SiP Integration Requests

General
1

Use this thread to tell us what you would like us to integrate into our next SiP. This can be new features or devices into our current line up or a completely new family of devices.

Let us know what would make your lives easier!

OSD335x with more computing power?
2

We have some long-term products which base on AM3358 / BeagleBone Black and would prefer to stay on this hardware-platform and board format.

So to further-develop these products it would be great to have a fully AM335x-compatible SiP like the OSD335x (which easily could be used for a further-developed BeagleBone) but - in order of our priority - in future perhaps with:

  1. higher system clock (1GHz is meanwhile not so fancy and the lower end for compareable embedded devices)
  2. higher PRU clock
  3. larger L1 and L2 cache
  4. two or more 16 bit analogue outputs
  5. additional PRUs
Regards

Mike

 

3

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the input. It sounds like you are looking for a different SoC. We don’t design SoC’s but are looking for SoCs to integrate into our products. Would an AM43x device or an AM57x device meet your requirements?

4
It sounds like you are looking for a different SoC
No, not necessarily. I also would be happy with exactly the same hardware and with my suggestion from point 1.

 

5

Ok thanks for the feedback. Those kind of changes are a bit out of our scope as they require new silicon. We will pass that info along to TI and see if they have any plans to create something like what you are asking for.

 

Thanks,

Greg

6

Adding an FPGA core would provide more versatility and power for handling more computationally intensive tasks. Of course, that leads to the question of how do you handle core-to-core communication.

7

I’m happy with the current peripherals of the AM3358/SIP3358. But how about some additional CPU cores that can work in parallel?

8

Thanks Michael,
We are looking at a couple of things that would be similar to the AM335x peripheral set but with more/different cores. Stay tuned.

-Greg

9

Are there any plans to make an AM57x version?

10

Are there any plans to make an AM57x version? In addition, do you think is it feasible to have some degree of pin compatibility in the SiP packages between the OSD335x-SM and OSD57x-SM (hypothetical)?

11

Hi Avikde,

Thanks for your question. The AM57 is something we are actively exploring. What are the features of the AM57 you would like to take advantage of? How would you plan on using it?

Unfortunately given the increased power and number of IOs on the AM57, the chances of being able to create a version compatible with the OSD335x-SM is very small. We would look to take the same approach when designing the pin map however.

Thanks,

Greg

12

Thanks for the quick response. The features in the AM57 that are appealing are

  • integrated DSPs (for matrix math and other robotics algorithms)
  • 5x the DMIPS of the AM335 in order to be able to run more complicated algorithms
Makes sense about non-compatibility with the 335 SiP.

When you say “actively exploring” is there any roadmap? I’m asking since it could affect my company’s roadmap. Is there a different channel of communication that would be better (happy to have NDA’s etc.)

Avik De Ghost Robotics CTO
www.ghostrobotics.io | Twitter
13

I will have one of our Business Development Managers reach out to you.

Thanks,

Greg

14

Greg,

If you guys want to set the world on fire you should consider a SiP using the low-end Xilinx Zynq 7z007s FPGA / Cortex-A9 SoC. Although this part is fairly new it seems to be available in decent retail quantities and I’d bet you’d have no problems getting dice from Xilinx. And probably full backing from Xilinx marketing as well. It would be a huge win for them in their eternal battle against Altera/Intel (translation: easier for you to negotiate better than the $46 retail price).

Now this is obviously a huge departure from what you’ve been doing. But the philosophy remains the same. The worst problems for us as FPGA/SoC developers are the routing of the DDRx memory interface and the multi-voltage requirement pushing us into 6-layer (or more) PCBs. If you put a 512 MB DDR3L and one of the many FPGA-specific PMICs in the SiP that would be enough (same as you do now). It’s easy these days to deal with external USB, Ethernet PHY, SDIO etc as you are well aware.

There are lots of challenges of course. The die size will determine the difficulty. The 7z007s already has limited I/O pins for the SoC peripherals and you wouldn’t want to make that situation any worse. I’d trade a larger SiP package to get all the I/Os. Your packaging will effect the high-end performance of the FPGA I/Os. But for a low-end device most people aren’t so worried about that I would think. For example my application is limited to about 70 MHz.

15

HI KiwiSDR,
Thanks for the feedback. This is something we have been looking into. The question with FPGA’s is what do we actually design to. They are so flexible with so many use cases we have had problems scoping something that met the needs of most of the market without being overkill. Any help you can provide on your application and actual requirements would be very helpful.

If you don’t want to share them here feel free to send us a note through the contact form.

Thanks,
Greg

16

Thanks Greg. I’ll be sending a contact form reply soon. Need to do a little more research first.

17

I also see some potential on lower-end MPUs also. Even though having a good Cortex-A processor at 1 GHz speeds is very nice, I see some other markets where that is just unneeded/overkill, and a simpler MPU at lower speeds, could solve many problems and be more cost effective. OSD335x-SM at current price tag is somewhat prohibitive for some projects that would greatly benefit from an MCU with Linux.

For example, take the AT91SAM9G25 (ARM926 at 400 MHz) for example; it would be nice to have a SiP with integrated RAM, power management and above all, a friendly pin distribution and spacing for accesible 4-Layer PCBs like the current offering. Atmel MPUs (now Microchip’s) have also an active community and good Linux support AFAIK.

Maybe you can consider a lower-end & lower-cost option, specially for those making the transition from an MCU to an MPU for industrial and IoT applications.

My two cents :slight_smile:

18

i found this thread too late, so please delete any double posts.

what i’m would be interested in is more computing power while staying (somewhat) compatible with the AM335x, means more main CPU cores and/or higher clock and/or more PRU-cores.

my application is bare metal/embedded where computing power is the bottleneck, RAM is more then enough available at the moment (but would not matter when it is more than on the BBB)

19

HI Andy,
Thank you for the feedback. This is an idea we have kicked around and are looking into. Is there anything special you like about the AT91SAM9G25? Are there any other processors in this class that would be interesting for you?

20

Hi MichM,
No problem. I will clean up the other post. Would a AM57x work for your application? If so which version 1, 2, or 4?

Thanks,
Greg