Toradex has launched what they call “Customized SBCs” (Single Board Computers) comprised of the usual carrier board an computer-on-module (CoM) combination, using their Apalis & Colibri families. The company offers various combination of Freescale i.MX6 and Vybrid VF50 single board computers, with price starting at 39 Euros for 1k order, or 49 Euros for samples.
I’ve already featured Toradex Colibri VF50 (and VF61) modules in another post, but to summarize Colibri VF50 is a computer modules based on Freescale Vybrid VF50 ARM Cortex A5 CPU with 64 to 128MB DDR3, and 128MB NAND flash that targets industrial applications requiring long term availability (15 years). VF50 sells as low as 19 Euros per unit for 10k orders.
Viola is a new open source hardware carrier board with the following features:
- Compatible with all Toradex Colibri CoMs
- External Storage – microSD interface
- Video – RGB LCD Interface, 4 wire resistive touch interface
- Connectivity – 10/100 Mbit Ethernet
- USB – 2x USB Host (High Speed)
- Other I/Os:
- 50 pin-header for access to I2C, SPI, UART A/B/C ???, GPIOs, PWM
- 4x Analog Input
- 3x (UART) RS232
- 1x CAN (Colibri VFxx and iMX6 only)
- Misc – 1x RTC on Board (Not Assembled)
- Power Supply – 5V
- On-board Power Supplies – 5V/2A, and 3.3V/2A
- Dimensions – 74 x 74mm
Toradex will soon provide Altium CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) files meaning schematics, PCB layout, and Gerber files for Viola. The baseboard also has a 10+ year longevity, just like the CoMs, and costs 13 Euros per unit for 1K orders.
Colibri VFxx CoMs support Windows CE 5.0 / 6.0, Linux 3.0.15 with U-boot 2011.12 (Timesys / OpenEmbedded), and Android is available on request. There are more software options for modules based on i.MX6.
Both Freescale i.MX6 and Vyrbid VFxx solutions appear to be available, and you can get more information on Toradex’s Customized Single Board Computers’ 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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Interesting. But why such old versions of U-boot and the Linux kernel?
@Ian Tester
The latest release (2.2 Beta 1) uses stock U-Boot 2014.04 with some patches. Also, initial mainline support will be available from Linux 3.16 on, although not yet feature complete.
@Stefan Agner
That’s good to hear.
Well, nice, but for a 10 Watts footprint and (a bit more than) 50$ you could get a much better (despite undervolt) J1800 configuration. I don’t understand the point of this, is less better ?
@jp
The two products you’ve just mentioned have completely different types of applications and target customers.
* Toradex board – Small and low power board for industrial applications, and that you will still be able to buy 10 years from now.
* Intel Celeron J1800 mini PC – Somewhat low power consumer product.
I write about both type of products (consumer and industrial) in my blog, and sometimes people are confused. But basically if you read “industrial”, it is not for the average user, except for “makers” if the board can be sourced by individuals.