Forlinx Blends Edge AI Smarts with High-Speed Communications in the FET-MX9596-C Computer-on-Module

Embedded hardware specialist Forlinx has announced a new computer-on-module, built around the NXP i.MX 9596 system-on-chip — delivering an impressively-fast 10-gigabit-Ethernet connection along with on-board neural acceleration, and with a carrier board for converting it into a pseudo-single board computer (SBC).

"This advanced module delivers powerful edge computing capabilities," claims Forlinx chief executive officer Yuming "Shawn" C. of the company's latest launch, "combining rugged industrial-grade design with multifunctional performance for applications in industrial automation, intelligent medical systems, smart mobility, and advanced cockpit environments."

The heart of the module is an NXP i.MX 9596 system-on-chip, which includes six Arm Cortex-A55 application-class cores running at up to 1.8GHz, a Cortex-M7 real-time core running at up to 800MHz, and a Cortex-M33 microcontroller core running at up to 333MHz. THere's an Arm Mali-G310 graphics processor with OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2, and OpenCL 3.0 support, hardware codecs for H.264/H.265 at 4k30, and an on-board neural coprocessor that delivers claimed two tera-operations per second (TOPS) of minimum-precision compute for on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML and AI) workloads.

To this, Forlinx has added 8GB of LPDDR4X memory and 64GB of eMMC storage. The four 80-pin board-to-board connectors carry plenty of peripheral support, too: buses include up to eight UARTs, eight SPI, one XPSI, five CAN FD, five SAI, and seven I2C, there's eight channels of 12-bit analog to digital conversion, six pulse-width modulation (PWM) channels, up to 111 general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins, and for high-speed devices there are two lanes of PCI Express Gen. 3, one USB 3.0, and one USB 2.0 port.

There's an interesting twist in the module's network connectivity, too: the two gigabit Ethernet ports are exactly what you would expect from an industrially-focused computer-on-module, but are joined by something less common: a high-speed 10-gigabit-Ethernet port, which can also operate in 2.5-gig-Ethernet and gigabit Ethernet modes and includes Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) support. Finally, there's up to two MIPI Camera Serial Interface 2 (CSI-2) inputs and one four-lane MIPI Display Serial Interface (DSI) output, plus an eight-lane PDM microphone input and SPDIF audio support. Storage expansion, meanwhile, is handled by an SD Card 3.0 interface with SDIO 3.0 support.

In addition to the bare module, Forlinx has announced the OK-MX9596-C SBC — a carrier board that turns it into a fully-featured single-board computer, albeit one technically made of two boards. It includes two RJ45 ports for the gigabit Ethernet connections, an XFI-10G slot for the 10-gig-Ethernet connection, three USB Type-A ports and one Type-C, two PCI Express slots, a microSD card slot, integrated speaker, on-board Wi-fi and Bluetooth, a real-time clock, CAN and RS485 connectivity, an LVDS header for 1080p60 displays, MIPI CSI, optional 4G cellular, microphone input, and a buzzer for audible feedback.

More information on the FET-MX9596-C computer-on-module and its OK-MX9596-C carrier board are available on the Forlinx website; at the time of writing the company had not yet disclosed pricing information for either product.