eSOMiMX6PLUS-iMX6 QuadPlus/DualPlus System on Module

The eSOMiMX6PLUS has been productized to meet higher graphics performance requirements. It uses NXP’s i.MX6 QuadPlus / DualPlus SoC. It also features a Dual band 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n Wi-Fi module with Bluetooth v4.2 support.

The goal of i.MX 6 Quad Plus / Dual Plus SoC is to significantly increase the overall memory bandwidth of GPU to provide better visual performance and higher frame rate for customer use cases like –

  • Instrument cluster (OpenGL ES).
  • Infotainment (HTML5, HMI).
  • Enhanced multi-display support.

In order to allow customers to migrate from i.MX6 Solo/Dual/Quad seamlessly, e-con has maintained the following compatibility requirements on the new eSOMiMX6PLUS

  • No PINMUX changes.
  • All features supported on i.MX 6Dual/6Quad are supported on i.MX 6DualPlus/6QuadPlus to the greatest extent possible.
  • Software compatibility is maintained to the greatest extent possible.

eSOMiMX6PLUS Highlights

  • Upgraded SoC for better experience.
  • Upgraded Wi-Fi/BT module for higher throughput.
  • On-board eMMC with faster access time.
  • Supporting the latest Linux kernel (Linux Kernel Version 4.9.11).

SoC Change Highlights

  Category   Feature   Changes/Improvements
  CPU   L2 Cache   A newer version of the PL310 Cache Controller. Improved memory access and performance efficiency
  BUS   Fabric   Optimized system performance.
Increased bus width from 64 to 128-bit for GPU2D and GPU3D.
  Display   PRE/PRG   Used unresolved tile buffer from GPU for display to avoid resolve operation.
  IPU   Pixel pre-fetch to avoid IPU display FIFO underrun.
  Graphics   GPU3D   Updated to GC2000+ for Graphics performance improvement and memory load optimization.
Increased target frequency of the graphics engines up to 720Mhz.
  GPU2D   Updated GC320 with feature enhancements.
GC320 is updated to support reading the GC2000 render targets to avoid resolve operations.
Increased target frequency of the graphics engines up to 720Mhz.

Wi-Fi/BT Module Highlights

  • IEEE 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n Dual-Band Wi-Fi
  • 20/40/80 MHz Channel Bandwidth
  • Very high throughput up to 200 Mbps in 5GHz mode
  • Support for Station/Client Mode, Access Point Mode, Wi-Fi Direct Mode and Simultaneous Station and Access point mode
  • 802.11 Security
    • 802.11 Open and Shared Authentication
    • Auto Auth
    • WEP Security (64/128 bit)
    • WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK Security (TKIP and AES-CCMP Encryption)
    • 802.1x EAP Authentication methods (TLS, TTLS, PEAP, SIM, AKA, AKA-PRIME, FAST, LEAP)
  • Bluetooth 4.2, BLE (Dual-Mode/Smart-Ready)

i.MX6 Quad Plus vs i.MX6 Quad – Benchmark Comparison

The below table show the bench mark comparisons of eSOMiMX6PLUS and eSOMiMX6 SOMs.

  Tool   i.MX6 Quad Score   i.MX6 Quad Plus Score
  GLMark2   67*   147
  Antutu   15356   21173
  Basemark OS Benchmark   102   144
  Skycastle 3D – Memory Profiling   94% Memory Bus Usage   63% Memory Bus Usage

*Quad SOM reached Critical Temperature and due to that GPU is scaled down whereas Quad Plus doesn’t reach Critical Temperature.