boundary devices News - CNX Software

July 28, 2023August 2, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Tungsten700 SMARC SoM and devkit features MediaTek Genio 700 AIoT processor

Laird Connectivity Tungsten700 SOM is a SMARC system-on-module powered by a MediaTek Genio 700 Arm Cortex-A78/A55 AIoT processor with up to 8GB LPDDR4, 16GB eMMC flash, and a Sona MT320 Wi-Fi 6/Bluetooth 5.3 module based on the Filogic 320 chipset. The board was designed by Boundary Devices, recently acquired by Laird, and is offered with a SMARC 2.1 carrier board that can be used for development or as a single board computer integrated into designs. Tungsten700 SMARC module Tungsten700 specifications: SoC – MediaTek Genio 700 (MT8390) CPU – Octa-core processor with 2x Arm Cortex-A78 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, 6x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – ARM Mali-G57 MC3 GPU VPU as in “Video Processing Unit” Encode up to 4Kp30 HEVC/H.264 Decode up to 4Kp75 HEVC/H.264/AV1/VP9 VPU as in “Vision Processing Unit” – Tensilica VP6 Vision Processing Unit ISP Single Camera: 32MP @ 30FPS Dual […]

April 20, 2021April 23, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Linux 5.12 – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS and RISC-V Architectures

Linux 5.12 release was expected last Sunday, but Linus Torvalds decided to release one more release candidate, namely Linux 5.12-RC8, to “make sure things are all settled down“, so the latest Linux kernel is now expected this weekend. Tihs should not yield any significant changes, so we can check what’s new in Linux 5.12, notably with regards to Arm, MIPS, and RISC-V architectures often used in SoC’s found in embedded systems. Around two months ago, the release of Linux 5.11 added support for Intel’s software guard extensions (SGX) and Platform Monitoring Technology (PMT), AMD “Van Gogh” and “Dimgrey cavefish” graphics processors, MIPI I3C host controller interfaces, and much more. Some interesting changes in Linux 5.12 include: Added support for ACRN hypervisor designed for IoT & embedded devices Added support for Playstation DualSense & Nintendo 64 game controllers, as well as Nintendo 64 data cartridges Dynamic thermal power management via a […]

March 3, 2021March 3, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

It’s raining i.MX 8M Plus systems-on-module at Embedded World 2021

NXP introduced i.MX 8M Plus AI SoC with a built-in 2.3 TOPS neural processing unit (NPU) last year, and we’ve already covered several early announcements about i.MX 8M Plus systems-on-module (SoM) with Variscite VAR-SOM-MX8M-PLUS and DART-MX8M-PLUS, TechNexion EDM-G-IMX8M-PLUS and AXON-E-IMX8M-PLUS respectively using SO-DIMM edge connectors and board-to-board connectors, as well as SolidRun i.MX 8M Plus SoM that was announced together with the HummindBoard Mate carrier board with dual Gigabit Ethernet. But as Embedded World 2021 Digital is taking place virtually until Friday, other companies have now made their own announcements of i.MX 8M Plus SoMs as the processor enters mass production this month, and since as far as I know, it’s pin-to-pin and software compatible with earlier i.MX 8M Nano/Mini SoCs, the update must have been easy. That means we’ve got a longish list of modules, and I have probably missed some. Supported operating systems are basically the same across […]

November 25, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Linux 5.4 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS & RISC-V Architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 5.4: Not a lot happened this last week, which is just how I like it. And as expected, most of the pull requests I got were for the 5.5 merge window, which I’ll obviously start working through tomorrow. What little there is here is mostly some networking updates (mix of network drivers and core networking), and some minor GPU driver updates. Other than that it’s a small collection of random other things all over. The appended shortlog is small enough that you might as well just scroll through it. Anyway, this obviously opens the merge window for 5.5. It’s not ideal timing with Thanksgiving week coming up, but it hopefully shouldn’t be too much of an issue. If I fall behind (not because I’m all that big of a fan of the indiscriminate and relentless turkey-killing holiday) it’s because we’ve got […]

May 23, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Boundary Devices NXP i.MX 8M Mini Board Gets Android 9.0 Firmware

Nitrogen8M_Mini Android 9.0 NXP i.MX 8M Mini

Beside Debian 9.5, Ubuntu 18.04, the Yocto Project, and Buildroot Linux, NXP i.MX 8M Mini processors also supported Android 8.1 Oreo. But Boundary Devices has just announced their Nitrogen8M_Mini single board computers is now getting support for Android 9.0 Pie operating system. The company worked with Kynetics to release an Android 9.0 evaluation image for the i.MX8M Mini boards based on Linux 4.14.x kernel. You can also get the source code to build it from scratch for your board:

mkdir myandroid
cd myandroid
repo init -u git://github.com/boundarydevices/android-manifest.git -b boundary-imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga
repo sync

mkdir myandroid

cd myandroid

repo init -u git://github.com/boundarydevices/android-manifest.git -b boundary-imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga

repo sync

You’ll also need NXP vendor package, which you can install as follows:

tar xvzf imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga.tar.gz
cp -r imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/vendor/nxp/ vendor/ 
cp -r imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/EULA.txt . 
cp -r imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/SCP* .
rm -rf imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/
rm imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga.tar.gz

tar xvzf imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga.tar.gz

cp -r imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/vendor/nxp/ vendor/

cp -r imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/EULA.txt .

cp -r imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/SCP* .

rm -rf imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga/

rm imx-p9.0.0_1.0.0-ga.tar.gz

The last step is to build the code:

source build/envsetup.sh
lunch nitrogen8mm-userdebug
make 2>&1 | tee build.out

source build/envsetup.sh

lunch nitrogen8mm-userdebug

make 2>&1 | tee build.out

You can find more details, including instructions to flash the image in the getting started guide. The image and source code are only suitable for evaluation, and you’d have to work yourself to get a production-ready version with security patches, field upgrade, and performance improvements, or ask Boundary […]

March 9, 2019April 13, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Nitrogen8M_Mini Single Board Computer Launched for $135 and Up

Last month we write about Nitrogen8M_Mini, the First NXP i.MX8 8M Mini SBC, but at the time, it was not available for purchase just yet. Boundary Devices has now announced the official release of the board and is taking orders / pre-orders for $135 and up. Nitrogen8M_Mini SBC Two versions are being offered either with the board only, or as part of a devkit with a 5V power supply, an 8GB microSD card with Linux OS, a battery, and serial console cable: Nit8MQ_Mini_2r8eWB with WiFi and Bluetooth, currently in stock, and sold for $155 (board only), or $175 (devkit) Nit8MQ_Mini_2r8e without wireless module, to ship in a few weeks, and sold for $135 (board only), or $155 (devkit) Nitrogen8M_Mini specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini with 4x Cortex A53 cores @ 1.5 to 2.0 GHz max, 1x Cortex-M4F real-time core, Vivante GCNanoUltra 3D GPU, Vivante GC320 2D GPU System […]

February 11, 2019February 11, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Nitrogen8M_Mini is the First NXP i.MX8 8M Mini SBC

Having just written about one of the first NXP i.MX 8M Mini systems-on-module, let’s stay with NXP’s latest 14-nm processor as Boundary Devices have been working on a variant of their Nitrogen8M SBC based on MXP i.MX 8M Mini processor and aptly called Nitrogen8M_Mini. The board is also known as the less human-friendly Nit8MQ_Mini_2r8e SBC, and comes with the following specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini with 4x Cortex A53 cores, 1x Cortex-M4F real-time core, Vivante GCNanoUltra 3D GPU, Vivante GC320 2D GPU System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 (Optional 4GB version) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, expandable up to 128GB, UHS SD card slot Display – 4-lane MIPI DSI interface up to 1080p Video Encode / Decode – 1080p H.264, VP8/1080p60 H.265, H.264, VP8, VP9 Audio – 3.5mm headphone jack, analog MIC jack, 2W audio amplifier, L&R speaker headers Camera Interface – 1x 4-lane MIPI-CSI interface Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet […]

February 28, 2018January 19, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Nitrogen8M Single Board Computer with NXP i.MX 8MQuad Processor Comes with Up to 4GB RAM, 128 GB Storage

Boundary Devices Nitrogen6X was one of the first boards based on Freescale i.MX 6 processor when it launched in 2012, and even I never owned their board personally, I liked the fact the company published frequent updates about software development on their blog. With NXP i.MX 8 processors now officially available, the company introduced an update to their SBC with Nitrogen8X powered by NXP i.MX 8MQ quad-core processor, with 2 to 4 GB LPDDR4 RAM, 8 to 128 GB flash, a certified wireless module for WiFi and Bluetooth, and more. The form factor has changed dramatically, however. Nitrogen8M specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8MQuad ((Dual, QuadLite available on request) with four Cortex A53 core @ up to 1.5 GHz, one Cortex-M4F real-time core, and a Vivante GC7000Lite 2D/3D GPU System Memory – 2 or 4GB LPDDR4 (2GB standard) Storage – 16MB QSPI NOR Flash, 8GB eMMC flash (expandable to 128 […]