$30 Arch Mix Development Board Features NXP i.MX RT1052 Crossover Processor

NXP i.MX RT Arm Cortex-M7 crossover processors are supposed to fill the gap between microcontrollers and more powerful application processors thanks to real-time capabilities, and a higher CPU frequency. We’ve already covered several i.MX RT1050 series platforms including NXP’s own evaluation board and Forlinx OK1052-C development kit comprised of a carrier board and an i.MX RT1052 system-on-module.

But if you’d like to experiment with NXP i.MX RT processor using a cheaper, smaller, and easier to purchase development platform, Seeed Studio has started to sell Arch Mix development board for $29.90 plus shipping.

Arch Mix board specifications:

• SoC – NXP i.MX RT1052 Arm Cortex-M7 processor @ up to 528MHz
• System Memory – 32MB SDRAM
• Storage – Optional 64MB Hyperflash, 8MB QSPI flash, microSD card socket
• Display I/F – RGB LCD interface
• USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 host port, 1x USB OTG port for data and power
• Expansion Headers – 2x 22-pin headers (2.54mm pitch) with RMII, CAN, I2C, UART, CSI, I2S, 4x ADC, S/PDIF IN/OUT, SWD, power signals (5V, 3.3V, GND)
• Misc – Power LED, RGB LED, boot configuration DIP switch, power, reset and user buttons, RTC battery header
• Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port
• Dimensions – 67mm x 39mm

The RT1052 development board comes pre-loaded with RT-Thread real-time operating system with build-in Micropython support. I could not find much details about the software on Seeed Studio’s product page, but RT-Thread is described as “an open source IoT operating system from China” with strong scalability working on Arm Cortex-M0 platforms to MIPS32 or Arm Cortex-A9 targets. The source code and releases can be found in Github. [Update: the board’s Wiki page is now up]

The board is said to be suited for industrial control, smart building, industrial human machine interfaces (HMI), automation & process control, as well as robotics applications.

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