advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Better WiFi, 3D printed cases: Imagination’s Creator board gets an early update

Imagination Technologies, the UK firm best known for the PowerVR graphics chips found in iPhones et al, has released an update to its Creator CI20 prototyping board which brings improved WiFi, easier mounting and compatibility with the FlowCloud API for internet of things (IoT) applications.

CI20 is Imagination’s take on the popular Raspberry Pi-style hardware, which uses a MIPS processor and can run either Linux or Android out of the box. It’s selling point is largely around the built-in connectivity – it’s more powerful than an original Raspberry Pi, has a very powerful graphics processor and has WiFi and Bluetooth on-board and costs under R1 000. Which means it’s largely aimed at developers who don’t want to mess around adding extra modules for these options – although at half the price the Raspberry Pi 2 still holds its own.

While the built-in WiFi was a major selling point, however, some users reported problems with connectivity – including the hugely influential Tom’s Hardware. The new board is slightly smaller and the reworked layout is said by the manufacturers to fix these issues.

Imagination has also released files for printing your own case to house the CI20.

The FlowCloud compatibility should interest inventors: it’s Imagination’s platform for connecting remote sensors to other systems over the internet, much like IBM’s BlueMix or similar.

Want to buy one? Check out international shipping options at the official store – there’s no local distributor yet. Full specs below.

  • Processor: 1.2 GHz dual-core, MIPS32-based Ingenic JZ4780 SoC, 32kB L1 I- and D-cache, 512kB L2 cache
  • FPU/SIMD: IEEE754 Floating Point Unit, XBurst MXU
  • Multimedia: PowerVR SGX540 GPU, hardware-accelerated video playback up to 1080p at 60 fps
  • Memory: 1 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 8 GB flash memory, 1 x SD card
  • Audio: AC97 audio, via 4-pin input/output jack and HDMI connector
  • Camera interface: ITU-R BT.645 controller
  • Connectivity: 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
  • Display: 1 x HDMI up to 2K resolution
  • USB: 1 x USB host, 1 x USB OTG device
  • I/O peripherals: 2 x UART, 25 x GPIO, 2 x SPI, I2C, ADC, expansion headers, 14-pin EJTAG connector
advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement