Farnell element14 offers Arm-based dev board to accelerate AI design
Availability of the Ultra96 development board has been announced by distributor, Farnell element14. The Arm-based Ultra96 development board was jointly created by Avnet, Xilinx, and 96Boards and is based on the Linaro 96Boards Consumer Edition specification. It features the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC with 2Gbit (512M x32) LPDDR4 RAM from Micron, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2, one USB 3.0 Type Micro-B upstream port (for a device) and two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 Type A downstream ports (for hosts).
According to Farnell, it provides developers with a powerful environment to simplify machine learning. The 96Boards’ specifications are open and define a standard board layout for development platforms.
The Ultra96 is designed to offer a range of peripherals and has programmable logic acceleration engines for ‘complexity with simplicity’ according to the company. The Ultra96 allows software developers to accelerate the development process for applications that require intense processing and high performance in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, virtual reality, the IoT and industrial control.
Cliff Ortmeyer, global head of solutions development for Premier Farnell and Farnell element14 said: “The Ultra96 board combines Arm processing with programmable logic in a convenient, low-cost and expandable board which showcases a wide range of potential peripherals and acceleration engines that will help design engineers counter software bottlenecks.”
The Ultra96 boots from the industrial rated Delkin 16GB MicroSD card (supplied with the Ultra96 board), and is preloaded with Embedded Linux. Design engineers can connect to the Ultra96 through a web server using its integrated wireless access point capability, or use the pre-loaded Embedded Linux plus Enlightenment Desktop via integrated Mini DisplayPort video output. Multiple application examples and on-board development options are provided as examples.
The board includes four user-controllable LEDs. Design engineers can also interact with the board through the 96Boards-compatible low-speed and high-speed expansion connectors by adding peripheral accessories such as those included in Seeed Studio’s Grove Starter Kit for 96Boards.
The Ultra96 development board is available from Farnell element14 in EMEA, Newark element14 in North America and element14 in Asia Pacific.
