CIE Components in Electronics
The new form factor for Cortex-A CPUs by F&S Elektronik Systeme, the efus, measures only 47 x 62mm. efus, which stands for easy, functional, universal, small, comes with a variety of interfaces, is expandable with wireless modules and suitable for universal use, for example for visualization, communication, control in industrial and medical applications.
The first module of this new product family, the efusA9, will be available for development from Rutronik in April 2014, mass production will start by the end of the second quarter this year. Further modules are planned over the next 12 months.
The latest form factor from F&S, the efus product family, uses a common 230 pin MXM2 edge connector. The signals on the base board leading to the plug connector were routed by the EasyLayout standard, with the concept of no crossing lines or avoidable through holes.
A 4-layer circuit board is already sufficient for a base board and the schematic data for developing a base board under EAGLE is available for free. For the mechanical attachment of efus on the base board, the EASYMOUNT locking mechanism is used. No screws are needed to attach efus safely and reliably on the base board. An easy, inexpensive and low-risk redesign offers further functions on the module. Expansions for WLAN (with chip antenna or socket), ZigBee, Z-Wave or EnOcean are available.
The first module of this new product family, efusA9, comes with a Freescale i.MX6 Cortex-A9 CPU. This high-performance CPU offers 3D graphics (100MTri/s, 1000Mpx/s), Hardware Decoder/Encoder with a resolution up to 1080p, H.264 HP, HDMI v1.4. , ARMv7(TM), NEON and VFPv3 for multimedia applications.
Other important features are the long-time availability of up to 15 years and the temperature range of -40°C – +85°C. The memory is up to 1GByte RAM and 32GByte Flash. The 230 pin finger-type contact hosts interfaces like Gigabit-Ethernet, USB Host, USB Device, 2 CAN, 2 I2C, 2 SPI, 4 Serial, GPIOs, 1+1 uSD-Card, I2S, SATA, PCIe and camera. Display connections in digital RGB and 1 + 2 channel LVDS (up to FullHD, JILI30 compatible), as well as DVI are available simultaneously. A resistive 4-wire touch controller, as well as a capacitive touch controller can be connected. Circuit and drivers (Linux/Windows) are part of the starter kit.
The power supply is 5V, the power consumption of the Single-Core version is about 1.5W (typ.). efusA9 runs on Linux, Windows Embedded Compact 7 and Windows Embedded Compact 2013.
