Introduction
1. What is IFC6301 Micro SoM?
The Penguin Edge™ IFC6301 Micro SoM is a tiny System on Module (SoM) solution for embedded systems designers. It provides designers access to the rich I/O and computing features of the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 410E System-on-Chip (APQ8016E), with quad-core processors each running at 1.2GHz. The plug-and-play IFC6301 Micro SoM comes in an ultra-small form factor of 28mm x 50mm and weighs less than 10 grams! With a low profile of only 8mm, it provides access to interfaces such as MIPI-DSI displays with support for Full HD content, MIPI-CSI cameras capable of encoding Full HD AVC content, and GPS. It provides a dense compute platform for a variety of unique Android and Linux based multimedia applications in digital signage, surveillance, instrumentation, and telematics for asset tracking. The IFC6301 Micro SoM joins a growing product line of SoMs that are electrical, pin, and form-factor compatible with a common carrier board design. This enables easy migration and cross compatibility with new Qualcomm Snapdragon processor based Micro SoMs.
2. Does Penguin Solutions offer other form factors based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 410E?
Yes. Penguin Solutions offers reference carrier boards for its SoMs in two form factors. A mini-ITX carrier board (170 X170mm) fully expands the I/O and connectivity of the IFC6301 Micro SoM and a reference design board (IFC6301 Reference Design) inclusive of both is available. A smaller reference carrier (55mm x 60mm) with minimal I/Os such as USB/HDMI/Debug UART/μSD is also available. Apart from this, an SBC based on the Snapdragon 410E is offered by Penguin Solutions. Please check this Link for more details.
3. If I cannot use the standard SoM form factor, does Penguin Solutions provide any custom design solutions?
Yes, while we offer standard products off-the-shelf (OTS) on our website and through our distributor, Arrow Electronics, 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. In addition, we also offer full custom hardware design and associated software/device driver development, for those projects where a unique design is required to meet sophisticated technical challenges.
4. How do I find more information about the IFC6301 Micro SoM? What do I get when I buy an IFC6301? Is the device available internationally?
The Penguin Edge portion of the Penguin Solutions website has a lot of useful information about our SoMs https://www.penguinsolutions.com/edge/products/system-on-modules.
Please check on the exact product SKU for the pre-loaded software, available memory and accompanying accessories such as acrylics, power adapters, and cables. The IFC6301 Micro SoM requires a carrier board (like all SoMs do) to power up and connect to peripheral devices and gain access to the extensive set of I/Os that are available on the Micro SoM. Penguin Edge’s Snapdragon processor-based Micro SoMs are all cross-compatible (pin, connector, and form factor) with a single reference carrier board design.
We offer a full Reference Design, which includes the carrier board along with a few accessories such as an acrylic case, power adapter, sensor module, and micro USB cable. Once you register the product with us online, you would get dedicated support from Penguin Solutions.
The board ships to most places worldwide and relevant shipping and local tax charges may apply. Please contact PenguinEdgeSales@penguinsolutions.com for pricing details or any additional questions that you may have before buying an IFC6301.
5. Does Penguin Solutions have a blog?
Yes! You can find our periodic blogs at https://www.penguinsolutions.com/edge/resources/blog/category/articles. Here you can keep up with all of the latest information about Penguin Solutions products, conference appearances, and innovative customer applications.
6. Does Penguin Solutions offer warranty replacement/return materials authorization (RMA)?
Yes, please contact our sales team at PenguinEdgeSales@penguinsolutions.com for specific details for your product.
General
7. What are the accessories available?
Penguin Solutions offers a small reference carrier,Penguin Edge ACC-1C10, (55mm x 60mm) with minimal I/Os like USB/HDMI/Debug UART/μSD as an accessory. This accessory is compatible with all our SoMs and would a great fit for the IFC6301 SoM’s capabilities to achieve fast prototyping at low costs. 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 IFC6301 does not include support for a wireless modem. Third party cellular modem dongles can be connected to the IFC6301 system via USB ports and may require special drivers from the respective manufacturers.
9. What is the storage capacity of the IFC6301 Micro SoM? Is it expandable?
The on-board storage (eMMC) capacity is 8GB. Storage can be expanded by connecting a MicroSD card. Please check on the exact product SKU for details on pre-loaded software and available memory.
10. What are the performance details of the IFC6301? What is the speed of the RAM?
The IFC6301 Micro SoM provides Cortex-A53 class computing through its custom Quad-core ARM 64-bit CPU with 512kb of L2 cache. The Qualcomm Adreno™ 306 GPU operates at 450 MHz and is capable of 24.3 GFLOPS of general purpose compute. It provides support for OpenGL ES 3.0 and OpenCL 1.1 embedded profile on Android. Note that these libraries are provided as binaries only.
The on-board 1GB LPDDR3 RAM operates at 533MHz. All our Android releases are benchmarked with Antutu and validated with the Qualcomm Trepn™ Profiler to ensure that all cores are capable of operating at their maximum frequency.
11. What is the height of the SoM?
The height of the IFC6301 SoM is 7mm.
12. What types of displays are supported and at what resolution?
MIPI-DSI is the display interface that is natively supported and the maximum resolution is Full HD 1080p; 16/18/24 bpp RGB. HDMI v1.3a supporting 1080p@30fps/720p@60fp is also supported with onboard conversion from DSI to HDMI on the reference carrier.
Note that the displays are not provided as peripherals with the IFC6301 reference design. They can be purchased from https://www.penguinsolutions.com/edge/products/accessories.
13. What are the capabilities of the video Decoder/Encoder?
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 |
| Video Decoding |
H.263 hw accelerated |
• 3GPP (.3gp) • MPEG-4 (.mp4) |
Profile 0 level 70 |
1080P/20mbps/30fps |
| H.264 AVC hw accelerated |
• 3GPP (.3gp) • MPEG-4 (.mp4) |
High profile level 4 |
1080P/20mbps/30fps |
| MPEG-4 SP hw accelerated |
3GPP (.3gp) |
Adv Simple profile level 5 |
1080P/20mbps/30fps |
| VC-1 |
|
Adv Simple profile level 3 |
1080P/20mbps/30fps |
| DivX 4, 5, 6/MP2 |
|
|
720P/10mbps/30fps |
| DivX 3.11 Hardware-based |
|
|
D1 FWGA/2mbps/30fps |
| VP8 |
• WebM (.webm) • Matroska (.mkv |
|
1080P/10mbps/30fps |
| Sorenson Spark/On2 VP6 |
|
|
D1/1mbps/30fps |
| Video Encoding |
H.263 |
• 3GPP (.3gp) • MPEG-4 (.mp4) |
Profile 0 level 70 |
1080P/10mbps/30fps |
| H.264 AVC |
• 3GPP (.3gp) • MPEG-4 (.mp4) |
High profile level 4 |
1080P/20mbps/30fps |
| MP4 |
|
Adv Simple profile level 5 |
1080P/20mbps/30fps |
14. What are the camera capabilities of the IFC6301 Micro SoM?
The camera interface is through 4-lane+2-lane MIPI-CSI and can support up to 13MP sensors. Dual camera capability in PiP mode is also possible. The 4-lane CSI0 supports CMOS and CCD sensors and is capable up to 13MP sensors. The 2-lane CSI1 has webcam support and is capable up to 8MP sensors. IFC6301 Micro SoM has been validated with the OV5640 camera module from OmniVision®. Note that the camera module is not provided as part of the IFC6301 reference design. It could be purchased as an accessory from https://www.penguinsolutions.com/edge/products/accessories.
15. How much power does the board draw? Is it possible to measure the power?
The IFC6301 reference design is powered by a 12V/3A wall adaptor. The IFC6301 SoM coupled with the smaller reference carrier (ACC-1C10 accessory) is powered by a 5V/3A wall adaptor. Our products typically offer support for 7V-16V power input range. The total power consumed by the IFC6301 reference design ranges between 6W to 17W when different use cases are executed. There are no test points made available to measure run-time power on the board. But the input current through the DC jack can be measured during different use-cases. Please note that we do run the Trepn profiler as part of our validation process on all our stock Android releases.
16. What are the audio capabilities?
Audio is available through HDMI, USB and speaker out. Note that HDMI is available only on the ACC-1C10 reference carrier. The IFC6301 reference design comes with a microphone for recording and a combo jack for microphone and speaker out.
17. What documents are provided? Are board design files also provided?
We provide datasheets, user guide and a Hardware Reference Manual. Schematics are not provided for the IFC6301. Board design files are proprietary and confidential and hence not provided.
All software releases are accompanied with release notes, user guides and application notes that describe the installation procedure.
18. What is the support model from Penguin Solutions after products are purchased?
Penguin Solutions offers a range of standard products off-the-shelf (OTS) on its website and through their distributor, Arrow Electronics. Apart from these, it offers pre-validated build-to-order (BTO) configurations, as well as configure-to-order (CTO) options for existing products. In addition, it also offers full custom hardware design and associated software/device driver development, for those projects where a unique design is required to meet sophisticated technical challenges. From a technical support perspective, Penguin Solutions offers a Tech Support Contract for its customers who would like unlimited prioritized technical support. The package includes unlimited prioritized email-based tech support and a direct email contact from its engineering team. If required, arrangements for limited phone-based support can also be enabled.
Networking, IO and Wireless
19. Does the device support networking and wireless?
Supported connectivity includes Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.1 (available via Qualcomm Atheros WCN3620) and GPS (supported via Qualcomm WGR7640).
20. How can I change the MAC address for WiFi/BT/Ethernet on my board?
MAC addresses are fixed at the factory. Changing them 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 Release Notes and App notes available on Penguin Solutions’s TechWeb.
21. What are the IO interfaces available?
Standard I/O interfaces including I2C, SPI, UART, UIM, GPIOs, and on-board Serial Console are available. There are multiple USB 2.0 host ports (Carrier ACC-1C10 needed). Penguin Solutions reference carriers include an expansion header with accessible GPIOs and BLSPs available for user configuration.
22. My serial console shows garbage characters on the IFC6301 reference design. What could be wrong?
The serial port could be incorrectly configured. Please note that the correct settings are – 115200, 8, N, 1, No HW flow control. Please also check your connections as described below.
To connect the serial console on IFC6301 board we would need to have a three pin connector and the wiring as described below:
Take wires from the DB9 port and connect it to the RS232 header on board
DB9 TX ———- 6501 R1IN
DB9 RX ———- 6501 T1OUT
DB9 GND ———- 6501 GND
Software
23. What operating systems are supported and what is the OS roadmap?
BSPs for Android Lollipop and Debian Linux versions are available today as officially supported packages on the Penguin Solutions TechWeb. 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.
24. Is root access possible? 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
25. Is fastboot supported? How to enter fastboot?
Yes. To go to fastboot mode, press the Vol- button (label 3 on the Quick Start Guide document for IFC6301 reference design) before powering on the board.
26. 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 the 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 application note called “IFC6301 AppNote Recovery of bricked boards using SD Card”.
27. Is Hexagon DSP supported on the IFC6301 platform?
Yes. The IFC6301 Micro SoM has a Qualcomm Hexagon™ QDSP6 Version 5 processor that runs up to 691MHz. The CPU computations related to real-time media and sensor processing can be offloaded to the Hexagon DSP. The custom audio/voice algorithms, encoders, and decoders to the audio framework are some of the use-cases possible on the Hexagon DSP. Qualcomm also opens up a comprehensive Hexagon SDK for all its processors that provides for a complete environment to generate dynamic Hexagon DSP code modules. Hexagon SDK can be obtained from
https://developer.qualcomm.com/mobile-development/maximize-hardware/multimedia-optimization-hexagon-sdk/application
Penguin Solutions enables the usage of this Hexagon SDK through its officially supported Android releases.
28. How can I get kernel debug messages?
Connect the device’s serial port to the host PC. Refer to Question 21 for connection configuration. Boot into fastboot mode and issue the following command –
fastboot -c "console=ttyHSL0,115200n8r androidboot.hardware=qcom" boot boot.img
Debug messages should start to show up.
29. Is Google Play available on my board?
Google Play is part of Google Mobile Services (GMS) and is licensed separately from Google. 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 sideload 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.
