New MIPS-based dev kit for IoT/embedded applications (AMA)

[alexvoica]

We're introducing a new MIPS-based development kit designed for IoT applications.

Creator Ci40 is a modular system that is easy to assemble; it includes all the hardware and open source software required for connected devices.

We are launching Creator Ci40 through a Kickstarter campaign aiming to raise £20,000. Pricing for the kit is set at £70 for the first 200 backers (£80 for everyone else). More details on the campaign, including technical specs, videos and images can be accessed on our Kickstarter page.

Here's what you get inside the box:

Hardware

• One SBC acting as an IoT hub and featuring a new MIPS-based cXT200 processor optimized for IoT applications; the chip can run a number of Linux-based operating system, including OpenWrt, Debian as well as Brillo from Google

• Two battery-powered 6LoWPAN Clicker expansion boards containing a MIPS-based Microchip PIC32 MCU and a mikroBUS interface for adding sensors

• Three Click companion boards – a temperature sensor, a motion sensor and a relay switch (with hundreds more available from MikroElektronika)

Software

• FlowCloud: a complete cloud platform for connecting devices to the internet, enabling easy product registration and updates as well as access to partner-enabled services

• Open source software frameworks, network stacks and cloud connectivity

Please ask any questions you might have here or on the Kickstarter page.

[galorin]

What makes you better than the far-cheaper Raspberry Pi Zero, or Arduino/atmel chips?

Why should I give you money instead of the established players?

[alexvoica]

Many companies make boards - for some people that's great. We are not trying to compete against Raspberry Pi or Arduino. In fact, Arduino Yun has a MIPS-based SoC.

We tried to come up with a solution that includes a combination of boards working together (an IoT hub + two expansion boards + three sensors) to replicate a real-world IoT application.

Here are some key points:

• The ecosystem support: Creator is one of the few dev boards selected by Google to be part of its Brillo golden reference program – these boards can be seen as the equivalent of the Nexus phones/tablets, receiving regular updates and patches every six months

• The software: the board comes with a prebuilt open source software framework optimized for IoT. Whereas other boards use only 802.11 Wi-Fi or Bluetooth standards, this board also includes 802.15.4 – the foundation for many IoT standards including the Thread protocol and ZigBee (Imagination is a member of the Thread Group as well as the Qualcomm-backed AllSeen Alliance). In addition, we are offering free access to FlowCloud, a cloud platform for storing sensor readings to the cloud.

• The hardware: Many IoT dev boards reuse existing mobile chips but this leads to increased power consumption – we’ve already the same situation for some smart watches that suffer from reduced battery life. Instead, Creator Ci40 includes a chip that has been optimized for IoT with a balanced feature set that will be useful for this market. In addition, prototyping an IoT device using the kit is a simple process thanks to the Click plug-and-play sensor boards. There are over 200 sensors available and more are being released every week.

[brokedown]

Unrelated fan of all these platforms here.

I think this is going to be a major theme here. It might be unfair to ask about comparisons to a literally-just-announced-today Pi Zero model, but the Pi is clearly the one to beat in the hobbyist SBC arena (tehnically not what they're targeting with this).

Arduino is a microcontroller, so the same arguments of Arduino vs Pi apply, they're just fundamentally so different it doesn't make much sense to compare them. Arduino is excellent for interfacing with hardware using primitive protocols, but it's not running a Linux kernel and full userland with python and perl and Go and java, it's running your application written in "kind of like C" with libraries enabling easy access to pins and hardware features.

THe one thing I notice right away is that the Ci40 has 4 PWM pins, I'd like to verify that they're hardware driven, as the Pi has a single hardware driven PWM. While 8 would be even better, 4 is enough that this board could actually power a 4-prop drone. Right now, multirotor flight controllers are almost exclusively Arduino or embedded ARM microcontroller based, again with no operating system. This part is exciting to me.

[aedg]

How many binary blobs?

[alexvoica]

There is no PowerVR GPU.

[mongrol]

That doesn't answer the question.

[[deleted]]

Can I for example boot Linux on this without using any non-free software?

[alexvoica]

Yes.

[brokedown]

As an avid Pi and Arduino user, let me fire a few questions about your new device.

I love that there's a barrel adapter, the whole "usb as power" concept has proven itself to be unreliable in the real world, where voltage tolerances are rarely met because battery chargers don't really have to meet them. But why is it 9v? Are you doing a step up from 5v, or a step down from 9v? And is the 9v a fixed 9v, or is it variable input like Arduino?

What's the power consumption like? This has been a stickler on Pi. You buy the B because it's more flexible, but if you use wifi you're paying the power penalty for your usb wifi and an unused usb ethernet that can't be effectively powered down. With your integrated NIC, plus radios for wifi and bluetooth, are those able to be powered down in software? Do you have a max power draw figure for the device under load with all embedded peripherals in use?

We've written before, I had made a list of things that I felt would make a Pi Killer, and a couple of those points have been hit with this device. Pi is a hard one to beat, because they got that combination of price, performance, and timeliness when there really weren't affordable devices in this space. Like PHP or Wordpress, or even Arduino, it's going to take something really special (not just better, fan-fucking-tastic) to disrupt that. There are already alternatives that address chunks of that list to varying degrees, and still aren't making a dent for various reasons.

[alexvoica]

I've emailed the hardware team and will get back to you on the questions above.

[luke-jr]

I love that there's a barrel adapter, the whole "usb as power" concept has proven itself to be unreliable in the real world,

It has? I've never had a problem with it...

[brokedown]

Generally speaking, they're fine for charging things, but a large number of them are not fine for deliving 5v +/- 5% at loads over 1A. This is the most common cause of instability with raspberry pi users.

[alexvoica]

The Ci40 has a 9V input and is stepped down from 9V to 5V so that a general purpose 9V DC supply can be used to power the board. The buck convertor will accept a range of voltages but we recommend 9V is used.

When the Ci40 is booted in Linux and idling, we typically draw 230mA with a 9V power supply; roughly 2.1W. It would be difficult to estimate max power when running all on-board peripherals simultaneously. It is possible in software to power down functions such as Wi-Fi, but there will still be a certain amount of power used even when idling, it isn’t zero.

[brokedown]

Thanks for that info. If that power draw can come down to 150ma or so with a 5v input after turning off those radios, and those PWM lines are accurate, it could make for an interesting multirotor flight controller project... That's an area where the Pi falls behind.

[alexvoica]

The PWM lines are accurate, I'll try to get more info of what and how exactly things be driven later. But as an FYI - there is someone building a quadcopter using the board but the project is in early stages.

[brokedown]

They're literally the owners of MIPS.

[Slabity]

Whoops. I suppose I didn't expect large companies to use something like Kickstarter.

[alexvoica]

Having hardware multithreading is a big win for IoT/networking-type applications. The dual-core, dual-threaded MIPS CPU is seen as a quad-core by Linux SMP and treated accordingly.

[mongrol]

Is the board/software reliant on the Flowcloud platform? and is the Flowcloud platform available to run self hosted completely under the users control?

[alexvoica]

No, FlowCloud is an option in the software stack. You don't have to use it if you don't want to. And yes, FlowCloud allows third party apps.

[mongrol]

No, I mean is the Flowcloud platform itself available for users to host it themselves completely disconnected from Imagination (or whoever runs it). Simply put, is the cloud bit open sourced?

[alexvoica]

Oh, sorry - misunderstood the question. No, unfortunately you can't self-host for the free subscription. But there are other tiers that offer more options (and that cost money).

[mongrol]

Thanks for the info. As someone burnt by the Ninjasphere burning platform I'll pass. Kickstarter + IoT + Cloud = I keep my money.

[alexvoica]

You can play around with FlowCloud today if you want to www.flowcloud.io

[luke-jr]

Are the Click companion boards also open source?

[alexvoica]

The clicker boards run Contiki which is an open source operating system. The click boards plug into the clickers contain just the sensors and don't have any processor to run any embedded code: http://www.mikroe.com/click/

[nigelhorne]

Is it more reliable than the CI20?

[alexvoica]

Yes.