Embedian SMART MEN and SMART BEE SBCs Feature a TI Sitara SMARC CoM

Embedian, an embedded company specialized in computers-on-module and single board computers, has recently unveiled SMART MEN and SMART BEE single board computers powered by their SMARC-T335X computer-on-module, compliant with the SMARC (Smart Mobility Architecture) standard, and based on Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x SoCs.

SMART MEN SBC

SMART MEN single board computer specifications:

SoC – Texas Instrument Sitara AM335X ARM Cortex-A8 at 600MHz, 800MHz or 1GHz
System Memory – 512MB DDR3 (303Mhz x 2)
Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash (eMMC 5.0), 4MB SPI NOR Flash, AT24C32 EEPROM, and SDHC/SDIO slot
Connectivity – 2 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet (vertical RJ45)
Display – single channel LVDS 18-bit color depth, single channel LVDS 24-bit color depth. LCD LED backlight driver onboard
USB – 2 x USB 2.0 Host, 1 x USB 2.0 OTG, 1 x Serial-to-USB (Client)
Additional Interfaces:
- 6 x RS232s (transceiver onboard, two with handshaking and one can be configured as RS422/RS485), 2 x SPIs, 2 x I2C
- Audio – Microphone input and Headphones output
- 1 x CAN Bus Header (Transceiver onboard)
- RTC (Seiko S35390-A) backup battery onboard
- 1 x Buzzer
- 11 x GPIOs
- 1 x 4-wire touch connector
Misc – Invisible reset jumper, external watchdog reset (reset from the power source)
Power Supply – 5V, typical consumption: ~2 Watts
Dimensions – 102 mm (L) x 145 mm (W) – (3.5″ board)
Temperature range – Normal Temperature: 0 ~ 60 C, Industrial Temperature: -40 ~85 C
Humidity – 10% ~ 90% relative humidity, non-condensed

SMART BEE SBC

SMART BEE single board computer specifications are extremely similar to SMART MEN SBC:

SoC – Texas Instrument Sitara AM335X ARM Cortex-A8 at 600MHz, 800MHz or 1GHz
System Memory – 512MB DDR3 (303Mhz x 2)
Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash (eMMC 5.0), 4MB SPI NOR Flash, AT24C32 EEPROM, and SDHC/SDIO slot
Connectivity – 2 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
Display – Parallel LCD 18-bit color depth, single channel LVDS 24-bit color depth. LCD LED backlight driver onboard
USB – 1 x USB 2.0 Host, 1 x USB 2.0 OTG
Additional Interfaces:
- 3 x RS232s (transceiver onboard, two with handshaking and one can be configured as RS422/RS485), 2 x SPI, 2 x I2C
- Audio – Microphone input and Headphones output
- 1 x CAN Bus Header (Transceiver onboard)
- RTC (Seiko S35390-A) backup battery onboard
- 1 x Buzzer
- 12 x GPIOs
- 1 x 4-wire touch connector
Misc – Invisible reset jumper, external watchdog reset (reset from the power source)
Power Supply – 5V, typical consumption: ~2 Watts
Dimensions – 102 mm (L) x 145 mm (W) – (3.5″ board)
Temperature range – Normal Temperature: 0 ~ 60 C, Industrial Temperature: -40 ~85 C
Humidity – 10% ~ 90% relative humidity, non-condensed

The only differences are mostly mechanicals with for instance, the presence of USB connectors on SMART BEE which are missing on the SMART MEN, and different number of USB, GPIOs, RS232 ports, etc.. between the two boards.

Both boards support Linux 3.2 (TI EZSDK 6.0.0 Arago or Ubuntu 13.04) or Linux 3.12 (Device Tree Support, Arago or Ubuntu 13.04), Android ICS, and Windows Embedded Compact 7. The company uses Yocto/OpenEmbedded to build embedded distributions for the boards.

The company provides a user’s manual, PinMux file for TI PinMux Utility, and a toolchain.

SMARC-T335X Computer on Module

The two SBC features above as comprised of a baseboard, and SMARC-T335X module which comes with the following specs:

SoC – Texas Instrument Sitara AM335X ARM Cortex-A8 at 600MHz, 800MHz or 1GHz
System Memory – 512MB DDR3 (303Mhz x 2)
Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash (eMMC 5.0), 4MB SPI NOR Flash, and AT24C32 EEPROM
Connectivity – 2 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
Display – Parallel LCD 18-bit color depth, single channel LVDS 24-bit color depth.
USB – 1 x USB 2.0 Host, 1 x USB 2.0 OTG
Additional Interfaces:
- 3 x UARTS, 2 x SPI, 3 x I2C
- 1x I2S
- 3 x PWMs
- 1 x CAN Bus
- RTC (Seiko S35390-A)
- 12 x GPIOs
- 4x ADC for resistive touch screens
Dimensions – 82 mm x 50 mm with 31-pin MXM connector (SMARC Specification)
Temperature range – Normal Temperature: 0 ~ 60 C, Industrial Temperature: -40 ~85 C
Humidity – 10% ~ 90% relative humidity, non-condensed

The CoM gets the same development resources plus a Carrier Board Design Guide, and Carrier Board Reference Schematics (pdf and OrCAD format). You can find further development resources on Embedian Developer Center, and via their public git repo.

All three products are available now. SMARC-T335X CoM starts at $69 per unit ($49 / pcs for 3k+ orders), SBC-SMART-BEE at $119 per unit ($89 / pc for 3k+ orders), and SBC-SMART-MEN at $159 ($129 / pc for 3k+ orders). You can find more information through Embedian’s products page.

Via LinuxGizmos

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.