Introduction
1. What is IFC6560 SBC?
The Penguin Edge IFC6560 SBC is a full-fledged Single Board Computer (SBC) solution based on Qualcomm’s custom Octa-core 64-bit Kryo (260) CPU (Snapdragon 660 – SD660) platform for embedded applications. The production-ready IFC6560 SBC comes in a standard pico-iTX form factor of 100mm x 72mm without compromising on direct access to a rich set of I/Os. This platform provides a perfect environment for a variety of unique industrial embedded applications that require high performance, intelligent, on-device processes, utilizing heterogeneous compute capabilities to power immersive and engaging experiences for machine learning use-cases.
2. Does Penguin Solutions provide any custom design solutions since some designs wouldn’t be able to use the standard form factor and or features?
Yes, while we offer standard products off-the-shelf (OTS) on our website and through our distributors (like Arrow Electronics etc.), we also have a strong background in customized hardware and software solutions. We offer pre-validated build-to-order (BTO) configurations, as well as configure-to-order (CTO) options for existing products. Penguin Solutions also offers full custom hardware design and associated software/device driver development, for those projects where a unique hardware design is required to meet sophisticated technical challenges.
3. Where can I get more information on the IFC6560 SBC? What do I get when I buy one IFC6560 SBC? Is the device available internationally?
Our website has a lot of useful information about our SBCs athttps://www.penguinsolutions.com/edge/products/single-board-computers Please check on the exact product SKU for the pre-loaded software, available IOs and accompanying starter kits, which include items such as acrylic base, power adapters, and cables. Once you register the product with Penguin Solutions, you would get dedicated support from us. The board would be shipped to most places around the world and relevant shipping and excise duty charges apply. Please contact PenguinEdgeSales@penguinsolutions.com for exact pricing.
4. Does Penguin Solutions have an active developer blog?
Yes! You can find our periodic blogs at https://www.penguinsolutions.com/edge/resources/blog/. Here you can keep up with all of the latest information about Penguin Solutions products, periodic newsletters, conference and trade show appearances, and innovative customer applications.
5. What is the support model from Penguin Solutions after products are purchased?
All purchases of Penguin Solutions products get unlimited access to the online TechWeb support portal, which provides a host of technical documentation and software downloads. Purchasers are also provided free technical support for a limited number of support tickets. For a sustained technical support, Penguin Solutions offers Design Assistance Support Contracts for shorter periods of time and Annual Support Contracts for its customers who would like unlimited prioritized technical support. Please contact Penguin Solutions sales to obtain more details of the support contracts.
General
6. How is emission shielding and heat dissipation handled?
The platform comes with a heatsink block and clips for installing an EMI shield around the RF components for excellent emission control and heat dissipation. Please check on the exact product SKU with shielding.
7. What are the accessories available from Penguin Solutions?
Our website https://www.penguinsolutions.com/edge/products/accessories lists all the available accessories. Please note that User guides and product datasheets are available for all accessories.
8. Does the board support a cellular or GSM connection?
The IFC6560 SBC does not include support for a wireless modem. Third party cellular modem dongles can be connected to this platform via USB ports and may require special drivers from the respective manufacturers.
9. What is the storage capacity of the IFC6560 SBC? Is it expandable?
Please check on the exact product SKU for the pre-loaded software and available memory. The on-board storage (eMMC) capacity is 32GB. Memory can be expanded by connecting a Micro-SD card or a USB Hard drive.
10. How powerful is the IFC6560 SBC? What is the speed of the RAM?
The standalone IFC6560 SBC is powered by an Octa-core 64-bit Kryo 260 based applications processor capable of up to 2.2 GHz speed with 2MB of L2 cache. The Qualcomm Adreno™ 512 GPU operates at 650 MHz and is capable of up to 255 GFLOPS of general purpose compute. The onboard DDR4 RAM is of 3GB size, and part of the eMCP package.
11. What types of displays are supported and at what resolution?
UltraHD@30Hz on USB Type C, WQXGA@60Hz on MIPI-DSI and HDMI v1.3a supporting 1080p@30fps/720p@60fps are the display types supported. Concurrent dual independent displays of WQXGA@60Hz + UltraHD@30Hz is possible. Please check on the exact product SKU for the available display interfaces.
12. What are the capabilities of the video Decoder?
Please refer to https://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html for supported codecs from Android.
| Supported Codec |
Container Format |
Profile(s) |
Resolution/Bitrate/Framereate |
| H.263 |
• 3GPP (.3gp) • MPEG-4 (.mp4) |
Profile 0 level 70 |
864×480/2mbps/30fps |
| H.264 AVC |
• 3GPP (.3gp) • MPEG-4 (.mp4) |
Constrained baseline, baseline, main, high,constrained high profiles; up to level 5.1 |
1080P/40mbps/30fps 1080P/60mbps/60fps 3840×2160/100mbps/30fps 4096×2160/100mbps/24fps |
| HEVC |
|
Main profile 8-bit, up to level 5.1 Main profile 10-bit,up to level 5.1 |
1080P/40mbps/30fps 1080P/60mbps/60fps 3840×2160/100mbps/30fps 4096×2160/100mbps/24fps |
| VC-1 |
• GXF • MXF |
Advanced, main, simple, and high respectively |
1080P/40mbps/30fps 1080P/60mbps/60fps |
| MPEG-4 |
3GPP (.3gp) |
Simple, advanced simple profiles; up to level 5 |
1080P/40mbps/30fps 1080P/60mbps/60fps |
| DivX |
DMF/Matroska |
DivX 3.11/4/5/6 |
DivX 3.11 720×480/2mbps/30fps DivX 4.x/5.x/6.x 1080P/30mbps/10fps |
| VP8/VP9 |
Matroska/Vorbis |
Profile 0, level 5.1 |
1080P/40mbps/30fps 3840×2160/100mbps/30fps 4096×2160/100mbps/24fps |
13. What is the camera capability?
The IFC6560 SBC has 3 MIPI-CSI camera connectors that support 4 lanes each from CSI0,CSI1 and CSI2. The interfaces can support up to 24MP single or 16MP dual. Dual MIPI-CSI camera capability is possible with additional software support. Penguin Solutions platforms have been validated with a Sony IMX230 sensor (21MP) based camera module for 4K@60fps capture and record. Note that this camera module accessory (ACC1H70) can be purchased from https://www.penguinsolutions.com/edge/products/accessories USB UVC cameras too are supported and Penguin Solutions has validated cameras of 1080p resolution on this interface.
14. What are the capabilities of the video Encoder?
| Supported Codec |
Container Format |
Profile(s) |
Resolution/Bitrate/Framereate |
| H.263 |
• 3GPP (.3gp) • MPEG-4 (.mp4) |
Profile 0 level 70 |
864×480/2mbps/30fps |
| H.264 AVC |
• 3GPP (.3gp) • MPEG-4 (.mp4) |
Baseline, main, high, profiles; up to level 5.1 |
1080P/40mbps/30fps 3840×2160/100mbps/30fps 4096×2160/100mbps/24fps |
| HEVC |
|
Main profile, up to level 5.1 |
1080P/40mbps/30fps 1080P/60mbps/60fps 3840×2160/100mbps/30fps 4096×2160/100mbps/24fps |
| MPEG-4 |
3GPP (.3gp) |
Simple, advanced simple profiles; up to levels 8 and 5 respectively |
1080P/40mbps/30fps |
| VP8 |
Matroska/Vorbis |
Profile 0, level 5.1 |
1080P/40mbps/30fps 3840×2160/100mbps/30fps |
15. How much power does the board draw? Is it possible to measure the power?
The IFC6560 SBC is powered from a 12V/3A wall adapter. Our products typically offer support for 7V-16V power input range. The total approximate power drawn by the IFC6560 SBC ranges between 6W to 17W when different use cases are executed.
There are test points made available to measure run-time power. Please refer to the user guide for more details on these test points. The input current through the DC jack can also be measured during different use-cases. Note that we run the Qualcomm Trepn™ profiler as part of our validation process on all of our stock Android releases.
16. What are the audio capabilities?
Audio is available through HDMI, USB and speaker out. The IFC6560 SBC also comes with a microphone for recording and a combo jack for microphone and speaker out. The HDMI interface is compliant to Version 1.3a specification.
17. What are the sensor capabilities?
Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 (SDA660) processor’s Hexagon DSP cluster has a dedicated sensor core to support always-on sensor-aware apps. Onboard the IFC6560 SBC, a 3D accelerometer and a 3D gyroscope are available through the STMicro LSM6DS3 sensor module.
18. Does the IFC6560 platform support battery charging and RTC?
Yes, the IFC6560 platform has an integrated battery charging circuitry with the battery header on-board. It also has an RTC with guaranteed accuracy implemented through interrupts.
19. What documents can I access online if I were to purchase the IFC6560 SBC? Are board design files also provided?
We provide datasheets, a User Guide, a Quick Start Guide and a Hardware Reference Manual. Board design files are proprietary and thus not shared. All software releases are accompanied with release notes, user guides and application notes that describe all the features and the installation procedure. Apart from these, all technical questions addressed to techsupport-wc@smartwirelesscompute.com are promptly answered once the product is registered with Penguin Solutions.
Networking, IO and Wireless
20. Does the device support networking and wireless?
Yes, the 6560 platform supports 10/100/1000MB Dual Ethernet through USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet controllers. Yes, integrated 802.11n/ac MU-MIMO WiFi and BT/LE 5.0 is available via the onboard Qualcomm WCN3990 IC.
21. How can I change the MAC address for WiFi/BT/Ethernet on my board?
This should not be necessary since the correct addresses are programmed before the board is shipped. But if it is still required, please refer to the App Notes available on our TechWeb support portal.
22. What are the IO interfaces available?
Standard I/O interfaces including GbE, I2C, SPI, UART, GPIOs, SD card and on-board Serial Console are available. The 6560 SBC has one USB-C port and a couple of USB 2.0 Type A (host) connectors. We also provide a 40 pin expansion header with accessible GPIOs available for users. Please refer to the product specifications in the Hardware Reference Manual or the datasheet for more information and also for the exact product SKU for the available interfaces.
23. Does the platform support PoE?
Yes, the platform supports PoE out of the box through the ACC1S70 accessory from Penguin Solutions which can be purchased from https://www.penguinsolutions.com/edge/products/accessories. The platform provides dual Ethernet ports on USB3.0 to GbE controllers that enable Power Over Ethernet (PoE) supporting 802.3at complaint PD configuration. This allows the user to provide an Ethernet connection apart from powering your system in any location with just a single cable.
Software
24. What operating systems are supported and what is the OS roadmap?
Board Support Packages (BSPs) for Android Oreo is available as an officially supported package on Penguin Solutions TechWeb. An Ubuntu/Debian Linux based BSP would soon be made available and please stay tuned to our website for an announcement on this package. Periodic releases shall be provided with feature improvements on both these packages. Penguin Solutions also upgrades the BSPs to newer Android releases and upstream Linux kernel to support feature improvements on its platforms. Please stay tuned for announcements on our website for update releases.
25. Is root access possible on Penguin Solutions boards? Could you please explain how to get root privileges in Android?
Yes. As Android derives from the Linux kernel, rooting an Android device gives similar access administrative permissions as on Linux. Please give below commands in adb shell to get root privileges #adb root #adb remount Note that root access to the app space is not provided by default by the BSP.
26. Is fastboot supported? How to enter fastboot?
Yes. To go to fastboot mode, keep the Fastboot button (refer to the QSG document for IFC6560 SBC for location) pressed before powering on the board. Release it after the board is powered on.
27. I’ve modified the boot partitions on my board and the board is no longer booting. What should I do?
If the eMMC partitions have been erased or partition table has been corrupted, you need to recover the eMMC using the instructions you can find on Penguin Solutions Techweb support portal by referring to the relevant application note.
28. Is the Hexagon DSP available on the IFC6560 platform?
Yes. Qualcomm’s Hexagon DSP architecture is designed to deliver performance with low power over a variety of heterogeneous computing applications. It has features such as hardware assisted multithreading and instructions geared toward efficient signal processing. The IFC6560 SBC comes with the Hexagon™ 680 DSP with Hexagon vector processor (HVX) designed for low-power audio and computer vision processing. Qualcomm opens up a comprehensive Hexagon SDK that provides a complete environment to generate dynamic Hexagon DSP code modules. Penguin Solutions Android BSP releases enables the use of the Hexagon SDK and provides sample applications. The Hexagon SDK provides a RPC mechanism (FastRPC) to communicate between the HLOS and Hexagon DSP.
29. How can I get kernel debug messages?
Connect the device’s serial port and debug messages should start to show up on utilities like minicom/putty(if using a windows host).
30. Why isn’t Google Play available on my board?
Google Play is part of Google Mobile Services (GMS) and is licensed separately by Google. This is usually available on commercial Android devices. Though our hardware is capable of meeting requirements of the Google Test Suite that would lead to GMS certification, we have not added this to our product. Nevertheless, it is possible to side-load any Android application using the following commands:
#adb devices
#adb mount
#adb remount
#adb install apk
Should you have further questions not answered by the above FAQ and would like to have them included here, please contact PenguinEdgeSales@penguinsolutions.com.
