The module complies with the new SMARC 2.1 module standard, measures 82 x 80 mm, and is designed for a wide temperature range from -20 to +85 degrees Celsius. It includes 2 GB, 4 GB, or 8 GB of low-power, double-data-rate SDRAM (LPDDR4). Displays can be connected via LVDS, DP, and HDMI, and an Arm® Mali-T860MP4 GPU ensures high performance for 2D and 3D graphics displays. Additional connections include two Gigabit Ethernet ports, three PCIe interfaces, six USB 2.0 ports, and one USB 3.0 interface.
The Rockchip CPU provides a platform for non-critical POS/POI applications such as digital signage, retail, and kiosks.
Experiments are often based on the agile concept of the minimum viable product (MVP), and in this customer communication environment, the new possibilities of Artificial Intelligence, which requires significant computing power, are also being utilized. This applies, for example, to advertising or information terminals that use AI image recognition algorithms to display adaptive content based on the gender and age of the recipients. Another example is supermarket scales that automatically recognize which fruit or vegetable needs to be weighed.
All common Linux operating systems are supported, and since the processor is very well established in the manufacturing environment, a large community is continuously developing open-source applications for it.
Kontron is also planning a 3.5" motherboard with this CPU.
