Design overview (AXEL ULite)

Info Box Applies to AXEL ULite

Introduction

The heart of AXEL ULite system-on-module (SOM for short) is composed by the following components:

• NXP i.MX6UL application processor
• Power supply unit
• DDR3L memory bank
• NOR and NAND flash banks
• 1x 204 pin SODIMM connector with interfaces signals

This article shortly describes the main AXEL ULite components.

Processor Info

The i.MX 6UltraLite (i.MX6UL) processor features NXP’s advanced implementation of the ARM® Cortex®-A7, a single-core cost-effective and power-efficient solution, which operates at speeds up to 696 MHz. This SOC includes a deep encryption and security capability, a complex and flexible boot management and an integrated power management. As a result, i.MX6UL devices are able to serve a wide range of applications including:

• Industrial/IoT gateways
• Instrument clusters, and portable medical devices
• Dataloggers
• Remote control units
• Human-machine interfaces
• Safety blocks for IoT data manipulation and streaming

The i.MX6UL application processor is composed of the following major functional blocks:

• Single ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore, featuring:
  • 128KB unified L2 cache
  • NEON MPE coprocessor
  • External memories interconnect
• Connectivity peripherals, including
  • 2xRMII - Ethernet 10/100 interfaces
  • SD/SDIO/MMC
  • Serial buses: USB, UART, I²C, SPI, CAN, ...
• Security Module, including:
  • True and Pseudo Random Number Generator
  • Cryptographic Acceleration and Assurance Module
  • Secure Non-Volatile Storage with Violation/Tamper detection and reporting

AXEL ULite can equip the entire range of i.MX6UL SOC models with the following main features:

• Package: 14 x 14 mm, 0.8 pitch, BGA
• Clock frequency: 528 MHz or 696 MHz
• Commercial (0-95°C), Industrial (-40-105°C) and Automotive (-40-125°C) temperature ranges

RAM memory bank

DDR3L SDRAM memory bank is composed by a 16-bit wide chip. The following table reports the SDRAM specifications:

CPU connection	Multi-mode DDR controller (MMDC)
Size min	256 MB
Size max	512 MB
Width	16 bit
Speed	400 MHz

NOR flash bank

NOR flash is a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) device. This device is connected to the ECSPI1 channel 5 and can act as boot memory. The following table reports the NOR flash specifications:

CPU connection	ECSPI1
Size min	8 MB
Size max	32 MB
Chip select	ECSPI1_SS0
Bootable	Yes

NAND flash bank

On board main storage memory is a 8-bit wide NAND flash connected to the CPU's Raw NAND flash controller. Optionally, it can act as boot peripheral. The following table reports the NAND flash specifications:

CPU connection	Raw NAND flash controller
Page size	512 byte, 2 kbyte or 4 kbyte
Size min	128 MB
Size max	2 GB
Width	8 bit
Chip select	NANDF_CS0
Interface	asynchronous
technology	SLC
Bootable	Yes

Power supply unit

AXEL ULite embeds all the elements required for powering the unit, therefore power sequencing is self-contained and simplified. Nevertheless, power must be provided from carrier board, and therefore users should be aware of the voltage ranges power supply can assume as well as all other parameters. Three supported voltage ranges are available. For more details please refer to this page.

Bootstrap options

For more details about bootstrap options, please refer to this page.

SOM connector

All interface signals AXEL ULite provides are routed through SODIMM DDR3 204 pin. The dedicated carrier board must mount the counterpart mating connector and connect the desired peripheral interfaces according to AXEL ULite pinout specifications.