2016-03-31

uCRobotics Bubblegum-96

One of my friends gives me a uCRobotics Bubblegum-96 EVM board today. Bubblegum-96 is based on Actions Semi S900 processor and positioned as "smart open platform" for maker market.


I never use products from Actions. But I am pretty curious about the integrated Cortex-A53 CPU. ARM claims A53 as the smallest 64-bits CPU in the world. Personally I don't think 64-bits is required in the embedded world. But all the desktop and mobile applications are moving from 32-bits to 64-bits. This is the trend and irreversible.

Features

  • Integrate Quad-Core 64-bit Cortex-A53 processor running at 1.8GHz with advanced SIMD co-processor and VFPv4 instruction set.
  • Integrated 600MHz Imagination PowerVR G6230 GPU.
  • Integrated Video Processing Unit provides up to 4K video effects.
  • Integrated ISP supports camera sensors up to 13MP resolutions.
  • Provides rich interfaces such as HDMI, eDP, MIPI CSI, DSI, LVDS and USB 3.0.
  • 2GB LPDDR3 
  • 8GB eMMC flash memory.
  • Wi-Fi 802.11g/b/n and Bluetooth 4.0
  • 28nm process with low power consumption.

Video Subsystem

The Video Subsystem is interesting since it can support 4K real-time video decoding of H.265, H.264 and MPEG-4. The ability to encode H.264 baseline profile up to 1080p@60fps is also great. There are two video input channels (MIPI-CSI or DVP). This makes it possible to implement 3D vision applications.

I think S900 is also suitable for two channels driver recorder. The only question is power consumption of quad-core A53 and pricing. The benefit is the possibility to integrate advanced vision analysis by A53 and GPU.