MNT Reform LS1028A Module (Preorder)
This is the open hardware system-on-module featuring the NXP Layerscape LS1028A processor and 8GB or 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 2023-01-19: Even if we did not reach the initial sales goal for batch 1, we are still going ahead with the batch production, but had to increase the price for new orders. A trial production run of 3 units is currently in progress. After testing, we will produce the remaining batch units.
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).
- 8 or 16GB DDR4.
- 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
- Tested with 8GB: 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: 8GB or 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