MNT Reform LS1028A Processor Module

Not yet in stock. Ships in 3 months. (Updated 2023-06-02)

This is the open hardware system-on-module featuring the NXP Layerscape LS1028A processor and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. It can be used in the MNT Reform open hardware laptop or in any other custom device.

Important note on Preorder Process

Update 2023-05-17: Our trial run was successful, and we are preparing a production run of 16GB modules. The 8GB module version is discontinued in favor of streamlined production. If you bought the 8GB module, you will be upgraded to the 16GB module.

Benefits

Fully open hardware design (Altium sources published, can be opened in KiCAD).
NXP LS1028A SoC is fully supported by mainline Linux.
Ability to boot the system without any binary blobs (see next section for caveat).
16GB DDR4 RAM.
2x Cortex-A72 cores at 1.5GHz. These have roughly double the single-core performance of the Cortex-A53 in i.MX8MQ.
Big PCIe address space allows usage of some external AMD, NVidia GPUs (experimental).
Vivante GC7000UL GPU supported by open source Mesa graphics library.

Drawbacks

Roughly 30% higher power consumption than i.MX8MQ with 4GB RAM.
2 faster cores instead of 4 energy-efficient, but slower cores.
No HDMI output. Secondary PCIe lane available on HDMI connector.
eDP display requires a firmware blob. This can be worked around with a mPCIe/PCIe display adapter, but this takes up a PCIe slot.

Specs

System-on-Chip: NXP LS1028A
CPU: 2x ARM Cortex-A72 (1.5GHz, 1MB L2, 48KB L1I, 32KB L1D, ECC, Cache Coherent Interconnect CCI-400)
GPU: Vivante GC7000L (open source etnaviv drivers in Linux kernel), ARM eDP Controller
Memory: 16GB DDR4
2x PCIe 3.0 (1x external PCIe 3.0 routed to HDMI pins)
SATA 3
2x USB 3.0
1GBit Ethernet PHY
SAI audio
eMMC (16GB), QSPI flash, EEPROM
SD, UART, SPI, I2C, PWM, GPIO
Powered by single 5V input

What's Included

LS1028A Processor/RAM Module to plug into MNT Reform
Internal eDP display adapter
Machined heatsink