBC MIO-5393 is available now. For more information regarding 3.5″ SBC MIO-5393 or other Advantech products and services, please contact your local sales support team or visit our website at www.advantech.eu.
Variscite, a global System on Module and embedded solutions provider, revealed its new System on Module (SoM) platforms based on the NXP i.MX 8M Plus processor. This is the first generation of SoM solution with dedicated Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI / ML) capabilities within an integrated NPU engine.
Upcoming i.MX 8M Plus based modules
Variscite’s upcoming VAR-SOM-MX8M-PLUS and DART-MX8M-PLUS platforms are both powered by i.MX 8M Plus, the latest addition to NXP’s i.MX 8M application processors family. The modules are running on a 1.8GHz quad Cortex™-A53 ARM 64-bit core with 800MHz Cortex™-M7 real-time co-processor.
VAR-SOM-MX8M-PLUS and DART-MX8M-PLUSFeatures
The modules provided by Variscite include an intelligent vision system with Image Signal Processor (ISP), an integrated 2.3 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU), and dual camera interfaces. These features provide the foundation for the moduls’ unique Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning capabilities.
The modules also offer advanced multimedia capabilities along with extensive connectivity options such as H.265 HD video encode/decode, high performance 2D/3D GPU, up to 4K HDMI, HD LVDS, high-quality voice processing, DSI certified dual-band Wi-Fi, BT/BLE, dual USB3, dual GbE, dual CAN-FD, and PCIe.
Variscite’s Pin-to-Pin compatibility
The VAR-SOM-MX8M-PLUS and the DART-MX8M-PLUS differ in dimensions and their Pin-to-Pin family compatibility. The VAR-SOM-MX8M-PLUS is a member of the VAR-SOM Pin2Pin product family, providing extensive scalability options; starting from i.MX6UL/6ULL modules, through i.MX 6, i.MX 8M Nano, i.MX 8M Mini, up to i.MX 8X and i.MX 8QuadMax based modules.
The DART-MX8M-PLUS SoM is a small size SoM measuring only 55x30mm. The SoM is a member of the DART Pin2Pin product family that offers Pin-to-Pin compatibility with the i.MX 8M Mini and i.MX 8M based modules.
These broad Pin-to-Pin System on Module families allow Variscite’s customers to benefit from extensive scalability options and extended lifetime, as well as reduced development time, costs, and risks. Read about the Pin2Pin System on Module families on Variscite’s website.
Evaluation Kits
The evaluation kits of the VAR-SOM-MX8M-PLUS and the DART-MX8M-PLUS will include the SoM with the related scalable carrier board: the Symphony Board and the VAR-DT8M Custom Board, respectively, as well as an optional LVDS display with touch panel.
Availability and longevity:
Based on Variscite’s announcement, both evaluation kits and modules are now available for orders. The VAR-SOM-MX8M-PLUS and DART-MX8M-PLUS are included in Variscite’s long-term longevity plan and will provide an expected availability of 15 years.
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