Intel® Joule™ 570x Developer Kit - Review

Table of contents

RoadTest: Intel® Joule™ 570x Developer Kit

Author: fyaocn

Creation date: 20 Jun 2017

Evaluation Type: Independent Products

Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True

What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: NA, Joule is unique in this level

What were the biggest problems encountered?: BIOS update

Detailed Review:

1. Overview

Intel Joule 570x module,1.7 GHZ; Turbo Boost up to 2.4 GHz,4GB RAM and 16GB eMMC Flash, with the following parts,

• A 5xx series system on module (SoM) device.
• An expansion board that provides physical interfaces for HDMI, USB, due-ports for connectors, a DC input jack, on board LEDs, and three mechanical buttons
• Dual wireless antennas with MFP.4 connectors
• A passive heatsink solution designed for moderate workloads
• One USB Type-C cable

One 12V-3A DC power shall be provided for application and test, other hardware and software needed shall be ,

2 USB 2.0 or 3.0 flash drives (2GB min.)

• A monitor with an HDMI interface
• A Mini HDMI to HDMI cable
• A USB keyboard and a mouse
• A USB Hub for all the above USB pieces (4)
• An 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi network with Internet access
• An Ubuntu Desktop 16.04.2 LTS image or An Ubuntu Core image,

Heat sink has been provided with joule module, while according to test, the power consumption is not so great that the temperature keeps moderate throughout the test process, even better than some RISC-ARM-base 64bit A53 boards. I guess the  PCB design is one important factor.

2. Unboxing

After connection above parts according to hardware guide, plug the 12V DC power, the development board is energized. Serial communication like Putty shall be used even HDMI provide best HMI interface.  Speed  rate of 115200, via usb type B socket,

Then pause 5s for BIOS setup if needed, press F2 to enter

Then enter the Ostro OS XT console, the Ostro OS is one branch of yocto project. As to Yocto project, it is flexible and can be customized easily, using baking to make final binary. It supports all serials of Intel chipsets perfectly. It is good if one really want to design end-products, it is better than most popular Linux releases and can be made very small.

use CAT to display OS version.

Login as root without password, it can be shutdown,

3. Choosing an Operating System

Besides factory installed Ostro - Yocto, windows 10 IoT and Ubuntu 16.04, can be installed with official guides. In fact, other Linux branch can be used if the kernel can be proper reconfigured in .config, I guess optional u-boot or lilo can run perfect in joule platform like all other type of Intel x86 desktop computers.

I choose ubuntu to replace Ostro since I am going to use Walabot-pro for gesture recognization, which only provide SDK for Debian-divergent like Raspbian or Ubuntu.

Furthermore, Intel AI SDK has been tested with Ubuntu, which I can try as optional project.

4. Installing of ubuntu-desktop-xenial

Before install ubuntu, BIOS shall be updated to version 193 or later, I have tried with factory version, the USB booting freeze without any action.

So, update BIOS first before install Ubuntu,

Installing the Drivers by running FlashUsbDriver-xxxx.exe, after that you will find out the  Intel DnX driver has been installed.

Then press DnX button on board and plug the 12V DC power, then release the button to enter DnX mode, plug type C  cable afterward, type command Flash.bat Joule-xxxx.bin,

try several time if you fail, I still can not figure out what happen before it works,

But I manage to do it in the end, be noted SD card shall  be installed, I have no idea why the BIOS setup need the SD card,

Then unplug the power and move to next step of ubuntu installation, the Intel Joule  and Ubuntu work well and give me  no surprise,

as following pic take from Sansung LCD monitor,

plug the installation usb disk with image flashed, select Booting from USB in BIOS setup,

Starting screenshot,

Patition,

Finished,

After installation, first login as follows, you can leave the HDMI along for most development process.

5. Installation of Intel AI SDK.

This is one of the key test for Joule, unfortunately, this is not completed, partly due to the high burden of CPU load. In most cases, the screen freezes, the CPU protection is triggered and the cpu Halts to cool itself, I can feel it is cool. Refer to the following screen shot,

- Start the installation and accept the terms,

- install the docker and neccessary packages,

- when pulling Caffer2 package it freeze with temperature alarm again and agian,

6. Another part of test is for Walabot RF sensor,

6.1 Download and Install the hardward driver Walabot-maker.deb

6.2 Install python-pip, python-tk

6.3 Build and run the exemple test.

Target is caught and position in x-y-z is shown.

This is energy test for breath energy tracking,

7. Most interested part is airPiano, one can touch the table, the walabot can sensing the position and play tone in computer, here is screen shot from demo,

7.1 Here is my connection and walabot pro.

7.2 Can not find walabot if not connect correctly.

7.3 Now test the walabot Gesture and the result.