Based on TI and NXP processor-based SMARC standard core board program

In the Internet of Things trillion-scale market-scale catalysis, intelligence, mobility, low power consumption has long been the mainstream trend of the semiconductor market, embedded computer modular area is nothing more than. SMARC (Smart Mobility AR Architecture) standard, which is led by SGET (Standardization Group for Embedded Technology), is the standard for ultra-small size, low power, low cost and high performance multi-functional computer modules. Typical SMARC® standard computer modules with power dissipation below 6W meet the stringent requirements for increased power consumption and small size for a growing number of smart devices.

As an open, global standard, SMARC can take full advantage of the advantages of x86 architecture and ARM architecture, is ideal for low-power, low cost and high performance of the next generation of embedded applications. At the same time, SMARC's low-power design allows passive cooling, which can build a more suitable for the general direction of the development of things smaller, quieter, cleaner system. As the industry's most powerful voice producer, Embest has introduced two SMARC®-based products - SOM-SM8800 and SOM-SM9300 - for its long-term commitment to embedded computing.

As the SMARC® standard core board for Graperain system on module manufacturers for medical instrumentation, industrial control, communications and other applications, the SOM-SM8800 uses the ARM CortexTM-A9 architecture, SDRAM particles, providing up to 1GB of external RAM access space. In a more compact 82mm × 50mm ultra-small size, SOM-SM8800 onboard a 4MB QSPI Flash, and default as the operating system boot disk, and equipped with a 4GB eMMC Flash, a 32KB EEPROM, For storing important information such as board configuration and the like. The SOM-SM8800 is equipped with a variety of I / O interfaces, such as a 10/100/1000 Mbps 3-speed Ethernet interface, JTAG interface, and 3-channel LED control, although the product architecture is streamlined. At the same time, SOM-SM8800 Linux SOM follows the SMARC standard, through the way of cheat, leads to CPU resources, including: 1 * 12Bit Camera, 1 * 10/100 / 1000M Ethernet, 2 * 4Bit SDIO, 2 * SPI, 2 * MCASP (IIS), 4 * IIC, 1 * USB OTG, 1 * USB Host, 1 * 24Bit LCD, 4 * UART, 2 * CAN, 8 * ADC and 17 * GPIO.

In addition, SOM-SM8800 core board not only in the 0 ~ 70 ℃ industrial temperature range of work, but also provides for -40 ℃ to 85 ℃ military wide temperature environment applications. Thanks to its 16-year embedded R & D accumulation, the SOM-SM8800 has a wide range of applications, including ultra-small size, low power consumption, low cost, high performance, rich external interface and strong operating temperature. To meet the different needs of different fields, including gaming peripherals, home and industrial automation, consumer medical devices, printers, smart toll systems, smart vending machines, weighing systems, educational terminals, advanced toys and so on.

Now, with the Internet of Things under the guidance of the wisdom of the industry's progress and development of embedded products, demand for more and more diverse, with ARM computer core board with customized carrier board design is increasingly accepted by everyone, especially Goldfinger interface with its standardization, ease of use has become the mainstream of the industry, and its reliability has withstood the test of the market, has been widely used in industrial control, logistics management, medical, electrical and other high reliability requirements field.

The same standard trend also introduced based on Intel's NXP i.MX6 series CPU SMARC® standard module SOM-SM9300. The SOM-9300 with SMARC® standard 314pin gold finger communication interface maximizes the resources of the i.MX6 SoC module with 2 USB2.0 high-speed interfaces, 2 SDIO, 10-bit Parallel interface, MIPI 2Lanes Camera interface, 1-way gigabit network interface, 1 way I2S interface, 1 way SATA interface,...

ARM + uClinux the development of embedded systems: development platform choice and demonstration

Some time ago based on arm + uClinux development of a network monitoring system, seeing the project to be done immediately, and finally relieved, so finishing some notes and ideas and we would like to develop some of this model for some discussion, I hope to help you .

More information about embedded hardware design, Please visit this site.

In accordance with the development process I want to be divided into the following sections.

1. Development platform selection and demonstration

2. Development environment development

3. General procedure development

4. Linux to ARM + uClinux platform migration

5. The rest of the problem

1. Development platform selection and demonstration

A project to get hands, how to choose the development platform (mainly refers to the CPU and operating system and development environment and tools) should be said that critical, and sometimes this not only affect the progress, product quality, maintainability and other general issues, and even related to the program Can be realized. I combined with their own network monitoring system simple summed up a number of platform considerations, please also add.

From the system function to consider:

(1) whether there are on-chip peripherals, special instructions or supporting software modules directly to achieve system functional requirements. This is a lot of people feel that the decision-making a great impact

(2) the price

This should be provided by the CPU to provide comprehensive resources, which provides a number of useful resources, the number of useless resources, or that three words, cost-effective, on the other hand, is to grasp the main contradiction is not some features are necessary , What is the characteristics of user needs in the bright spot (to rely on these bright spots up the price), then the flowers have to spend.

(3) power consumption

The system CPU power requirements are not high, but for mobile devices, this is fatal, but this is not just for the CPU, almost all devices must be tightened belts running.

(4) processing speed

This needless to say, we all understand the importance, but the specific figure, but a science, on the one hand is how fast they need, if coupled with non-real-time operating system, this thing is not good control, There is no parallel, what architecture, there is no dedicated instruction (see more DSP cattle people, do this a must), access to external memory and peripherals, there are no instructions, Speed, etc., which is called a slow bottleneck.

(5) the required hardware support (such as external memory, dual power supply, etc.)

This is miscellaneous, but will increase the additional price, the system size, etc., can not be ignored.

From the developer's point of view:

(1) whether there is sufficient technical support, including demo version and schematics, demo programs, operating systems and BSP, test development tools.

(2) its own conditions, including the requirements of the project development cycle, the developer of the device and development model familiarity and ease of mastery.

(3) whether the available resources are rich (books, networks, etc.)

The above three main considerations to quickly develop a stable system.

(4) the system can be inherited, portability and scalability.

(5) whether there is stock.

(6) the quality of program providers. (Including technical level and service awareness).

According to the above considerations, select the s3c4510b (ARM7TDMI) + uClinux development model

(1) The following is the platform for my system to meet the situation: (and the above points correspond)

The monitoring system hardware part of the main requirements of the following parts:

A. Ethernet interface (s3c4510b comes with a network controller)

B. Serial port (own)

C. And data acquisition chip interface (8-bit data lines, less than 8-bit address bus). (Comes with)

The system software part of the main requirements of the following sections:

A. Hardware interface driver (uClinux provide serial and network controller driver)

B. Network protocol stack support...

​HOT Single Board Computer in The Market

Speaking of single-board computer, we are not familiar with, what raspberry pi, banana pi, BeagleBone Black and so are all the classic open-source hardware board. Recently I got a handsome name more exaggerated open source hardware board - Graperain, I believe that once heard of the engineers to its unforgettable. Graperain specifically for embedded beginners and embedded developers to customize the open-source hardware board, so from its service object, we also do not look forward to Graperain how high performance, more powerful features, in fact, More like a special field in some specific research and development board, of course, their own characteristics certainly yes, first to understand the next.

Graperain also comes with a lot of accessories, such as 5V / 2A adapter, serial cable, Ethernet cable, as well as a MicroSD card and TF card reader, these accessories make the basic functions of the board is not what problem.

Graperain appearance and open source hardware on the market similar to the board, but the workmanship is very elegant, 8-layer board, Shen Jin PCB process, look at the words, there are obvious their own unique style. For example, 9-pin serial interface, usually this small size (95mm * 62mm) development board rarely carry such a volume of the interface, which can be seen that the industrial properties of this board style is obvious.

As you can see from the board, Graperain is designed to be compatible with Flash or eMMC storage, but the board is not patch, it can only use a unique MicroSD card for storage media. In addition, Graperain some of the interfaces are not described with the silk screen, a lot of time not to see the user manual you can not directly determine what interface on the board, very inconvenient. The last one to Tucao is the expansion of network interface 1 and JTAG interface, using the FPC connector design structure, what is this? Do not understand the original intention of such a design.

From peripheral resources, Graperain integrates Gigabit Ethernet interface, USB2.0 interface, MicroSD card, RS232 interface, HDMI interface, LCD interface and SPI, I2C, UART, CAN and other common communication interface, flexible, compact, Resource-rich and other characteristics..........

A single board computer (SBC for short) is a computer built on a single main circuit board which usually includes a microprocessor (or multiple), RAM and I/O interfaces. These are all the minimal requirements to have a fully functional computer. They are ARM based Single Board Computers with various price, I/Os, processors, size and operating systems. You can choose any System on Module/Computer on Module and a compatible carrier board, to create a Singe Board Computer that is tuned to your needs.

How many of these have you tried and what has been your experience of them? if you are the same looking for a low cost and high-performance SBC either for your work or hobby, can check this article about Single Board Computer here, I have made the single board computers comparison.

1. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU, 1 GB RAM

802.11n Wireless LAN, 10/100Mbps Lan Speed

Bluetooth 4.1, Bluetooth Low Energy

4 USB ports, 40 GPIO pins, Full HDMI port, Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video

Camera interface (CSI),Display interface (DSI), Micro SD card slot (now push-pull rather than push-push), VideoCore IV 3D graphics core

Setting up a Raspberry Pi is easy enough even for people who have not installed an OS before. The official documentation is very detailed in explaining how to install the official Raspberry Pi OS, called Raspbian and even a beginner can follow it without a problem.

The Pi 3 may start getting too warm when pushed to its limits.

2. HummingBoard-i1

1GHz Freescale i.MX6 Solo single-core processor

Vivante GC880 graphics core, with 512MB of memory,

expansion interface, there are two native USB 2.0 interface, microSD card reader, HDMI video output interface, GPIO generic expansion interface

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