Banana Pi BPI-F2S SBC is Powered by SunPlus SP7021 Processor, Supports Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA Add-on Board

BPI Tech, a spinoff from SinoVoIP, has introduced a new single board computer with Banana Pi BPI-F2S powered by SunPlus SP7021 “Plus1” SoC with four Cortex-A7 cores, one older ARM9 real-time core, and one even older 8051 IO controller. The chip also embeds up to 512MB DDR3 memory.

The board comes an 8GB flash, dual Fast Ethernet, HDMI, a 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible GPIO header, as well as headers for an optional Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA expansion board.

Banana Pi BPI-F2S SBC

Specifications:

SoC – Sunplus SP7021 “Plus1” with a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor @ 1.0 GHz, one Arm A926 microprocessor, an 8051 core to handle I/Os, and 128MB or 512MB DDR3 DRAM.
Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot
Video Output – HDMI 1.4 output
Camera I/F – MIPI CSI connector
Connectivity – 2x 10/100M Ethernet
USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB port
Expansion
- 40-pin GPIO header compatible with Raspberry Pi header
- 2x 50-pin FPGA interface for Trenz Electronic TE0725LP-01-100-2D Artix 7 FPGA board
- Undocumented 50-pin header that may be routed to the 40-pin RPI signals.
Debugging – 3-pin header for UART console, 10-pin JTAG header, SWD ICE port
Security – TPM 2.0 chip ST33TPH2EI2C
Misc – Power switch, reset button, boot selection dip switch
Power Supply – 12VDC via power barrel jack
Dimensions – N/A

The company provides a Yocto-based Linux distribution for the board, but so far there’s no source code nor firmware for download. Sunplus Plus1 and BPI-F2S SBC are said to be suitable for IoT/Industrial Internet control, smart audio, smart payment, FPGA education & development, as well as automotive networking technology and applications.

BPi-F2S board was introduced on Hackster.io a few days ago, and more technical details can be found in wiki.banana-pi.org/Banana_Pi_BPI-F2S.

Trenz Electronic TE0725LP-01-100-2D Artix 7 FPGA Board

As mentioned in the specs, the board can take Trenz Electronic TEO725LP-01-100-2D FPGA module selling for 119 Euros ex. VAT.

Trenz FPGA module specifications:

FPGA – Xilinx Artix-7 XC7A100T-2CSG324C FPGA with 101,440 logic cells, 240 DSP slices, 8x GTP 6.6 Gbps transceivers
System Memory & Storage – 32 MByte Flash memory, I2C EEPROM, optional HyperRAM or HyperFlash
2x 50 pin headers with 2.54 mm pitch
- 95x I/O’s (42 + 42 + 3 + 8)
- Suitable for breadboard use
Clock – 25 MHz system clock (100 MHz can be customized on request)
Debugging – JTAG/UART connector
Misc – 1x user LED
Power Supply – 1.8 V single supply with on-board voltage regulators
Dimensions – 7.3 x 3.5 cm
Temperature Range – Commercial (industrial on request)

Trenz Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA Module — Click to Enlarge

Sunplus SP7021 “Plus1″SoC

Sunplus Technology worked in collaboration with Tibbo Technology to design SP7021 “Plus1” SoC which targets industrial control and will have long term availability of 10 years.

Key features:

CPU
- Quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU @ 1.0 GHz with 512KB L2 cache
- Arm A926 real-time core @ 202 MHz
- 8051 core for I/Os. 500uA @ 32KHz for the entire IC
System Memory – 128MB or 512MB DDR3 DRAM
Storage I/F – eMMC flash interface, SPI NOR / NAND flash interface, SD card interface
Video Input/Output
- HDMI Tx 1.4
- Parallel LCD
- MIPI LCD camera interface
Audio – TDM, PDM, I2S input & output
Connectivity – Dual Ethernet MAC controllers with built-in Ethernet switch
USB – 2x USB 2.0 HS/OTG interfaces
Other I/Os & Peripherals
- 8x 8-bit 5V-tolerant IO ports, plus one high-current port.
- Up to 64x GPIO’s
- Up to 4x PWM
- 4x UART, 4x SPI, 4x I2C
- 4x Timers
- Special interface to connect to FPGA
- Flexible Peripheral Multiplexing (PinMux)
Security – Secure Boot, Crypto Engine (RSA/AES/MD5/SHA3)
Debug – SWD/JTAG and console UART
Power Management
- Embedded DC-DC convert:
  - Single 3.3V power supply
  - 3.3V to 0.90V for CA7
  - 3.3V to 1.5V for DDR3
  - 3.3V to 1.2V for peripherals
Package – 20x20mm LQFP176-EP package
Temperature range – Industrial: -40°C ~ +85°C

Sunplus SP7021-IS comes with 128MB DDR3, while SP7021-IF gets 512MB DDR3. All I/Os and peripherals are said to be accessible by Cortex-A7, ARM926, and 8051 cores.

More details about the processor can be found on the processor’s Wiki. Documentation looks good enough to get started, but access to the source code requires username and password.

Sunplus SP7021-IF with 512MB RAM is sold for $20 on Tibbo website.

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.