Industrial SOM to address the needs of the BeagleBoard.org community!

The world most popular embedded platform for hobbyists and embedded software developers nowadays is BeagleBone Black. It has great support from the BeagleBoard.org community and many software fixes and features get updates almost every day. The popularity of the platform attracted professional engineers from different companies and they wanted to use this amazing evaluation board in commercial products. However this hardware open source board just can’t be used in commercial projects. Why? Because it was designed to meet low price demand from enthusiasts and hobbyists and therefore all boards are assembled from general purpose components which are not intended for heavy duty use in commercial systems. But what should do engineers who tried BeagleBone Black and enjoyed it? Mentorel introduces a BBB clone – the system on module uSomIQ AM335x specifically designed to meet the hardest requirements for industrial systems! Our module is designed using open source materials from BeagleBoard.org but keeping in mind that it will be running 24/7 50000 hours in commercial products under floating temperature conditions from -40 to +85 Celsius degrees.

uSomIQ key features

The AM335x microprocessors, based on the ARM Cortex-A8, are enhanced with image, graphics processing, peripherals and industrial interface options such as EtherCAT and PROFIBUS. The device supports the following high-level operating systems (HLOSs) that are available free of charge from Texas Instruments:

• Linux®
• Android™

The uSomIQ AM335x features robust design and mates with carrier boards by the high density mezzanine connectors FCI MezzoStak intended for extreme operating temperature range between -40 and 125 degrees C. Stub-less contact design supports PCEeG2 High Speed performance and ensures reliable operation of high-speed interfaces on the uSomIQ module: USB 2.0 and Ethernet.

The microprocessor contains these subsystems:

• Microprocessor unit (MPU) subsystem based on the ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessor.
• POWERVR SGX Graphics Accelerator subsystem for 3D graphics acceleration to support display and gaming effects.
• The Programmable Real-Time Unit and Industrial Communication Subsystem (PRU-ICSS) is separate from the ARM core, allowing independent operation and clocking for greater efficiency and flexibility. The PRU-ICSS enables additional peripheral interfaces and real-time protocols such as EtherCAT, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, PROFIBUS, Ethernet Powerlink, Sercos, and others.

The device is able to support the following applications:

• Portable Data Terminals
• Auto Infotainment
• Gaming
• Medical Imaging
• Home Automation
• Human Interface
• Industrial Control
• Test and Measurement
• Single board Computers