Inforce 6601 Micro SOM and Inforce 6601 Development Kit: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 2016 Inforce Computing. All rights reserved. Do not copy/reproduce without prior written permission from Inforce Computing, Inc. Doc Rev-A 04-2016
Introduction 1. What is the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM? The Inforce 6601 Micro SOM is a high performance tiny System-on-Module (SoM) solution for embedded systems designers. It is based on cutting-edge, custom quad-core 64-bit ARM v8 ISA compatible Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor (APQ8096 SoC) for embedded applications. The plug-and-play Inforce 6601 Micro SOM comes in an ultra-small form factor of 28mm x 50mm and provides pin, electrical, and form-factor compatibility across a wide product line of Snapdragon processor-based SOMs and shares a common carrier board design for easy migration to new Qualcomm technologies. The compute dense Micro SOM is an ideal platform for a variety of Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) constrained Android and Linux based embedded applications. The Inforce 6601 Micro SOM also comes with EMI shielding for certain build-to-order (BTO) SKUs for better RF noise protection as well as doubling up as a medium for thermal spreading and heat dissipation. Support for an optional extended -30 C to +85 C operating temperature will also be available in the near future. 2. Does Inforce offer a reference carrier board for its SoMs or other form factors based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor? Yes. Inforce offers a mini-itx carrier board (170 X170mm) that fully expands the I/O and connectivity of the Inforce 6601 micro SOM. The Inforce 6601 Development Kit includes this full -fledged carrier board and the Inforce 6601 micro SOM. Inforce will also have an SBC based on the Snapdragon 820 processor available in the near future. Please stay tuned to our website for more details. Page 2 of 14
3. Does Inforce provide any custom design solutions since some designs wouldn t be able to use the standard SoM form factor and or features? Yes, while we offer standard products off-the-shelf (OTS) on our e-commerce site and via our distributor, Arrow Electronics, Inforce also has a strong background in delivering customized hardware and software solutions. We offer pre-validated build-to-order (BTO) configurations, as well as configure-to-order (CTO) options for existing products. For customers wanting to design their own unique form-factor carrier board to interface with the OTS Inforce 6601 Micro SOM, we offer design assistance support packages that include a dedicated engineer, reference schematics, and design reviews contact Inforce for more details. In addition, Inforce also offers full custom hardware design and associated software/device driver development, for those projects where a unique hardware design is required to meet sophisticated technical challenges. 4. Where can I find more information about the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM? What do I get when I buy an Inforce 6601 Micro SOM? Is the device available internationally? All available Inforce Micro SOMs are listed at http://www.inforcecomputing.com/products/system-onmodules-som. You may also download the Designing with a Micro-SOM: Key Considerations for Embedded Systems white paper for more details on Inforce s interoperable and upgradable Micro SOMs. Please check on the exact product SKU for the pre-loaded software, available memory and accompanying starter kits, which include items such as acrylic base, power adapters, and cables. The Inforce 6601 Micro SOM requires a carrier board (like all SOMs do) to power up and connect to peripheral devices and gain access to the extensive set of I/Os that are available on the Micro SOM. If you are considering the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM for the first time, please purchase the comprehensive Inforce 6601 Development Kit, which includes the Micro SOM, a reference full-fledged carrier board, and a starter kit. Inforce s Snapdragon processor-based Micro SOMs are all cross- Page 3 of 14
compatible (pin, connector, and form factor) with the reference carrier board designs, ensuring a smooth path to migrate/upgrade to new Snapdragon processor -based Micro SOMs in the future. Once you register the product with Inforcecomputing.com, purchasers would get dedicated support from Inforce. The board ships to most places worldwide and relevant shipping and local tax/customs duty charges may apply. Please contact sales@inforcecomputing.com for pricing details or any additional questions that you may have before buying an Inforce 6601. 5. Does Inforce have a blog? You can find our periodic blogs at http://inforcecomputing.com/blog/category/articles. Here you can keep up with all of the latest information about Inforce products, conference/trade show appearances, and innovative customer case-studies and applications. General 6. What are the accessories available? Our website http://www.inforcecomputing.com/products/accessories lists all the available accessories. Please note that User Guides and product datasheets are available for all accessories. The following accessories are planned to be available and supported for the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM: Inforce ACC-1H70: 21 MP MIPI-CSI Camera Module Kit Inforce ACC-1B30: 4 MIPI Display and touch screen adapter card kit Inforce ACC-1S80: ULTRA HDMI Input adapter card for HDMI CSI conversion Page 4 of 14
7. Does the board support a cellular or GSM connection? The Inforce 6601 platform does not include support for a cellular modem. Third party cellular modem dongles can be connected to the Inforce 6601 system via USB ports and may require special dr ivers from the respective manufacturers. We can also help you design in a 3rd party cellular modem module on your custom carrier board that is mated with an Inforce Micro SOM. 8. What is the storage capacity of the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM? Is it expandable? The on board storage (UFS) capacity is 64GB. Storage can be expanded by connecting a Micro -SD card. Please check on the exact product SKU for details on pre-loaded software and available memory. 9. What are the performance details of the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM? What is the speed of the RAM? The Inforce 6601 Micro SOM is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, which includes a custom Qualcomm Kryo Quad-core ARMv8 64-bit CPUs (ARM Cortex -A72 class) organized as two clusters viz., Gold@2.15GHz each with 32KB of L1 I-Cache, 24KB L1 D-Cache, L2 1MB, and Silver@1.593GHz each with 32KB of L1 I-Cache, 24KB L1 D-Cache, L2 512KB. The Qualcomm Adreno 530 GPU is capable of 500+ GFLOPS of general purpose compute (GPGPU) and provides support for OpenGL ES 3.2 and OpenCL 2.0.Note that these libraries are provided as binaries only. The onboard 2GB LPDDR4 RAM operates at 1866MHz. All of our Android releases are benchmarked with Antutu and validated with the Qualcomm Trepn Profiler to ensure that all cores are capable of operating at their maximum frequency. Page 5 of 14
10. What is the stacked height of the Micro SOM mounted on the carrier board? The height of the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM is 8.1mm and the full height when mounted on mating connectors on the carrier board is 10.7mm. 11. What types of displays are supported and at what resolutions? Primary, dual-link MIPI-DSI up to WQXGA (2560 1600) 24bpp @60 Hz refresh + Micro HDMI (2.0 spec.) output of 4K@60 Hz refresh are the displays supported. The Inforce 6601 Development Kit has a 51-pin FI-R DSI connector with support for dual MIPI-DSI ports and a Type-A HDMI port. Note that the displays are not provided as peripherals with the Inforce 6601 development kit. They can be purchased from the e-commerce portal at: http://inforcecomputing.com/product/accessories.html 12. What are the capabilities of the video Decoder/Encoder on the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM? Please refer to http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html for supported codecs from Android. Hardware accelerated capabilities of the APQ8096 SoC are: Supported Profile(s) Resolution/Bitrate/Frame rate Codec Video Decoding H.265 (HEVC) Main profile up to level 5.1 1080P/40mbps/30fps 1080P/60mbps/60fps 3840x2160/100mbps/60fps 4096x2160/100Mbps/60fps H.264 (AVC) Baseline, main, high 1080P/40mbps/30fps 1080P/60mbps/60fps Page 6 of 14
profiles; up to level 5.1 3840x2160/100Mbps/60fps 4096x2160/100Mbps/60fps H.263 Profile 0; up to Level 70 864x480/2mbps/30fps MPEG-4 Simple, Advanced simple 1080P/40mbps/30fps 1080P/60mbps/60fps profiles; up to levels 8 and 5, respectively MPEG-2 Main profile 1080P/40mbps/30fps VC-1 Adv Main, Simple and High 1080P/40mbps/30fps 1080P/60mbps/60fps profile DivX DivX 3.11/4/5/6 DivX 3.11 720x480/2mbps/30 fps DivX 4.x/5.x/6.x 1080P/10mbps/30fps VP8/VP9 1080P/20mbps/30fps 3840x2160/100Mbps/30fps Video Encoding H.265 (HEVC) Main profile up to level 5.1 1080P/40mbps/30fps 3840x2160/100mbps/60fps 4096x2160/100Mbps/60fps td> H.264 (AVC) Baseline, main, high profiles; up to level 5.1 1080P/40mbps/30fps 3840x2160/100Mbps/30fps 4096x2160/100Mbps/24fps H.263 Profile 0; up to Level 70 864x480/2mbps/30fps MPEG-4 Simple, Advanced simple 1080P/40mbps/30fps profiles; up to levels 8 and Page 7 of 14
5 respectively VP8 1080P/20mbps/30fps 3840x2160/100Mbps/30fps 13. What are the camera capabilities of the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM? The Inforce 6601 Micro SOM has 2 camera connectors that support 4 lanes from CSI0 and CSI2. CSI0 has support for CMOS and CCD sensors and is capable of supporting up to a 28MP sensor and CSI1 has webcam support and is capable up to a 13MP sensor. Dual camera capability is also possible. Inforce platforms have been validated with a Sony IMX230 sensor (21MP) based camera module for 4K@60fps capture and record. Note that the camera is not provided as part of the Inforce 6601 development kit. It can be purchased as an accessory from http://www.inforcecomputing.com/products/accessories 14. How much power does the board draw? Is it possible to measure the power? The Inforce 6601 Development Kit is powered by a 12V/3A wall adaptor. Our products typically offer support for 7V-16V power input range. The total power consumed by the Inforce 6601 Development Kit ranges between 6W to 17W when different use cases are exec uted. There are no test points made available to measure run-time power on the board. But the input current through the DC jack can be measured during different use-cases. Please note that we run the Qualcomm Trepn profiler as part of our validation process on all of our stock Android releases. 15. What are the audio capabilities? Audio is available through HDMI, USB, and speaker out. The Inforce 6601Development Kit also comes with a microphone for recording and a combo jack for microphone and speaker out. The HDMI Page 8 of 14
interface has an 8 channel audio with 7.1 channel surround sound, with support to Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master. 16. What are the sensor capabilities? Snapdragon 820 processor s Hexagon DSP cluster has a dedicated sensor core to support always-on sensor-aware apps. Onboard the Inforce 6601 development kit, a 3D accelerometer and a 3D gyroscope are available through the STMicro LSM330D sensor module. 17. What documentation is provided with a purchase? Are board design files also provided? We provide datasheets, user guide, and a Hardware Reference Manual. Schematics are not provided for the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM. Board design files are proprietary and are the intellectual property of Inforce, and hence not provided. All software releases are accompanied with release notes, user guides and application notes that describe the installation procedure. 18. What is the support model from Inforce after products are purchased? Inforce offers a range of standard products off-the-shelf (OTS) on its e-commerce site and through our distributor, Arrow Electronics. Inforce also offers pre-validated build-to-order (BTO) configurations, as well as configure-to-order (CTO) options for existing products. In addition, we also offer full custom hardware design and associated software/device driver development, for those projects where a unique design is required to meet sophisticated technical challenges. All purchases of Inforce products get unlimited access to the online TechWeb support portal, which provides a host of technical documentation and software downloads. Purchasers are also provided free technical support for two support tickets. For a sustained technical support, Inforce offers Design Assistance Page 9 of 14
Support Contracts for shorter periods of time and Annual Support Contracts for its customers who would like unlimited prioritized technical support. Please contact Inforce to obtain more details of the support contracts. Networking, IO and Wireless 19. Does the device support networking and wireless communication? Supported connectivity includes Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac 2X2 MU-MIMO 2.4GHz/5GHz + Bluetooth 4.1LE (available via Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174) and GPS (supported via Qualcomm WGR7640). 20. How can I change the MAC address for WiFi/BT/Ethernet on my Board? MAC addresses are fixed at the factory. Changing them should not be necessary since the correct addresses are programmed before the board is shipped. If it is still required, please refer to the Release Notes and App notes available on Inforce s TechWeb support portal. 21. What are the IO interfaces available? Standard I/O interfaces including GbE, I2C, SPI, UART, UIM, GPIOs, and on -board Serial Console are available. The Snapdragon 820 processor supports 1x USB 3.0 (OTG) and 1 x USB 2.0. The 6601 Development Kit has two Type-A USB connectors and a µusb 3.0 connector which is the OTG connection. We also provide a 40 pin expansion header with accessible GPIOs available for users. Please refer to the product specifications in the Hardware Reference Manual or the datash eet for more information. Page 10 of 14
22. My serial console shows garbage characters. What could be wrong? The serial port could be incorrectly configured. Please note that the correct settings are - 115200, 8, N, 1, No HW flow control. Please also check your connections as described below. To connect the serial console on the Inforce 6601Development Kit, one would need to have a three pin connector and the wiring as described below: Take wires from the DB9 port and connect it to the RS232 header on board DB9 TX ---------- 6501 R1IN DB9 RX ---------- 6501 T1OUT DB9 GND ----------6501 GND Software 23. What operating systems are supported and what is the OS roadmap for the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM? Board Support Packages (BSPs) for Android Marshmallow and Ubuntu Linux versions will the officially supported packages on the Inforce TechWeb. Periodic releases shall be provided with feature improvements on both these packages. Inforce also upgrades the BSPs to newer Android releases and upstream Linux kernel to support feature improvements on its platforms. Please stay tuned for announcements on our website for update releases. 24. Is root access possible on Inforce boards? Could you please explain how to get root privileges in Android? Yes. As Android derives from the Linux kernel, rooting an Android device gives similar access administrative permissions as on Linux. Please give below commands in adb shell to get root Page 11 of 14
privileges #adb root #adb remount 25. Is fastboot supported? How to enter fastboot?? Yes. To go to fastboot mode, keep the Vol- button (for exact location, check the Quick Start Guide [QSG] document for the Inforce 6601 Micro SOM) pressed before powering on the board and release it after the board has powered on. 26. I ve modified the boot partitions on my board and the board is no longer booting. What should I do? If the UFS (flash memory) partitions have been erased or the partition table has been corrupted, you may have to obtain a Return Merchandize Authorization (RMA) for the board to be shipped back to Inforce Computing to fix the issue. There are no other alternatives when a board is bricked in this manner. In particular, please avoid erasing the SBL partition. 27. Is the Hexagon DSP available on the Inforce 6601 platform? Yes. Qualcomm s Hexagon DSP architecture is designed to deliver performance with low power over a variety of heterogeneous computing applications. It has features such as hardware assisted multithreading, privilege levels, VLIW, SIMD and instructions geared toward efficient signal processing. The Inforce 6601 Development Kit comes with the Hexagon 680 DSP with dual -Hexagon vector processor (HVX-512) designed to run @825 MHz for ultra-low-power audio and computer vision processing. Qualcomm also opens up a comprehensive Hexagon SDK for all its processors that provides for a complete environment to generate dynamic Hexagon DSP code modules. This SDK Page 12 of 14
would soon be available for the Snapdragon 820. Please check https://developer.qualcomm.com/forums/qdevnet-forums/multimedia-optimization-hexagon-sdk for updates on the SDK availability. 28. How can I get kernel debug messages? Connect the device s serial port to the host PC. Refer to Question 22for connection configuration. Boot into fastboot mode and issue the following command fastboot -c console=ttyhsl0,115200n8r androidboot. hardware=qcom boot boot.img Debug messages should start to show up. 29. Why isn t Google Play (previously Android Market) available on my board? Google Play is part of Google Mobile Services (GMS) and is licensed separately by Google. This is usually available on commercial Android devices. Though our hardware is capable of meeting requirements of the Google Test Suite that would lead to GMS certification, we have not added this to our product. Nevertheless, it is possible to side-load any Android application using the following commands: #adb devices #adb mount #adb remount #adb install apk Should you have further questions not answered by the above FAQ and would like to have them included here, please contact Inforce Computing. # # # # # Page 13 of 14
2016 Inforce Computing, Inc. All rights reserved. All data provided is for informational purposes only and does not represent any expressed or implied guarantees. At the time of publishing, the information is believed to have been accurate; nevertheless, Inforce Computing doesn t assume responsibility for any errors, omissions, and inaccuracies whatsoever. Product specifications are subject to change without notice. Inforce Computing and the Inforce logo are registered trademarks of Inforce Computing, Inc. in the USA and other countries. Qualcomm and Snapdragon are trademarks of Qualcomm Inc., registered in the United States and other countries; used with permission. Qualcomm Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Qualcomm Snapdragon, Qualcomm Kryo, Qualcomm Adreno, Qualcomm Spectra, and Qualcomm Hexagon are products of Qualcomm Technologies Inc. All other trademarks and product information are the property of their respective owners. Page 14 of 14