It combines high performance with low power consumption and offers a wide variety of peripherals. This makes it particularly suitable as a platform for developing mobile and battery-powered embedded systems that require minimal energy to cover long operating periods.
Arrow's AT-501 platform can help companies shorten development cycles and reduce costs and risks, allowing them to focus on their own Intellectual Property (IP). In addition to the processing unit, it includes 256MB of DDR2 and flash memory, integrated 1G Ethernet, an internal clock system, and a 200-pin SO-DIMM connector, through which all available peripherals can be accessed. The System-on-a-Mode (SoM) measures 68 x 47 mm and uses a single 3.3V input power supply.
The boot software and operating system are supplied, including the Debian Linux distribution for internal flash and SD card versions, as well as software support for all available peripherals. Sample applications such as a web server, a CLI and SNMP agent, and a software package for secure software updates and version control are included. Integration is very simple, thanks to a configuration tool that defines pin assignments. A Linux operating system and tools from Timesys (USA) are also available.
The SAMA5D3 processor can deliver 850 DMIPS with a power consumption of less than 200 mW at full load and supports a bandwidth of up to 1328 MB/s with a bus speed of 166 MHz. It features a wide variety of input/output peripherals, including Gigabit Ethernet and 10/100; dual CAN buses; three high-speed USB ports, configurable as host or device; three SDIO/SD/MMC ports; seven UART ports; two SPI ports; and three I2C-compatible TWI serial communication devices. It also includes a software modem, a CMOS camera port, a 12-bit A/D converter, an LCD controller, and support for a resistive touchscreen.
An evaluation board (CB-20) is also available. This includes a 7-inch TFT LCD screen with a four-wire resistive touch controller, a MicroSD card slot, and a dedicated debug port using an RS232-to-USB converter; a JTAG interface; and an audio interface.
