Ka-Ro TX-Module ARM-based pin-compatible SoMs
Over the last 25 years, we have assisted hundreds of projects to choose and integrate TX-Modules – the original and best pin-compatible SoM family serving everything from simple industrial control or touch-screen applications through to complex multimedia systems with a hardware pin-compatible approach, which means that you don’t need to finalize processor choice early in the development life-cycle. It also opens the possibility of using a common baseboard across a range
of end-products.
Processors range from a simple single-core ARM Cortex-A7 through to quad-core ARM Cortex-A72. In all cases these are proper industrial solutions, with both technical and commercial features which strongly differentiate from modular versions of hobbyist boards, such as proven longevity guarantees, single rail power, industrial quality components, and highly production-ready BSPs. TX SoMs are ingeniously implemented on a tiny DIMM200 form-factor, ready to be incorporated into your product manufacture or prototype, and come complete with a Mainboard-7 development system, supplied running your OS of choice.
The TX-Module range includes SoMs which employ processors from a range of vendors yet still offer pin-compatibility. Current processor families include NXP i.MX6, i.MX9 and i.MX9, STMicro STM32MP1 and MP2, and Renesas RZ/G2L. We offer in-house maintained and supported BSP support for Linux (Yocto and Debian) as well as QNX, and some Windows Embedded support. The current range is as below.
| TXMP | TX6UL | TX91 | TX93 | TXRZ | TXMP2 | TX8M | TX8P | MPX-MX95 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | ST Micro STM32MP1 | NXP i.MX6 UltraLite/ULL | NXP i.MX91 | NXP i.MX93 | Renesas RZ/G2L | STMicro STM32MP255 | NXP i.MX8M Mini Quad | NXP i.MX8M Plus Quad | NXP i.MX95 |
| CPU | 2x Cortex-A7 | Cortex-A7 | 1x Cortex-A55 | 2x Cortex-A55 | 2x Cortex-A55 | 2x Cortex-A35 | 4x Cortex-A53 | 4x Cortex-A53 | 6x Cortex-A55 |
| Clock Max (MHz) | 650 | 528/800 | 900/1700 | 900/1700 | 1200 | 1500 | 1600 | 1600 | 1800 |
| RAM (MB) | 256/512 | 256/512 | 512 | 1024 | 512/1024 | 1024 | 1024/2048* | 2048/4096 | up to 16GB |
| eMMC / NAND(MB) | 4GB | 128/4GB | 4GB | 4GB | 4GB | 4GB | 4GB | 8GB/32GB | 64GB |
| Microcontroller | Cortex-M4 | - | - | Cortex-M33 | Cortex-M33 | Cortex-M33 | Cortex-M4F | Cortex-M7 | Cortex-M7 + M33 |
| Performance (CoreMark) | 3788 | - | 5170 | 12762 | 8853 | TBA | 21075 | 21104 | TBA |
| Graphics Engine | 3D OpenGL ES 2.0 | - | - | 2D GPU | OpenGL ES 3.2 / OpenCL / Vulkan | OpenGL ES 3.1 / OpenCL / Vulkan | OpenGL ES 2.0 | OpenGL ES 3.0 / OpenCL / Vulkan | OpenGL ES 3.2 / OpenCL / Vulkan |
| NPU (for ML/AI) | - | - | - | 0.5 TOPS | - | 1.35 TOPS | - | 2.25 TOPS | 2 TOPS |
| MAX UARTs | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Ethernet 100Mb/s | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - |
| Gb Ethernet | - | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | 2 + 1x10GB |
| Max I2C Interface | 1 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 7 + I3C |
| Digital Audio | 2/1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| SD card | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 1-Wire | - | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - |
| USB 2.0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| USB 3.0 | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | 1 |
| Max SPI | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
| PWM | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Camera Input | - | 1 | - | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| CAN | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | 2 | 4 |
| PCIe | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| ADC | - | 5 | 4 | 4 | 8 | - | - | - | 8 |
| LCD Controller | 1366x768 | 1366x768 | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p | 4K |
| LVDS | - | - | - | y | y* | - | y* | y | 2 |
| MIPI-DSI | y* | - | - | y | y | - | y* | y | y |
| HDMI | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | y | = |
| Power mW (Linux/Sleep) 3.3v | 695/45 | 460/22 | 695/55 | 725/150 | 871/- | TBA | 880/120 | 1600/100 | TBA |
| Temperature Range | -25 to +85C | -40 to +85C | -25 to +85C | -25 to +85C | -40 to +85C | -40 to +85C | -25 to +85C | -30 to +85C/-25 to 85C | -40 to +85C |
| Dimensions | 68 x 26mm | 68 x 26mm | 68 x 26 | 68 x 26 | 68 x 26 | 68 x 26 | 68 x 26/28*mm | 68 x 26mm | 82 x 35mm |
| Connectors | SODIMM200 | SODIMM200 | SODIMM200 | SODIMM200 | SODIMM200 | SODIMM200 | SODIMM200 | SODIMM200 | MXM314 |
| Linux | y | y | y | y | y | y | y | y | y |
| QNX | n | TBA | TBA | 8.0 | n | n | 7.x | TBA | TBA |
| TXMP | TX6UL | TX91 | TX93 | TXRZ | TXMP2 | TX8M | TX8P | MPX-MX95 |
Why TX-Module?
In addition to the individual features of each module, there are six overriding reasons to choose the Ka-Ro TX-Module family:
Guaranteed Longevity
Longevity is a major issue for ARM-based system-on-modules, as they don’t conform to any industry-standard pinout. Since the first system-on-module shipped in 2002, we have guaranteed the lifetime of our products. For our ST Micro based products longevity guarantees are underwritten by the vendor, who currently offer a “rolling” 12 year longevity guarantee for ST32MP1. We expect to shadow the ST Micro lifetimes and currently offer a 12 year longevity guarantee for TRITON-TXMP modules. For NXP modules, there are specific 10 or 15 year guarantees of manufacture that we shadow – please contact us for more details.
We are still shipping every TRITON system-on-module model that we have introduced, since 2002, and believe that the best test of any supplier in this regard is to ask both what they guarantee for the future, and to ask about the products that they were promoting 5 years ago. Many vendors introduce new products at such a rate that products generally disappear after as little as a year, and never reach a state of stable, complete software support.
Because the TRITON-TX modules are manufactured in a high-quality small-batch production facility within the EU, there are never problems with manufacturing standards or with supply. If you order 100 modules and we don’t have them in stock, we will make them. Often, modules are produced in large batches by volume-oriented contract manufacturers in the Far East, and once they are gone, they are gone, until orders for at least 5,000 accumulate in order to justify a run.
Our BSPs for Linux, Windows CE, Windows 10 IoT Core and QNX are in most cases complete, and are designed so that you can use them without further development or modification. One of the key advantages of the system-on-module approach is rapid time-to-market, and this cannot be realised if there is an unknown amount of extra work to be done to achieve a complete production ready hardware + software platform.
The TRITON-TX modules offer a high degree of pin-compatibility. It is therefore possible to design baseboards which are ready for different TRITON-TX family members, so that decisions on processing power can be deferred until the application is finished and tested, without delaying completion of hardware design. Additionally, products may be upgraded as new, more powerful TX modules become available.
We are experts in what we do. As well as 25 years of experience in supporting hundreds of SoM design-ins, our services group develops software, including full BSPs, and complex baseboard hardware in-house. This level of knowledge means that you can be absolutely confident of success in your project, thanks to our ability to support you, and to quickly resolve any problems which may arise along the way. Find out more about our support and services.
