Online Guide for the Intel® Joule™ Module

  • 07/14/2017
  • Public Content
Contents

Domain Features

The primary features listed below by domain and any related expansion board hardware or operating system elements required to enable the basic functionality are also described.
Note
: Not all libraries and packages in use are listed, and the table contents are subject to change with various instances of the software installed and configuration files loaded.
 
Performance specifications listed can be achieved under specific configurations and are not to be considered benchmarking statements or performance indicators.
Feature
Description
Related Hardware
Notes
Boot and BIOS
  • Power-on self-test and reset of platform devices
  • Displays pre-boot images and reads hardware strapping
  • Renders BIOS user interface to change platform configuration settings; manages DnX events and services
  • Hardware toggles and initial settings, BIOS update route and booting without or before an OS
  • Boot loader transitions to operating system control.
Module SoC executes BIOS code stored in EEPROM
 
Configuration EEPROM
Holds product metadata (S/N, date code, etc) that can be read by the module BIOS.
8-Bit Type M24M02-DR EEPROM at I2 location 0x50-0x53
  • Read only by the BIOS and platform code.
  • If device not found, or found corrupt, BIOS defaults used.
Operating System
Linux* kernel is used to provide hardware abstraction, device driver management and debug console controls.
  • OS is stored within the module's eMMC space.
  • Device drivers interface with module and platform devices directly and/or using interconnect communication busses.
 
Graphics
  • The GPU within the module provides graphics, compute, media (encode/decode), and display capabilities.
  • The Reference Operating System for IoT enables:
  • OpenGL
  • OpenCL
  • OpenCV
The expansion board provides physical connection for display HDMI devices.
 
Display
  • Generates the signals required to drive compatible display devices and render application visual output.
  • Available resolutions and delivered frame rates will vary per display panel and the operating system configuration.
The development board includes an HDMI re-driver to condition signals provided by the module to the physical Micro HDMI connector. The re-driver device also performs (UDEV) hot-plug detection. Audio streams intended for HDMI output are muxed in the module.
 
Storage
Performance will vary across input / output formats and will be influenced by the mass storage system used and any parallel tasks running at the time.
  • 8GB or 16GB eMMC memory.
  • SDCard (v3.0) slot and level translation (3.3 V to 1.8 V).
  • USB can host common storage devices. USB On the Go (OTG) storage is accessible after OS has booted and drivers are loaded.
 
Media
  • The media domain provides encodig and decoding functions for many common formats, including H.264, HEVC and many JPEG / MPEG derivatives.
  • On the fly transcoding and streaming to Wi-Fi* targets.
Compute module GPU and wireless device, storage
 
USB
  • 2 x USB 3.0 ports: port 0 is configured as a Type-C (OTG) and port 1 can be reconfigured as a PCIe interface with a BIOS change. Contact Intel for more information.
  • 1 Type-A is available as a second port or can be dedicated with On The Go (OTG) support.
  • USB 2 host port is configured as FTDI debug port.
The SoC within the module provide the USB controllers while the expansion board provides electrical signal conditioning and physical interface connectors.
The Micro USB Type-B connector on the expansion board is bridged to UART2 as a serial debug (console) port and cannot be used for USB gadgets.
Input / Output
  • SPI – One port is routed to the to the expansion board.
  • I2C – Five ports are available from the module; some are on multipurpose pins and actual usage and availability can vary between platforms and OS configurations.
  • I2S – One dual channel port is provided for an audio device (codec) interface. The development platform only supports audio via USB or output over HDMI.
  • GPIO – 8 lines provided with default BIOS image, other interfaces can be reconfigured as GPIO; up to 48 total.
  • UART – 3 ports are available; on the expansion board UART2 is routed to the serial debug interface.
  • SDIO – 1 serial data interface is available
  • PWM -
     
     
    4 dedicated PWM lines are available.
Devices on the expansion board perform voltage level signal transitions between the physical interfaces and module, where the I/O functionally resides.
 
Wi-Fi*
  • Wi-Fi* 802.11a/b/n with multirole and peer to peer mode.
  • Integrated firewall enabled via IPTABLE library in BSP.
  • Soft Access Point mode and Client Scan services.
  • Flight mode enabled by toggling all radios services.
  • Streaming and Miracast support; when configured.
  • WPS client and server modes; WPA2 security.
An Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 device is integrated into the module and connected to the SoC over PCIe bus 0.
 
Bluetooth® Low-Energy (BLE)
  • The Reference Operating System for IoT incorporates the BlueZ service layer for Bluetooth functionality.
  • Device scan and pairing.15 Bluetooth modes are supported.
  • Flight mode enabled by toggling all radios services.
  • BLE serial console for remote debugging.
  • Hardware encryption for WPA2 and AES-CCMP standards.
An Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 device is integrated into the module and connected to the SoC over PCIe bus 0.
 
Sensors
Numerous interfaces are available to support various sensors and accessory device connections in either slave or master mode.
There are no discreet hardware sensors on the reference expansion board.
Shield style mezzanine boards can be used to connect sensor devices to the compute module.
Power and Energy Management
  • The OS utilizes runtime power management framework to enable / disable devices and to configure any available wake-up capabilities of the device.
  • The compute module supports S0ix and Sx power states while devices on the expansion board support RTD3.
  • All PM is controlled within respective hardware devices.
  • The reference expansion board does not provide any hardware for battery management, charging or source transition.
  • The Intel Joule development platform does not provide any Energy Management service.
  • No libraries are included for battery management, discrete chargers and power source transition.
Thermal Management
  • The Reference Operating System for IoT includes the Intel DPTF library to provide thermal management services.
  • ACPI services can be added to the reference operating system.
  • BIOS includes a method to limit module power consumption and/or maintain operation within temperature thresholds by adjusting the clock speed.
The SoC within the compute module has a silicon junction thermistor that can be read by the BIOS and communicated to the OS by middleware functions.
Systems designers are to validate thermal measurement data and cooling solutions for their product designs.
Debug
  • USB serial console (dmesg) to monitor platform output.
  • System trace via UART and USB interfaces.
  • SOCwatch, SAT, GPA and Vtunes can be added to BSP.
Intel® Joule™ development platform includes a UART to USB bridge for serial console debug.
Contact the device manufacturer for error reporting and debugging.
 

Product and Performance Information

1

Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at www.Intel.com/PerformanceIndex.