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​ Horw, Switzerland: Toradex announced it has joined Microsoft Azure Certified for Internet of Things (IoT), ensuring customers develop and deploy IoT solutions quickly with hardware and software that has been pre-tested and verified to work with Microsoft Azure IoT services. Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT allows businesses to reach customers where they are, working with an ecosystem of devices and platforms, enabling faster time to production. Toradex offers robust and compact embedded computing solutions encompassing System on Modules (SOMs) and Customized Single Board Computers (SBC), which are used in variety of industries such as Industrial Automation, Medical, Automotive, Robotics and many more. Toradex modules are ideal for quickly creating proof-of-concepts as well as scaling seamlessly from prototypes to tens of thousands of devices without the need to redesign the embedded computer. This reduces risk and time to market. A list of certified Toradex Apalis and Colibri SOMs can be found here. Toradex will be offering a webinar on “Getting Started with Azure IoT on Devices”. Free registration can be done here. “Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT validates our ability to jumpstart customers’ IoT projects with pre-tested hardware and operating system combinations,” said Stephan Dubach, CEO, Toradex. “Decreasing the usual customization and work required for compatibility ensures Toradex helps customers get started quickly on their IoT solution.” “Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT extends our promise to bring IoT to business scale, starting with interoperable solutions from leading technology companies around the world,” said Barb Edson, general manager for Data Platform and Internet of Things, Microsoft. “With trusted offerings and verified partners, Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT accelerates the deployment of IoT even further.” IoT projects are complex and take a long time to implement. Customers find that choosing and connecting the right set of devices, assets or sensors to the cloud can be time-consuming. To jumpstart their IoT projects with confidence, customers are looking for certified devices and platforms that are tested for readiness, compatibility and usability with the Microsoft Azure IoT Suite. By choosing a partner from the Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT program, customers can save time and effort on project specs and RFP processes by knowing in advance what devices and offerings will work with the Azure IoT Suite. To learn more about Azure IoT Suite, click here. About Toradex Toradex is a Swiss based company with offices around the world, offering ARM based System on Modules (SOMs) and Customized SBCs. Powered by NXP®/Freescale i.MX 6, i.MX 7 & Vybrid, and NVIDIA ® Tegra processors, the pin compatible SOMs offer scalability in terms of price, performance, power consumption, and I/Os. Complemented with direct online sales and long-term product availability, Toradex offers direct premium support and ex-stock availability with local warehouses.
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The wait is over! Toradex announces the launch of its latest technical support feature, the Toradex Community, an online community that aims to provide customers a unique platform to stay connected with the Toradex engineers. Toradex, which has always provided extensive free and direct technical support from development engineers, recognizes that many of its customers often have similar queries. By providing an online community where anyone may post a query and by publicly listing down the engineers’ responses, Toradex anticipates that the entire community will stand to benefit from the collective knowledge available via the forum. “We invested a lot of time to understand what information our customers most wanted access to and how to deliver it in a simplified, user friendly and timely manner. With the launch of the Toradex Community platform, our aim is to create an even more connected and responsive support system for our customers, while enabling easy access to information. We invite you to be a part of this ever-growing community constituted by our embedded enthusiasts.” said Roman Schnarwiler, CTO, Toradex. The community will serve to provide its members with sustainable solutions and key insights from our experienced engineers who will be answering queries related to the usage of Toradex products in a wide variety of embedded applications. Furthermore, it will complement the exhaustive information available on the Toradex Developer Center, which is a resourceful website that brings all of Toradex’s developer resources together at one place. For an overview about all our available support channels, please check our support page. About Toradex: Toradex is a leading vendor of ARM based System on Modules (SOMs) that can be used for diverse embedded applications. Powered by Freescale® i.MX 6 & Vybrid™, NVIDIA® Tegra, and other leading processors, the SOM families offer a wide range of options in terms of price, performance, power consumption and interfaces. Complemented with the long-term availability of 10+ years for its products, Toradex stands out in the embedded computing market with free lifetime product maintenance, pin-compatible product families for scalable designs, direct premium technical support, and transparent pricing with direct online sales. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Horw, Switzerland, the company’s network stretches across the globe with additional offices in the USA, Vietnam, China, India, Japan, and Brazil. For more information, visit https://www.toradex.com. For media queries, please contact: Lakshmi Naidu: lakshmi.naidu@toradex.com
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Since the launch of i.MX6 application processors, iWave Systems, one of the global leading SOM suppliers has launched many variations of i.MX6 CPU modules and an SBC boards catering to Industrial, automotive and medical applications.@ ! Complying with the Qseven R2.0 specification, the i.MX6 Q7 SOM supports industrial grade operation with 70mmx70mm size. The i.MX6 MXM SOMsupports automotive grade i.MX6 CPU and the automotive specific interfaces with 314 pin MXM2 connector pinout in 85mmx85mm form factor. The recently launched i.MX6 SODIMM SOM module supports both commercial & industrial operating temperature with very compact form factor of 67.6mmx37mm. Measuring 100mmx70mm, the Pico ITX size i.MX6 SBC board supports on-board connectors for all the i.MX6 interfaces with option to expand IOs through expansion connector. All these three different form factor SOMs and SBCs are supported with different i.MX6 CPU variations such as Quad, Dual, Dual Lite & Solo. Besides this i.MX6 Qseven modules also supports i.MX6 Quad Plus and i.MX6 Dual plus CPU configurations. Besides the main i.MX6 CPU portfolio, iWave Systems also launched the i.MX6UL SOM in very small SODIMM form factor with 67.6mmx29mm size for the power & cost constrained commercial & Industrial applications. Both the I.MX6 & i.MX6UL SODIMM SOMs are made pin compatible so that the customers can leverage scalability & software compatibility of the wide range of i.MX6 products. To enable quick prototyping of these different form factor SOMs, iWave Systems supports independent development kit variation for each form factor SOMs with Linux, Android and WEC7* BSP support. These development kits help customer to save up to 60% of new product development cycle so that the quick time to market can be achieved. iWave Systems also offers custom SOM & SBC development with turnkey manufacturing services based on its wide range of i.MX6 product development expertise. Please contact iWave Systems for additional details.
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e-con Systems' 13MP camera on eSOMiMX6 – iMX6 SOM Running Android now captures smiling faces. eSOMiMX6​ is a high performance Computer on Module based on Freescale i.MX6 Quad/Dual/Solo ARM™ Cortex-A9. This iMX6 SOM supports Android, Linux and WEC 2013 BSP. eSOMiMX6 - iMX6 System on Module​​​​​ The ACC-iMX6-CUMI1820CAM houses the e-CAM130_CUMI1820_MOD - 13 MP Camera module based on Aptina’s AR1820HS sensor and interfaces with our Ankaa’s i.MX6 processor over 4-lane MIPI CSI-2 interface. This See3CAM_CU130 can also stream Full HD (1920x1080) at 30fps and HD (1280x720) at 60fps in both uncompressed and compressed MJPEG formats. The 13MP camera has a dedicated, high-performance Aptina Image Signal Processor chip (ISP) that performs all the Auto functions (Auto White Balance, Auto Exposure control) in addition to complete image signal processing pipeline that provides best-in-class images and video and the MJPEG compression. Target Applications: Document scanning cameras OCR Readers Electronic Microscope Smartphone & Tablets Video Conferencing Systems Next generation Ultra HD Webcams Medical/Diagnostic cameras Inspection cameras Optical Character Recognition Quality Control applications Advantages: Dedicated and high performance ISP on board Automatic still capture on smile detection Supports MJEPG format Standard S-Mount allows changeable Len (variable FOV, Focal Length etc) Enables compact design To watch the demo, please watch here: youtube.com/watch?v=QqtHNcWK_hM To get more details on this product, please visit: www.e-consystems.com/iMX6-som-system-on-module.asp​
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NXP i.MX7 processors, 1GHz Up to 2GB DDR3 and 32GB on-board eMMC LVDS, MIPI-DSI, Parallel RGB, up to 1920 x 1080 PCIe, 2x GbE, 5x USB2, 7x UART, 2x CAN, 124x GPIO Dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 BLE Yocto and Debian Linux, RTOS CL-SOM-iMX7 is a tiny System-on-Module (SoM) / Computer-on-Module (CoM) board designed to serve as a building block in embedded applications.   CL-SOM-iMX7 is built around the Freescale i.MX7 System-on-Chip featuring an advanced ARM Cortex-A7 CPU coupled with a dedicated real-time ARM Cortex-M4 MCU. The SoC is supplemented with up-to 2GB DDR3 and 32GB of on-board SLC NAND or eMMC storage.   Featuring a wide range of embedded interfaces, CL-SOM-iMX7 is a versatile platform for industrial automation and control systems. Dual Gbit Ethernet, 2x2 MIMO dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 make CL-SOM-iMX7 an excellent solution for networking, communications and IoT applications.   Low price makes CL-SOM-iMX7 an ideal selection for cost-sensitive systems, while its miniature size and low power consumption enable integration into portable and space-constrained designs.   CL-SOM-iMX7 is provided with a full Board Support Package and ready-to-run images for the Linux operating system. The CL-SOM-iMX7 BSP includes Linux kernel 3.14, Yocto Project file-system and U-Boot boot-loader. In addition, CompuLab will support CL-SOM-iMX7 with mainline Linux and upstream Yocto Project.   CL-SOM-iMX7 Detailed Spec CL-SOM-iMX7 Block Diagram CL-SOM-iMX7 Development Kit CL-SOM-iMX7 Online Pricing
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New Taipei City, 27.Oktober 2015 – TechNexion announces PICO-i.MX6UL System-on-Module for Google Brillo OS Googles OS Brillo is a lightweight embedded OS, based on Android that is open, extensible, secure and applicable to a variety of devices. Brillo’ comes with ‘Weave’ Googles communication API, which easily allows ‘Brillo’ devices to communicate and exchange with each other or store data in the cloud. TechNexion provides with the PICO-IMX6UL System-on-Module (SoM) the fitting hardware for this new operating system. The PICO Module is equipped with a Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Processor (Cortex-A7 Core) and is a very compact, ubiquitous computing, high performance SoM that are highly optimized for mobile Internet of Things applications. Connectivity is given by Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi (802.11ac) and Bluetooth 4.0. Memory ranges from 256MB over 512MB to 1GB DDR3 Available with on-board eMMC Memory (default 4GB, others available on request) or SD-Card Slot. Using a pin-compatible scale-able platform that not only utilizes the “Edison” connector connectivity for sensors and low-speed I/O, but also adds additional expansion possibilities for multimedia and connectivity. Additionally the “DWARF” platform eases proto-typing and accelerates time to market by offering a complete platform; introducing a large number of ready to use sensors like 3d-Accelerator, Gyroscope or Altitude-meter and available I/O’s to take advantage of todays’ technology and communication challenges, giving our customers’ cutting edge technology that can easily be expanded and implemented into Industry 4.0 applications. The schematics are freely available for the DWARF Carrier board. TechNexion’s Brillo Page is here: http://technexion.com/solutions/brillo The Freescale announcement is here: http://blogs.freescale.com/processors/2015/10/freescale-joins-google-in-enabling-brillo-access-to-the-developer-community/ And for more information you can find the Google announcement here: http://googledevelopers.blogspot.tw/2015/10/building-brillo-iant-devices-with-weave_27.html
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Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite processor, 528MHz Up to 1GB DDR3 and 32GB on-board eMMC Dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi and BT 4.1 BLE Ethernet, 5x USB, 8x UART, 2x CAN, SDIO, 78x GPIO Miniature size - 36 x 68 x 5 mm               CL-SOM-iMX6UL​ is a tiny System-on-Module (SoM) / Computer-on-Module (CoM) board designed to serve as a building block in embedded applications. CL-SOM-iMX6UL is build around the Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite system-on-chip featuring an advanced Cortex-A7 ARM CPU. The SoC is coupled with up-to 1GB DDR3 and 32GB of on-board eMMC storage. The processor is supplemented with up-to 4GB DDR3 and 32GB of on-board SSD. Measuring only 36 x 68 x 5 mm CL-SOM-iMX6UL features a wide range of industry standard interfaces - Ethernet, WiFi 802.11, Bluetooth, USB, CAN bus, serial ports, I/O lines and ADC inputs. Low price makes CL-SOM-iMX6UL an ideal selection for cost-sensitive systems, while its small size and low power consumption facilitate integration into portable and space-constrained designs. CL-SOM-iMX6UL is provided with comprehensive documentation​ and full ready-to-run SW support for Linux operating system. CL-SOM-iMX6UL Detailed Spec​ CL-SOM-iMX6UL Block Diagram​ CL-SOM-iMX6UL Development Kit​ CL-SOM-iMX6UL Online Pricing​
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i.CORE M6UL Based on Freescale™ i.MX 6UltraLite processor, a high performance, ultra-efficient processor family featuring an advanced implementation of a single ARM™ Cortex™-A7 core, which operates at speeds up to 528 MHz. The new ENGICAM GEA M6UL module is suitable for cost effective HMI applications requiring high performance CPU. i.CORE M6UL Cores Cortex-A5 @ 528 MHz core, NEON MPE co-processor and VFPC  Memories 128MB 32bit DDR3-800 256MB SLC NAND Flash Graphics and Multimedia 1x Parallel LCD 18bit output Touch screen Peripherals 2x SD Card interface USB OTG HS, USB HS HOST, Uart, I2C, I2S 4x ADC inputs Up 2x Ethernet 10/100 Dimensions Standard SODIMM footprint 67,4x31.9 mm PCB size Very Low Profile Module EDIMM pin compatible ENGICAM - GEA M6UL
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Here is a video that shows the NFC feature integrated into our Android Lollipop 5.0.0 code base. It is running on our Nitrogen6x platform along with the NXP PN7120 development kit. The video shows that a NFC tag, programmed with Boundary's URL, is automatically read and starts the Browser accordingly. In order to read/write data from a NFC data, Android provides a fully documented API. If you seek an existing application to write tags, here are a couple of options: NXP TagWriter app StickyNotes sample code For more information, please visit http://boundarydevices.com/
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Digital Signage is an application that the i.MX6 processor is the perfect fit. With the hardware encoding and decoding, video outputs and inputs and processing power, using the i.MX6 for Digital Signage is very popular!
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Currently in industries from medical diagnostics and transportation to precision agriculture and entertainment, engineers are increasingly challenged to find new ways to design in greater intelligence, connectivity, and performance—while cutting costs, power consumption and size. Single Board Computers (SBC) are an ideal platform for quick and focused product design. They continue to evolve in sophistication, and the range of possibilities continues to expand as well. And as those capabilities grow, so do the choices for design engineers. But what are the factors that matter most in SBC evaluation and selection? http://www.digi.com/pdf/Design_vs_Build_web.pdf
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Hi. We are using iMX6 SABRESD board with ltib-4.1.0. We need blit functionality for OpenGL framebuffer objects. It is present in OpenGL GL_EXT_framebuffer_blit extension, but is missing on iMX6. We use QOpenGLFramebufferObject class from Qt. There is blitFramebuffer() method that was working fine on desktop and Android devices. Its method hasOpenGLFramebufferBlit() returns false on iMX6 which means extension is not present. As expected, blitFramebuffer() itself is not working (screen remains black). We need this extension enabled. Why is it missing on iMX6 and is it possible to add it? Regards, Federico
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在IMX6的数据手册中发该芯片的SDIO接口支持SDXC这个标准,请问是否可以确认IMX6是支持512GB的SD卡?? The IMX6's SDIO interface supports SDXC.Can you confirm IMX6 support capacity of 512GB SD card? 
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Hi,      I want to expand another 1000M/s ethernet using EIM or PCIE of i.mx6Q,is that ok? How I can do that?
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i.MX6 quad-core Cortex-A9 CPU, 1.2GHz Up to 4GB DDR3 and 32GB on-board SSD storage Integrated GPU and 1080p VPU, dual display support WiFi, BT 3.0, GbE, PCIe, SATA, 5x USB, 5x UART, 2x CAN Linux, Android ICS and Windows Embedded Compact 7 Miniature size - 75 x 65 x 6 mm CM-FX6-iMX6 is a tiny System-on-Module (SoM) / Computer-on-Module (CoM) designed to serve as a building block in embedded applications. CM-FX6 is based on the i.MX6 application processor featuring a highly scalable single/dual/quad core Cortex-A9 CPU at up to 1.2GHz coupled with powerful graphics and video processing units. The processor is supplemented with up-to 4GB DDR3 and 32GB of on-board SSD. In addition, CM-FX6 features a wide range of industry standard interfaces – Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 802.11, Bluetooth, PCIe, SATA, USB, RS232 and CAN bus. CM-FX6 is provided with comprehensive documentation and full ready-to-run SW support for Linux, Android and Windows Embedded Compact 7 operating systems. CM-FX6-iMX6 Detailed Spec CM-FX6-iMX6 Block Diagram CM-FX6-iMX6 Development Kit CM-FX6-iMX6 Online Pricing
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In this new version, the experts at GuruCE have achieved some major improvements in performance and added quite a lot of new functionality: 4.75x faster than our previous release This is >6x faster than our competitor's BSP... Added full HDMI support, including display auto-detection, hot-plug and dynamic resolution changes in CE This means you can plug in a 1360x768 monitor and have the CE desktop shown in that resolution, then unplug the monitor and plug in a 1920x1080 monitor and CE will dynamically change resolution and show the desktop in 1920x1080 resolution, all this of course without the purple line on the left (a long-standing problem in all the other iMX6 BSPs available). HDMI, LVDS and LCD display output is now configurable in the bootloader This means you can have one kernel image for all. Just go into the bootloader menu and select which display you are using at which resolution and launch the kernel. Simple as that! Added support for DMA on all UARTs Full RX & TX DMA support on UART1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Upgraded to the latest Vivante GPU GALCORE driver v5.0.11 (25762) And we added all the tutorials and test code as well. Together with the amazing performance increase of this release you can now enjoy 110+ fps in full-screen 1920x1080 (and 350+ fps windowed) for OpenGL-ES 1.1/2.0! The OpenVG spinning tiger sample is now so fast you only see a blur, and we fully support OpenCL on Dual and Quad of course. Now asynchronously loading drivers for faster boot Added free downloadable demo kernel for Congatec-QMX6 (Dual/Quad, 1 GB module) on a QKIT-ARM Maximum CPU temperature at rest: 45°C / 113°F Maximum CPU temperature while running OpenGL-ES 2.0 reflecting ball: 65°C / 149°F This is not nearly as low as we would like, but it's a lot better already. Our next release will focus on power consumption and heat generation reductions. Improved network performance The performance improvements also make Ethernet throughput a lot better. We're only halfway to reaching the theoretical maximum possible on the iMX6 of ~45 Mbyte/s (it's on our list of things to fix), but at least Ethernet speeds are out of the KByte range now (tested using NETIO on WEC7 & WEC2013): NETIO - Network Throughput Benchmark, Version 1.32 (C) 1997-2012 Kai Uwe Rommel TCP connection established. Packet size 1k bytes: 19.11 MByte/s Tx, 19.22 MByte/s Rx. Packet size 2k bytes: 21.22 MByte/s Tx, 20.38 MByte/s Rx. Packet size 4k bytes: 22.44 MByte/s Tx, 20.85 MByte/s Rx. Packet size 8k bytes: 23.06 MByte/s Tx, 22.43 MByte/s Rx. Packet size 16k bytes: 20.67 MByte/s Tx, 19.38 MByte/s Rx. Packet size 32k bytes: 20.79 MByte/s Tx, 20.58 MByte/s Rx. Done. UDP connection established. Packet size 1k bytes: 13.84 MByte/s (0%) Tx, 13.76 MByte/s (0%) Rx. Packet size 2k bytes: 15.97 MByte/s (0%) Tx, 15.97 MByte/s (0%) Rx. Packet size 4k bytes: 20.25 MByte/s (0%) Tx, 19.83 MByte/s (0%) Rx. Packet size 8k bytes: 22.39 MByte/s (0%) Tx, 22.49 MByte/s (0%) Rx. Packet size 16k bytes: 19.34 MByte/s (0%) Tx, 17.95 MByte/s (0%) Rx. Packet size 32k bytes: 21.78 MByte/s (0%) Tx, 21.17 MByte/s (0%) Rx. Done. Further details in the release notes. Don't believe the hype? Try it yourself! We've got free downloadable demo kernels for the RIoTboard, the SABRE-Lite, the Nitrogen6X, the Opal6, the ConnectCore6 and now also the Conga-QMX6. GuruCE website: https://guruce.com iMX6 landing page: https://guruce.com/imx6 Latest iMX6 BSP r474: https://guruce.com/imx6-bsp-releases/imx6-r474
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IMX6 Live Preview Latency Measurements :  IMX6 Live Preview Latency Measurements - RidgeRun Developer Connection IMX6 Memory Bandwidth usage :  IMX6 Memory Bandwidth usage - RidgeRun Developer Connection Toshiba TC358743 Linux driver for iMX6 :  Toshiba TC358743 Linux driver for iMX6 - RidgeRun Developer Connection Contact RidgeRun for more information and RidgeRun iMX6 Professional SDK at inquiries@ridgerun.com or Submit your comments/Inquiry at our Contact Us Link here.
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                                                  (Images are scaled to actual size) Accelerate time-to-market and optimize cost by using proven solutions from toradex​ We offer off-the-shelf System on Modules/ Computer on Modules and Customized SBCs based on i.MX 6Q, i.MX 6D, i.MX 6DL and i.MX 6S processors at competitive prices. These modules exposes majority of the extensive interfaces supported by i.MX 6 processors. Complemented with these robust and small form-factor modules, we also offer extensive online technical resources, free premium support, and open-source carrier board designs. BSPs and libraries for Windows Embedded Compact and Linux are available at no cost. For more information on our i.MX 6 solutions, please check https://www.toradex.com/products/freescale-i.mx6
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iWave released the official Yocto BSP for its i.MX6 Pico-ITX SBC board (iW-RainboW-G15S). The release is based on Linux 3.10.17 kernel and supports the following features: i.MX6 ARM Cortex A9 Quad, Dual, Dual Lite & Solo CPU 1GB DDR3 RAM (Quad, Dual, Dual Lite CPU version)/ 512MB DDR3 (Solo CPU version) Freescale PMIC SPI NOR Flash (default boot) eMMC Flash (default OS storage) Data UART uSD slot Standard SD slot USB 2.0 Host USB 2.0 device 10/100/1000 Ethernet Mini PCIex1 Port CAN Port LVDS display port 4 Wire Resistive touch PWM for backlight HDMI Port with Audio Hardware Codecs (Encode/Decode) 2D/3D Graphics CMOS CSI camera port MIPI CSI camera port AC97 Audio In/Out Console UART I2C Port DIP Switch, Status LEDs (GPIOs) This release supports single BSP, Binary image & MFG tool for all the four i.MX6 CPU version (Quad/Dual/Dual Lite/Solo) based SBC boards. Besides this Linux BSP support, Android Jelly Bean and WEC7 board support packages also supported for the i.MX6 Pico SBC boards by iWave systems. More details about the i.MX6 Pico SBC board hardware & software features can be found in the following i.MX6 Pico SBC product page:http://www.iwavesystems.com/product/single-board-computer/i-mx6-pico-itx-sbc/i-mx6-pico-itx-sbc.html
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Abstract Security is an inevitable word which we heard in our day to day life. Technologies without security are technologies without “trust” for many of us. We all know how security plays an important role in our life starting from working place to social chat. Even Embedded Systems should implement security to prevent un-authorized access to the sensitive data. How we can assure i.MX6 platforms can only boot with authorized images? Let’s have a look into the cool stuff named High Assurance Booting (HAB) which makes the booting images secure and simple. Introduction Digital Security becomes unavoidable part of our life since from its birth. This case is not different for even any embedded systems, especially if it dealing with sensitive data. Many embedded devices which are using for bank dealings, defense, medical, industrial and automotive filed strictly implementing security. Almost all embedded systems are working based on the certain instructions given through flashed images. Imagine if a hacker can flash his own instructions to an embedded device, then he can take full control on what need to be done on that device. If the device is using for bank purpose, then hacker will get all details including the passwords! This scenario becomes even worse if the device is using for defense or medical field. How we can prevent this case? Well the answer is not quite simple! Embedded system OS images can flash from different mediums such as MMC, SD card, SATA, Ethernet etc. Implementing security checking on the medium will be difficult since mediums such as SD card can be easily replace one to another. Moreover, one can alter the OS images after flashed into these mediums. So, implementing a security check only before flashing the image will not be sufficient to address this issue. Then how we can implement a security check for making sure our OS images are well secure? The answer is HAB (High Assurance Boot). Freescale provided HABv4 (latest HAB version 4) as an optional feature in i.MX6Q processor. HAB is part of Freescale security block and can work with other security features such as CAAM and TrustZone. The advantage of using HAB includes but not limits to the following: HABv4 implements boot ROM level security which cannot alter once it fused. Efficient. Security checks before images are taking control of the system. Allow multiple root keys. Make use of digital signature – most efficient way to secure the OS images. Appending security directly to the OS images without affecting the OS image functionalities. Processor level checking with OS images validation gives complete assurance of the secure booting. How HAB works? HAB based on the principle of digital signature. Digital signature makes the content into secure through signing the content context. This signing process shall incorporate more than one security algorithm to strengthen the final outcome. HAB digital signature is combination of open-ssl certification, MD5 hashing and RSA-AES-DES public and private key checks. HAB ensure security by making both boot loader (u-boot) as well as OS image (uImage) into signed images. These signed images contain normal image content and security instructions. These images also contain the public key and private key too. During HAB process, the public key hash code which derived from the combination shall fuse into the boot ROM code of i.MX6 processor. This fusing make the platform more secure and cannot be altered later. During the booting time, first the initial parameters of boot process shall take into boot ROM code from the flash medium (say SD card). Then the HAB instructions will examine the hash values which present inside the boot ROM and signed images. When these two hash values matches, then HAB process allow the platform to boot the images. Else the system shall stop all the process and wait for the authorized images. In this way, the system shall protect from un-authorized access, even somebody changes the signed images at later stage (this eventually change the hash value of the image and hence failed during the run-time check). iWave has successfully implemented the HAB in our i.MX6Q iW-RainboW-G15D-Q7 Linux platform and validated the HAB to know how it can secure the platforms. However HAB is not part of the standard BSP delivered as a part of development platform purchase or module purchase. This is available only on special request. Conclusion HAB is one of the best solutions to prevent un-authorized access to the OS images. Embedded systems which are dealing with sensitive data (banking, defense etc.) should in-corporate HAB to prevent from taking control of the whole system by external sources. Though HAB is optional feature in i.MX6 platforms, it would be recommended to implementing it for making the booting process more secure. Reference: AN4581_HAB_Application_Note.pdf - Secure Boot on i.MX50, i.MX53, and i.MX 6 Series using HABv4 Application Note i.MX_6_Linux_High_Assurance_Boot_(HAB)_User's_Guide.pdf - i.MX 6 Linux High Assurance Boot (HAB) User's Guide
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