April Showers Bring SOM Power

Contrary to what Mr. Groundhog said, Spring isn’t quite in full force yet in the PNW. Occasionally the sun rears its golden head for a weekend of warmth that makes us all hopeful for longer days ahead but until then we wait under the grey skies and its gentle showers, knowing that every drop is fuel for a powerful new beginning. Quarter 1 was spent on growing the AM6 series of SOMs with new BSP releases and nightly CICD testing. Check out what we have been up to, and what we have coming up in this new Spring season!

Author: Dezirae Archuleta
Written on: 04/02/2024

Now sprouting!

phyCORE-AM62Ax Development Kits available

The phyCORE-AM62A is the latest addition to PHYTEC’s family of AM62x based System on Modules. With pin compatibility to the phyCORE-AM62x SOM, the phyCORE-AM62A can be used to add edge computing and analytics to your application. The phyCORE-AM62A also features a Deep Learning Accelerator with on chip DSP so you can run the majority of your application using Linux and off load critical components to the specialized low latency best-in-class real-time Cortex-R5 core. We’re excited to announce that you can now get your hands on a development kit!

 

Purchase a phyCORE-AM62Ax kit

BSPs blossoming

Q1/24 BSP releases are now available. Learn more about what’s changed in these releases in the Software Release Section of our blog:

Have you noticed more PHYTEC SOMs popping up in mainline? Check out U-Boot and kernel.org to see what new SOMs are making an appearance. Upstreaming patches for PHYTEC SOMs is important for continued longevity of products.

phyBLOG

Don’t forget your rain boots

New phyCORE-AM62x boot sources

New boot sources including boot over Ethernet and boot over UART are making a splash in our latest BSP releases. It’s nice to have options isn’t it? The phyCORE-AM62x has 6 boot sources supported:

  • SD card
  • eMMC
  • OSPI
  • UART
  • USB
  • Network

How-to guides are available on PHYTEC Docs in the Booting Essentials section.

Booting Essentials

New product hatching

phyCORE-AM68Ax

The phyCORE-AM68Ax is born! Characterized by system integration, scalability and cost savings, the phyCORE-AM68Ax processor combines unique deep learning accelerators, vector processing and general-purpose microprocessors as well as an integrated imaging subsystem, making the phyCORE-AM68Ax an excellent solution for various industrial applications, such as robotics, machine vision, radar, etc.

Learn more about phyCORE-AM68Ax

Forget snap peas, we’re planting SnapMagic symbols

phyCORE-RT1170

The phyCORE-RT1170 System on Module is our smallest connectorized SOM to date, but big things come in small packages. It’s a crossover MCU designed for consumer, industrial and automotive markets with dual-core and advanced security. You can now reference and download the symbol and footprint on our website via SnapMagic for your convenience. Save yourself hours in your next design and check it out.

RT1170 Symbol and Footprint

EtherCAT buds

IBV and Acontis

PHYTEC recently teamed up with a couple of new partners to expand our EtherCAT Master offerings! If you or someone you know is working on an industrial automation project using EtherCAT, you’ll definitely want to get in touch with these key players and try their offerings with a PHYTEC development kit.

  • Acontis is a German-based technology company specializing in EtherCAT and Windows real-time software and real-time virtualization/hypervisor technology. They have a strong support presence in the US and helped us enable our phyCORE-AM62x Development Kit to be a EtherCAT Master in just one day!
  • IBV is also a German-based technology company specializing in EtherCAT and QNX RTOS. PHYTEC was introduced with IBV through Texas Instruments. They have created a working demo on the phyCORE-AM64x Development Kit.

Spring Break?!

PHYTEC hits the road for events

Just our luck that with the nicer weather the trade shows and conferences begin! We’ve got some exciting events happening, will you be there?

The Open EV Charging Summit is a new event from the Linux Foundation. A couple engineers at PHYTEC will be at this hands-on event working with our phyCORE-AM62x based EV Charging reference design.

Register for Open EV Charging Summit

Workin’ on our PHYtness

We’ve had a spring in our steps lately! In Q1 we implemented phyRUNNERS Fitness Club, a voluntary club that meets every Tuesday around lunchtime and treks to a new location for a brisk walk/run together. We’re especially lucky to be on Bainbridge Island where there’s no shortage of beautiful outdoor locations to explore. Although it’s still drizzly out there, we’re excited to continue the club into Q2 and beyond. Cheers to brighter days and more runs ahead!

Ready to get started?

Let’s go! Learn more about PHYTEC SOMs

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