Coral System-on-Module (SoM) - 4GB RAM

The Coral System-on-Module (SoM) - 4GB RAM is a fully integrated system that helps build embedded systems that require fast machine learning (ML).

It contains NXP's iMX 8M System-on-Chip (SoC), eMMC memory, LPDDR4 RAM, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, but its unique power comes from Google's Edge TPU coprocessor. The Edge TPU is a small ASIC developed by Google that powerfully accelerates TensorFlow Lite models: it is capable of performing 4 trillion operations per second (4 TOPS) while consuming 2 watts of power - that's 2 TOPS per watt. For example, a single Edge TPU can run the most advanced mobile vision models, such as MobileNet v2, at nearly 400 frames per second. On-device ML processing reduces latency, improves data privacy, and eliminates the need for a constant, high-bandwidth Internet connection.

Key benefits of SoM:
● High-speed and low-power ML inference (4 TOPS at 2 watts)
● Full Linux system (running Mendel, a Debian derivative)
● Small size (40 x 48 mm)

Key features:

● NXP i MX 8M SoC.
○ Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 and Cortex-M4F processor
2D/3D Vivante GC7000 Lite GPU and VPU
Google Edge TPU ML accelerator
Cryptographic coprocessor
● Wi-Fi 2x2 MIMO (802.11b/g/n/ac 2.4/5 GHz)
● Bluetooth 4.2
16 GB eMMC (EMMC16G-TB29-PZ90) for 4 GB RAM model
4 GB LPDDR4 STORAGE
USB 3.0
Gigabit Ethernet
HDMI and MIPI-DSI
MIPI-CSI-2
Up to 95x GPIOs (including SPI, I 2C, PWM, UART, SAI, and SDIO)

Main system on a chip (iMX 8M):

• Arm Cortex-A53 MPCore platform

Four symmetrical Cortex-A53 processors:
● 32 KB L1 instruction cache
32 KB L1 data cache
Support for L1 RAM cache protection with parity/ECC
Support for 64-bit Armv8-A architecture:
● 1 MB unified L2 cache
● Support for L2 RAM cache protection with ECC
1.5 GHz frequency

• Arm Cortex-M4 core platform

16 KB L1 instruction cache
16 KB L1 data cache
256 KB of hard-core memory (TCM)

• Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

● Vivante GC7000Lite
4 shaders
267 million triangles/second
1.6 gigapixels/second
32 GFLOPs 32-bit or 64 GFLOPs 16-bit
● Supports OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, Open CL 1.2 and Vulkan

• Video processing unit (VPU)

4Kp60 HEVC/H.265 main decoder
● 4Kp60 VP9 and 4Kp30 AVC/H.264 decoder (all system resources required)
1080p60 decoder MPEG-2, MPEG-4p2, VC-1, VP8, RV9, AVS, MJPEG, H.263

• I/O interfaces

2 USB 3.0/2.0 controllers with built-in PHY interfaces
1 Ultra Secure Digital Host Controller (uSDHC) interface.
1 Gigabit Ethernet controller with support for EEE, Ethernet AVB and I EEE 1588
2x UART modules
2x I 2C modules
2x SPI modules
16 GPIO lines with interrupt capability
4 PWM lines
I/O multiplexing controller (IOMUXC) for centralized panel management

• On-chip memory

● Boot ROM (128 KB)
● Internal RAM (128 KB + 32 KB)

• Display.

HDMI display interface:
● HDMI 2.0a with single display support up to 1080p
● Zoom in and out between 4K and HD video (full system resources required)
20+ 32-bit @ 384 kHz fs audio interfaces with support for time division multiplexing (TDM)
● SPDIF input and output
Audio Return Channel (ARC) to HDMI

MIPI-DSI display interface:
● MIPI-DSI 4 channels with single display support, resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 at 60 Hz
● LCDIF display controller
Output can be LCDIF output or DC display controller output

• Audio.

1x SPDIF input and output
2 synchronous audio interface (SAI) modules supporting I2S, AC97, TDM and codec/DSP interfaces
1x SAI for 8 Tx channels for HDMI audio output
1 SPDIF input for HDMI ARC input

• Camera.

2 MIPI-CSI2 camera inputs (4 lanes each)

• Security.

● Resource Domain Controller (RDC) supports four domains and up to eight regions
Arm TrustZone (TZ) architecture.
● Secure protection of the internal RAM (OCRAM) area with an OCRAM controller
High assurance boot (HAB)
Cryptographic Acceleration and Assurance Module (CAAM).
Secure nonvolatile storage (SNVS): ● Secure real-time clock (RTC)
Secure JTAG controller (SJC)

ML accelerator

Edge TPU coprocessor
Google-designed ASIC that provides high-performance logic output for TensorFlow Lite models
Utilizes PCIe Gen2 x1 and I 2C/GPIO to interface with the iMX 8M SoC
4 trillion operations per second (TOPS)
2 TOPS per watt

Memory and storage

• RAM (SDRAM).

1, 2 or 4 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM (4 channels, 32-bit bus)
Maximum DDR clock speed 1600 MHz
● Interface directly to the integrated DDR controller i MX 8M

• Flash memory (eMMC)

8GB eMMC (KLMBG4GEND-B031) for 1GB and 2GB RAM models or 16GB eMMC (EMMC16G-TB29-PZ90) for 4GB RAM model
8-bit MMC mode
Compliant with JEDEC versions 5.0 and 5.1

• Extensible Flash support

● Compliant with SD/SDIO 3.0 standard
● Works in 4-bit SDIO mode
Supports system boot from SD card

Network and wireless communication

• Ethernet

10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 networks
Reduced gigabit independent interface (RGMII)

• Murata LBEE5U91CQ Wi-Fi module:

● Wi-Fi 2x2 MIMO (802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4/5 GHz)
● Supports PCIe host interface for W-LAN

Bluetooth 4.2 (supports Bluetooth with low power consumption)
● Supports UART interface

Security.

• Cryptographic coprocessor Microchip ATECC608A cryptographic coprocessor:

● Asymmetric (public/private) key cryptographic signature solution based on elliptic curve cryptography and ECDSA signature protocols

Hardware interface.
Connectors: 3x 100-pin connectors (Hirose DF40C-100DP-0.4V) Coral.

Overall dimensions: 48mm x 40mm x 5mm

Weight: 0.013 kg