Interesting "Competitors" for the Raspberry Pi

Hello

Have you heard about the Sabre-Lite board based on a Freescale i.MX6Q (Cortex-A9, Quad-Core, 1GHz) ?

i.MX6 is really a powerfull processor considering its 4x Cores @1GHz, its Graphical Unit Vivante for 2/3D, its Video Unit allowing 1080p multi-Encoding/Decoding and its Image Unit for multi-camera input/display outputs.

The IC was announced few months before but the launch is imminent (November 15th during Electronica) with samples available.

Sabre-Lite will be sold (with an aggressive resale price) and supported by Element14.

Hello

Have you heard about the Sabre-Lite board based on a Freescale i.MX6Q (Cortex-A9, Quad-Core, 1GHz) ?

i.MX6 is really a powerfull processor considering its 4x Cores @1GHz, its Graphical Unit Vivante for 2/3D, its Video Unit allowing 1080p multi-Encoding/Decoding and its Image Unit for multi-camera input/display outputs.

The IC was announced few months before but the launch is imminent (November 15th during Electronica) with samples available.

Sabre-Lite will be sold (with an aggressive resale price) and supported by Element14.

I've seen it, but $199 will be too high for my pocket.

ouch for $200 I'd rather go all the way and just do a full fledge computer using a pico-itx board.

Jim, I understand your position.

Just keep in mind that board will come with i.MX6 will be in Quad Core version @1GHz with a dedicated VPU for multi-video decoding and encoding capabilities up to 1080p or 3D HD, 1GB of DDR3, a camera input and up to 3x video output (1x HDMI, 1x LVDS and 1x Parallele)

In terme of multimedia performances, i.MX6Q might outperform the NVidia Tegra3 with its dedicated Video Processing Unit.

First off, it having an LVDS is pretty awesome, I keep hoping (probably in vain) that the Pi will either get an LVDS or someone will make an interface for it using something like the DSI bus.

That said, I don't mean to discourage anyone else from getting the board.  I think these ARM based boards are quite amazing, but for me graphics and camera input aren't high priorities so if I'm going to dish out the extra cash it's going to be for significantly more processing power, or a lot more RAM.  For me, personally, there's also a limit where ARM compatibility with some obscure piece of software hit a price ceiling I'm not willing to go past.  Shoot, if it weren't for the support that exists for the Pi in the 2 forums, I probably wouldn't have gotten a pi.

But that's why they make more than one flavour of tea, right?

Greg C wrote:

 

Jim, I understand your position.

Just keep in mind that board will come with i.MX6 will be in Quad Core version @1GHz with a dedicated VPU for multi-video decoding and encoding capabilities up to 1080p or 3D HD, 1GB of DDR3, a camera input and up to 3x video output (1x HDMI, 1x LVDS and 1x Parallele)

In terme of multimedia performances, i.MX6Q might outperform the NVidia Tegra3 with its dedicated Video Processing Unit.

All in all, looks like a nice board and the i.MX6 series certainly look as if they'll provide a good starting point for some interesting boards. But onto the akward questions.. 

Accelerated X drivers ? (no point in a fancy VPU if you can't use it for more than a dumb frame buffer).

Why only 1GB ?

Where's the mainline kernel integration effort ? Or is it stuck at 3.0.x ? (even the Pi manages 3.2.x and realistically you want 3.4+ with devicetree)

Realistically, outperforming the Tegra3 only matters if there's actually a useable accelerated 3D driver. Nvidia will likely have a closed binary blob of a driver for the Tegra, but if it works....

GregC, is the price of the forthcoming Freescale i.MX6Q SoC openly available as a ballpark figure?

I'm wondering what the cheapest possible evaluation board for it might cost, essentially just a basic Pi-type board containing your device and a PMIC in place of the Pi's BCM2835 and its linear regulators.

Morgaine.

Freescale i.MX6 SoC pricing will be openly available after the launch, November 13th (during Electronica).

IC will be available in Single-Core, Single-Core-Lite, Dual-Core, Dual-Core-lite and Quad versions with different frequencies and qualifications (automotive, industrial and consumer).

Main differences between the versions are detailled in the table below (extracted from the iMX6 family fact sheet available on Freescale website).

For your information, Farnell/Element14 product page for the Sabre-Lite board is now active herehere

Your reflexion concerning a cheaper board, with close specifications to Rasberry-Pi, is interesting (I will check internally if there is some partners working on it).

Don't hesitate to share with me which features would you expect on such a board based on an iMX6 processor ?

For example, considering the efficiency of the ARM Cortex-A9 core (compare to the ARM11), would you recommend a Single/Dual/Quad-core version ?

How much RAM, how many USB port, SD-Card Socket, which display output (only HDMI or LVDS and Parallel), do you need the battery charger ? 

Depending from the connectors populated, I believe that it could be possible to improve a little bit the cost of the Wandboard which is already pretty agressive.

Oh Greg, you're cruel inviting us to spec a board, knowing full well that that is irresistible.

Greg C wrote:

 

For example, considering the efficiency of the ARM Cortex-A9 core (compare to the ARM11), would you recommend a Single/Dual/Quad-core version ?

Price is king when first introducing a new product and desiring lots of mindshare to develop around it.  There is absolutely no question in my mind, use the cheapest version and you'll sell the largest number which makes the BOM cost even smaller, a joyous vicious circle for everyone concerned.  Sure, i.MX6SoloLite is not as sexy as the top one, but that's what future models of the board can feature.  You have a perfect path for upward evolution based on those 5 SoCs.  So ...

• The cheapest, i.MX6SoloLite for Model A.

How much RAM, how many USB port, SD-Card Socket, which display output (only HDMI or LVDS and Parallel), do you need the battery charger ? 

How much RAM depends on the current RAM pricing sweet spot.  Since Pi moved to 512MB, I assume that this size must be at the sweet spot or just above it, because Pi is very price-sensitive.  The other items get "Use the cheapest" answer from me:

• 512MB RAM
• Just one USB.  Desktop users with old k/b and mouse can add a hub.
• SD card socket probably, but worth investigating root-only embedded flash instead.
• Regarding display, I'd prefer to listen to the rationale that others give for their choice.
• No USB charger input, that was silly design by RPF.  Barrel connector into your PMIC.
• If the board is connected to a USB host then of course your PMIC can power from there.

Depending from the connectors populated, I believe that it could be possible to improve a little bit the cost of the Wandboard which is already pretty agressive.

Regarding GPIO connectors, your engineers have already done all the investigation needed there and designed it into your Cortex-M0+ Freedom board, so that sounds like an excellent path to take here too.

Morgaine.

An alternative design approach that doesn't start with the Wandboard (because that might be hard to cost-reduce):

• Take a Freescale ZL25 Freedom Board, extend it a bit lengthways, add i.MX6, PMIC and RAM, and that's pretty much it.
• Leave the Cortex-M0+ on the board, it can do all the I/O.  Linux kernels are really bad at realtime response, that's what microntrollers are best at.  And you've already designed and routed everything we'll ever need for basic I/O on that board.
• All models in the i.MX6 family have on-SoC Ethernet (yay!), but leave Model A without RJ45+magnetics, again for cheapness.
• Launch Models A and B (which has networking) simultaneously, and base marketting on the Model A's price, as RPF did.

Morgaine.

• Don't think I agree with Morgaine on only 1 USB. The SOC usually supports at least 2 so why not bring them out to a connector?
• Prefer the option of having NAND on board to boot from
• For display having access to parallel RGB and/or LVDS is nice so a direct connection to a LCD panel is possible although these should be in addition to HDMI

Other than that I agree with Morgaine!