3 ms·

This does have provisions for GPIO, there's an RP2040 microcontroller integrated onto the board which is wired to the N100s USB bus on one side and the exposed

This does have provisions for GPIO, there's an RP2040 microcontroller integrated onto the board which is wired to the N100s USB bus on one side and the exposed pin headers on the other. It's set up such that you can flash your own code onto the RP2040 so it should be quite flexible, you could just use it as a simple USB to GPIO bridge, or you could implement low level application logic on the RP2040 itself for stronger realtime guarantees.

gary_0 2y ago
I wonder how good the software/driver support is? That's a neat feature to have on an Intel-based SBC, but not if getting software to talk to it is next to impossible.
- pkaye 2y ago
  They are connected by an UART.
  - gary_0 2y ago
    What do you mean? I looked up the RP2040 datasheet[0], and it looks like it can be used as a plain USB device, and can be booted from USB. If that's how it's connected on this SBC, I'd imagine software support would be quite good since Linux probably has a built-in USB driver for it. [0] https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/rp2040-datasheet.pdf https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/rp2040-datasheet.p...
    - 15155 2y ago
      Linux doesn't have any driver for the "RP2040" in the abstract - you have to design the USB device you want (which you could implement on any other USB capable microcontroller as well usually.) You can use the standard USB CDC classes with the RP2040 to obtain Linux support without writing your own driver - but you still have to build this. You can only access the USB boot ROM after programming if you are able to toggle the boot selection pins with the host CPU's GPIO - no idea if that's connected here.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - jsheard 2y ago
        The X4 has a physical button which is hooked up to the RP2040s BOOTSEL pin, if you need to force it back into the USB bootloader.
    - pkaye 2y ago
      I'm talking about how the RP2040 and the N100 are interconnected. With an UART port and also an USB port. Someone mentioned the USB port for software updates but maybe both UART and USB port can be used for communication between them. https://dl.radxa.com/x/x4/radxa_x4_v1.11_schematic.pdf https://dl.radxa.com/x/x4/radxa_x4_v1.11_schematic.pdf

gary_0 2y ago

I wonder how good the software/driver support is? That's a neat feature to have on an Intel-based SBC, but not if getting software to talk to it is next to impossible.

pkaye 2y ago
They are connected by an UART.
- gary_0 2y ago
  What do you mean? I looked up the RP2040 datasheet[0], and it looks like it can be used as a plain USB device, and can be booted from USB. If that's how it's connected on this SBC, I'd imagine software support would be quite good since Linux probably has a built-in USB driver for it. [0] https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/rp2040-datasheet.pdf https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2040/rp2040-datasheet.p...
  - 15155 2y ago
    Linux doesn't have any driver for the "RP2040" in the abstract - you have to design the USB device you want (which you could implement on any other USB capable microcontroller as well usually.) You can use the standard USB CDC classes with the RP2040 to obtain Linux support without writing your own driver - but you still have to build this. You can only access the USB boot ROM after programming if you are able to toggle the boot selection pins with the host CPU's GPIO - no idea if that's connected here.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - jsheard 2y ago
      The X4 has a physical button which is hooked up to the RP2040s BOOTSEL pin, if you need to force it back into the USB bootloader.
  - pkaye 2y ago
    I'm talking about how the RP2040 and the N100 are interconnected. With an UART port and also an USB port. Someone mentioned the USB port for software updates but maybe both UART and USB port can be used for communication between them. https://dl.radxa.com/x/x4/radxa_x4_v1.11_schematic.pdf https://dl.radxa.com/x/x4/radxa_x4_v1.11_schematic.pdf