The latest board to use the STM32MP1 dual Cortex-A7 and the Cortex-M4 processor is the Emtrion emSBC-Argon, which adds to SBC’s such as the PanGu Board. The emSBC-Argon, is a powerful yet reasonably priced SBC that is feature-rich and out-of-the-box ready. The low-power needs of the board enable it to run real-time processing.
Protocols such as PROFINET, EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP are all available and ready to run real-time processes and communication applications.
Key Features:
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- STM32MP157AAC processor from STMicroelectronics
- Arm Dual Cortex-A7 @ 650MHz – 2470 DMIPS
- Arm Cortex-M4 @ 200MHz – 250 DMIPS
- Co-processor: ARM Neon, FPU, and 3D GPU
- Operating system: Linux or Android
- Virtualization capable (Jailhouse)
- Up to 512 MB DDR3L SDRAM
- 8GByte (up to 64 GB) eMMC Flash
- Up to 8 MB of QSPI-NOR-Flash
- 2x FD-CAN 2.0
- Dimensions: 104.5 x 77.5 mm
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The emSBC-Argon is capable of virtualization using Jailhouse, for those real-time functions that require breaking down into software “cells” for higher-order functionality.
The SBC supports Android and Linux operating systems. The true ability lies with the STM32MP1, which runs at 600 MHz and needs very little power to operate at processing speeds compatible with real-time communications.
The Arm Cortex A7 allows the unit to run Linux, while the Cortex M4 runs the real-time processing through various ports and interfaces. That allows the Argon to re-use code from existing STM32 projects. Emtrion embedded systems offers paid in-house support for the emSBC Argon. More details can be found on the product page.
Stephen started writing about technology after publishing sci-fi short stories. His first White-Paper, written in 2008, was well received and inspired him to continue writing about technology. Today he writes in the technology space full time, covering a multitude of topics. During the time he wrote part-time he edited hundreds of titles for large publishers, in science and technology. He lives in Staten Island, with his wife and children.
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Wow looks great, once back from holidays i have to find out more. No price or volume info on their page, so have to do it the old school way 😉
This is the family of chips that Bootlin has been agressively adding support for–and providing other resources.
I don’t know the company that makes this board, but with Bootlin behind the chip family, it looks like it has a solid future. I guess the only question is how much commitment ST has to it. Did NXP buy them recently? Either way, that’s two companies with a hisotory of supporting products well and for a long time.
I’d love to see more boards with these chips.
I’m recently working with the new STM32MP1xx chip. The SDK is not mature yet as I found out some bugs and tools are not yet complete (Well it is just released so it is expected anyway). But at least I can see ST guys are pushing it very hard. Whenever I post questions and bug reports in the official ST forum they usually immediately respond and are very helpful.
That’s great to hear. A lot of the strength of a chip family comes from the community that forms around it. When the vendor is supportive and actually addresses bugs, you often see a mature community develop with very knowledgable people. When they ignore bugs and try to deny problems, you end up with a community composed of new people asking the same questions over and over–because no one stays with it long enough to get more experience as they’ve moved on to something better made.
I’d really like to see a lower end part with less peripherals, with some DDR embedded and in a QFN as an alternative to their high end STM32 MCUs for networked applications.
We are pleased about the interest in our new module and thanks for the article. We have revised our product pages again and they are now also available in English.
We gladly reveal the sample price:
Sample price for the emSBC-Argon: 49,- €
Sample price for the emSTAMP-Argon: 29,- €
emtrion also offers customised solutions. Our support team will be happy to advise you.
Your emtrion-Team