Evaluation of MYIR's i.MX 8M Mini based SOM and EVM

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The MYC-C8MMX CPU Moduleis designed by MYIR, which is an ARM embedded System-on-Module (SoM) based on NXP’ i.MX 8M Mini Quad Application Processor. The MYD-C8MMX development board is built around the MYC-C8MMX CPU Module, it is a complete evaluation module for your prototype and reference design. It is capable of running Linux and Android OS and provided with plenty of software resources. Typical applications are for Industry Control, Smart City, Smart Home, HMI, Internet of Things (IoT), etc.

Let’s see a video introduction of the MYD-C8MMX development board.

https://youtu.be/FL_CZiSMYsM

The MYC-C8MMX CPU Moduleis using the MIMX8MM6CVTKZAA (MIMX8MM6DVTLZAA) processor chip which is among the NXP i.MX 8M Mini family and combines advanced 14LPC FinFET process technology to provide more speed and improved power efficiency. It has a quad Cortex-A53 core which operates at speeds of up to 1.6 (1.8) GHz. It also has a general-purpose Cortex-M4 400 MHz core processor for low-power processing. Some parameters and target applications of the processor chip are listed below for reference.

Parameter	Value
Core: Number of cores (SPEC)	4
Core Type	Arm Cortex-A53
Operating Frequency [Max] (MHz)	1600 (MIMX8MM6CVTKZAA)/1800 (MIMX8MM6DVTLZAA)
L2 Cache (Max) (KB)	512
Co-Processor Type	Arm Cortex-M4F
Co-Processor Frequency (MAX) (MHz)	400
External Memory Supported	DDR3L SDRAM, DDR4 SDRAM, ECC, LPDDR4 DRAM, NAND FLASH, NOR FLASH, QSPI
GPU 2D / GPU 3D	1x shader, Vivante GC320, Vivante GCNanoUltra

MIMX8MM6CVTKZAA (MIMX8MM6DVTLZAA) processor

The chip only has MIPI-DSI and MIPI-CSI interfaces and no HDMI or other display interfaces. It can support wide working temperature range from -40 to 105 Celsius degree. MYIR’s MYC-C8MMX CPU Module can support working temperature from -40 to 85 Celsius degree.

Parameter	Value
HW Video Encoder / Decoder	HD1080p60 H.264, HD1080p60 H.265
Video/Display features	MIPI-CSI, MIPI-DSI
PCIe	PCIe 2.0 x 1
Audio Specific Modules	8-ch PDM input, SAI
USB Controllers	2
Serial Communication	1 x PCIe 2.0,3 x SPI,4 x I²C,4 x UART
Junction Temperature (℃)	-40 to 105 (MIMX8MM6CVTKZAA), 0 to 95 (MIMX8MM6DVTLZAA)

MIMX8MM6CVTKZAA (MIMX8MM6DVTLZAA) processor

Target Applications of i.MX 8M Mini Processors
Automotive	Smart City
Heating Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)	Automatic Vehicle Identification
Motorcycle Engine Control Unit (ECU) and Small Engine Control	Fleet Management
	Inventory and Supply Chain Management
Industrial	Public Address Systems
Air Conditioning (AC)	Transport Ticketing
Building Safety
Building Security	Smart Home
Digital Signage	Audio/Video (AV) Receivers
Energy Gateway	Gaming Console
Heat Metering	Home Control Panel
Hospital Admission Machine	Home Security & Surveillance
Image Analytics	Home Sensor
Industrial Control	In-Home Energy Display
Industrial HMI	Major Home Appliances
Machine Visual Inspection	Robotic Appliance
Smart Lighting	Set Top Boxes
Smart Power Socket and Light Switch	Small and Medium Appliances
Two-way Video Conferencing	Smart Speaker
Vision, Advanced Sensing and Processing Board	Soundbar
	Surround Sound and Sound Bars
Mobile	Wireless or Networked Speakers
Cable
Hearables	Technologies
Input Device (Mouse, Pen, Keyboard)	Voice Assistants
Smart Watch	Voice Control
Wireless Charging Pad
Wristband

The MYC-C8MMX CPU Module is a minimum system with PMIC, CPU, RAM (DDR4), Flash (eMMC, SPI Flash) and clock, plus an Ethernet PHY chip. A number of peripheral and IO signals are access through two 0.8mm pitch 100-pin board-to-board expansion connectors.

 

                        MYC-C8MMX CPU Module Top-view                                         MYC-C8MMX CPU Module Bottom-view

The MYD-C8MMX base board has mainly extended four parts:
1. Audio interface: added audio chip to extend Audio input and output interfaces

2. External power supply part: added one DC-DC power chip

3. Added one USB hub chip to extend 4 USB from the SoC USB interface, separately used for 4G LTE, two USB Host and one USB on expansion header.

4. Extend RTC module through I2C interface

Many other peripheral interfaces are brought out for user extension.

                                                   MYD-C8MMX Function Block Diagram

                                                           MYD-C8MMX Interface Diagram

Among so many interfaces, Backlight, LVDS LCD and MIPI interface are relative to display function. The Backlight interface has 6 pins including two power signals, two GND and two GPIO (one is enabled terminal to control the backlight power and another is PWM to control the brightness of backlight.)

The two GPIO control terminals are from the GPIO1_01 and 08 of the i.MX 8M Mini.

The LVDS LCD and MIPI interface, total 3 interfaces are for display. But actually i.MX 8M Mini only has one MIPI DSI interface. The other two LVDS interfaces are switched from DSI through one DS12LVDS bridge chip, one is single link LVDS and another is dual link LVDS. So, we can only select MIPI DSI display or LVDS display. Also, we can only select single link LVDS or dual link LVDS.

MYIR offers optional LVDS based 7-inch LCD Module MY-LVDS070C including capacitive touch screen to work with the MYD-C8MMX board. The display resolution is up to 1024 by 600 pixels. 

                          MY-LVDS070C 7-inch LCD Module with Capacitive Touch Screen

The MYD-C8MMX has one 2.0mm pitch 2*15-pin male expansion header. PDM and SAI are audio relative interfaces which are brought out from the expansion header.