iWave Systems has released a new business card sized single board computer (SBC) with iW-RainboW-G23S, which looks somewhat similar to a Raspberry Pi 3 board, but is equipped with Renesas RZ/G1C single or dual core ARM Cortex A7 processor, up to 2GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, and provides plenty of I/Os through 3 headers for a total of 100 pins.
Target applications include HMI & access control, industrial control, healthcare devices, point of sale, IoT, home & office automation, and white goods & appliances.
iW-RainboW-G23S board specifications:
- SoC – Renesas RZ/G1C Dual/Solo ARM Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.0 GHz with PowerVR SGX531 3D GPU
- System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 (expandable up to 2GB)
- Storage – 2MB SPI Flash (expandable), 8GB eMMC Flash (expandable), and micro SD connector
- Video Output/Input – 1x HDMI output port, 1x CVBS input RCA jack, optional 1x CVBS output RCA jack/header
- Video – HD encode/decode
- Connectivity – 100/1000Mbps Ethernet
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port
- Expansion Headers
- 40-pin connector 1 compatible with Raspberry Pi 3 header with 1x UART, 1x SPI, 2x SPI, 17x GPIOs
- 40-pin connector 2 with 1x LVDS, 1x CAN, 2x I2S/SSI, 2x UART (with CTS & RTS), 1x UART (without CTS & RTS), 1x I2C, 1x PWM
- 20-pin connector 3 with debug UART, 1x UART (without CTS & RTS) or 1x I2C, 1x 8-bit parallel camera interface (VIN0), 1x PWM
- Misc – JTAG header, SPI flash programming header, Reset switch, RTC controller with coin cell battery (optional)
- Power Supply – 5V/2A with optional power input lockable header
- Dimensions – 85mmx 56mm
- Temperature Range – -20 to +85° C
- Compliance – REACH & RoHS Compliant; CE, FCC certification in progress
We don’t have a whole lot of information about software support except the company provide a Linux BSP based on the not-so-recent Linux 3.10.31. Renesas recently announced a Super Long Term Kernel with 10-year of support based on CIP Linux 4.4 for RZ/G processors, starting with RZ/G1M, and plans for other RZ/G1 SoCs in the future, so hopefully RZ/G1C will be covered eventually, but there’s no guarantee. [Update: RZ/G1C support is coming in H1 2018]
The board is available now at an undisclosed price, and will procurable for at least 5 years. More details may be found on the product page.
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.
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Strange they release a new board with an old 1Gh A7 cpu.
@Jeroen
Hmmm, not totally surprised, I bet it’s meant to test out and develop around a CPU that will carry long term support, which is a strong point for some industries.
I have family at airbus, they are at last allowed to have 68k cpus and old but hardened powerpc chips 🙂
Oh look, a GPU that’s actually worse than the ARM Mali 400…
This is a bizarre SoC on a bizarre board…
too bad they ditched their excellent SH-core series
dual cores are mostly not produced anymore, at least not in the tablet/smartphone/setopbox markets.
lol A7
Really not sure what the problem with a cortex A7 is. The article says the target market is white goods etc.. why would you need anything else?
As @dgp mentioned this is an SoC to be used in appliances, factory equipment, etc…. In some ways, it’s similar to Texas Instruments Sitara AM335x…
The board can help customers get started with the design. Maybe some people will use it as it is, but others will only use it for evaluation and prototype, before designing their own board.
iWave Systems just confirmed that: