Digi ConnectCore 8X Quick user guide

ConnectCore 8X

System-on-module

Hardware Reference Manual

ConnectCore® 8X System-on-Module Hardware Reference Manual 2

Revision history—90002295

Revision Date Description

4P March 2020 Added North American certifications; added power consumption section;

updated frequency value, variants information, and some graphics;

updated MCA to trademarked name.

5P May 2020 Added operating temperature statement.

A August

2020

Added Canada, Europe, and Japan certifications; FCC notices; RF table;

and antenna port section.

B December

2020

Added ConnectCore 8X Dual SOM features; added power rails distribution

note; modified power interfaces; replaced electrical characteristics table;

added pin name for LGA pad B6; removed incorrect image from external

voltage reference section; added new Keypad and LEDcontroller

chapters to MCA section; removed KS3 power consumption use case;

revised Transmit power section.

C June 2021 Added MTBF section; expanded Keypad and LEDcontroller sections;

added mechanical specifications reference; designated pads C3 and C27

as reserved; updated AH13; added RTC mode power consumption use

case; fix error in Japan radio marking label; combined pinout tables;

clarified power domains; comment pad F2.

Trademarks and copyright

Digi, Digi International, and the Digi logo are trademarks or registered trademarks in the United States

and other countries worldwide. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of

their respective owners.

Disclaimers

Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a

commitment on the part of Digi International. Digi provides this document “as is,” without warranty of

any kind, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of fitness or

merchantability for a particular purpose. Digi may make improvements and/or changes in this manual

or in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this manual at any time.

Warranty

To view product warranty information, go to the following website:

www.digi.com/howtobuy/terms

Customer support

Gather support information: Before contacting Digi technical support for help, gather the following

information:

Product name and model

ConnectCore® 8X System-on-Module Hardware Reference Manual 3

Product serial number (s)

Firmware version

Operating system/browser (if applicable)

Logs (from time of reported issue)

Trace (if possible)

Description of issue

Steps to reproduce

Contact Digi technical support: Digi offers multiple technical support plans and service packages.

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Include the document title and part number (ConnectCore® 8X System-on-Module Hardware

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Contents

About the ConnectCore® 8X

Features and functionality 6

Module variants 9

Block diagrams 9

ConnectCore 8X module 10

NXP i.MX 8X application processor 11

SOM revisions 11

Identify the SOC revision of your SOM 11

The ConnectCore 8X System-on-module

Power interfaces 13

Reference power architecture scheme 13

System-on-module power rails distribution 14

Electrical characteristics 17

System power-up sequence 19

RTC power and coin cell charger 19

Bootstrap 20

Wireless interfaces 21

WLAN IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 21

Bluetooth 28

PCI Express 28

Antenna ports 30

CryptoAuthentication device 31

The Digi Microcontroller Assist™ hardware 31

Reset control 32

MCA IOs 33

Watchdog 36

Real-time clock 36

Pulse width modulation 36

Keypad 37

LED controller 38

Power management 38

MCA firmware update 41

IOMUX

Module pinout 43

External signals and pin multiplexing 44

Castellated pad signals and multiplexing 44

ConnectCore® 8X System-on-Module Hardware Reference Manual 4

ConnectCore® 8X System-on-Module Hardware Reference Manual 5

LGA signals and multiplexing 61

Module specifications

Power consumption 98

Power consumption use cases 98

Complex power consumption use cases 98

Results 99

Environmental specifications 100

Mechanical specifications 100

MTBF 100

Assembly instructions

Moisture sensitivity and shelf life 103

Mounting 103

Coplanarity 103

Solder paste print 103

Stencil 103

SMT pick and place 104

SMT process parameter reference 104

Reflow profile 104

Regulatory information and certifications

United States FCC 107

Labeling requirements 107

Maximum power and frequency specifications (FCC) 107

FCC notices 108

FCC-approved antennas 108

RF exposure 110

Operating frequency 111

Europe 111

CE mark 111

OEM labeling requirements 111

CE labeling requirements 111

Declarations of Conformity 112

Approved antennas 112

Canada (IC) 113

Canadian Notice 113

Labeling requirements 113

Transmitters with detachable antennas 114

RF exposure 114

Approved antennas 115

Japan 115

Approval Label (MIC Marking) 115

About the ConnectCore® 8X Features and functionality

ConnectCore® 8X System-on-Module Hardware Reference Manual 6

About the ConnectCore® 8X

The ConnectCore 8X is a secure and extremely cost-effective connected System-on-Module platform.

Its innovative Digi SMTplus™ (patent-pending) surface mount form factor allows you to choose

simplified design integration leveraging proven and easy-to-use edge-castellated SMT technology, or a

versatile LGA option for ultimate design flexibility with access to virtually all interfaces.

Built on the NXP i.MX 8X application processor, the module is the intelligent communication engine

for today’s secure connected devices. It integrates dual-Ethernet and pre-certified dual-band Wi-Fi

(802.11a/b/g/n/ac) with dual mode Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity.

Features and functionality

The ConnectCore 8X System-on-module is based on the i.MX 8X processor from NXP. This processor

offers a number of interfaces, some of them multiplexed and not available simultaneously. The

module has the following features:

ni.MX 8X dual/quad Arm Cortex-A35 and single Cortex-M4F cores:

lCortex-A35 cores operate up to 1.0 GHz and support Arm virtualization extensions.

lCortex-M4F core operates up to 266 MHz.

Note The ConnectCore 8X Dual SOM does not support Cortex-M4F core.

lAArch64 for 64-bit support.

lAArch32 for backward compatibility with Armv7.

nSystem Control Unit (SCU):

lPower control, clocks, and reset.

lBoot ROMs.

lPMIC interface.

lResource Domain Controller.

nGraphics Processing Unit (GPU):

l4x Vec4 shaders with 16 execution units.

Note The ConnectCore 8X Dual SOM only supports 2x shaders running at 250 MHz.

lSupports OpenGL 3.0, 2.0; OpenGL EX 3.1, 3.0, 2.0 and 1.1: OpenCL 1.2 FP and 1.1; OpenVG

1.1; and Vulkan.

lHigh-performance 2D Blit Engine.

nVideo Processing Unit (VPU):

lH.265 decode (4Kp30).

lH.264 decode (1080p60).

lVP6/VP8 decode (1080p60).

lMPEG-2 decode (1080p60).

About the ConnectCore® 8X Features and functionality

ConnectCore® 8X System-on-Module Hardware Reference Manual 7

lMPEG4, H263, Sorenson Spark decode (1080p).

lRealVideo decode (1080p).

lJPEG dec (64Kx64K image size).

lH.264 encode (1080p30).

Note The ConnectCore 8X Dual SOM doesn’t support a VPU.

nUp to 4 GB, 32-bit LPDDR4-1200 memory (16-bit LPDDR4-1200 for ConnectCore 8X Dual SOMs).

n16 GB, 8-bit eMMC memory. Higher density available depending on product variant.

nNXP PF8100 Power Management IC (PMIC):

l7x DC/DC buck converters.

l4x LDO regulators.

lOTP (one-time-programmable) memory.

lCoin cell charger.

nCryptoAuthentication device.

nSecurity accelerators:

lEnhanced High Assurance Boot (HAB) secure and encrypted boot.

lRandom Number Generator with a high-quality entropy source generator and NIST

certifiable HMAC-based DRBG.

lRSA up to 4096, Elliptic Curve up to 1023.

lAES-128/192/256, DES, 3DES, ARC4, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-224/256/384/512.

lDedicated Security Controller for Flashless SHE and HSM support, Trustzone, RTIC.

lBuilt-in ECDSA/DSA protocol support.

l10x tamper pins: up to 5 active or 10 passive.

lVoltage and temperature tamper detection to help prevent against side-channel style

attacks.

l64 kB Secure RAM (can be erased via tamper detection).

n2x2 MIMO IEEE802.11 a/b/g/n/ac.

nBluetooth 5.0.

nDebug interfaces:

lSystem JTAG controller.

lSingle Wired Debug (SWD) interface for the MCA.

ni.MX 8X interfaces:

Note The ConnectCore 8X Dual SOM doesn’t support USBOTG 3.0, but has 2x USBOTG 2.0

ports with PHY.

The ConnectCore 8X Dual SOM doesn’t support 2xGb Ethernet with AVB, but has 1x Gb

Ethernet and 1x10/100M Ethernet interface.

lPCIe 3.0 with L1 substate support. In wireless modules, this interface is used by the

Wireless MAC and is not available for general purposes.

About the ConnectCore® 8X Features and functionality

ConnectCore® 8X System-on-Module Hardware Reference Manual 8

l1x USBOTG 3.0 with PHY - USB 3.0 can be used as USB 2.0.

l1x USBOTG 2.0 (with PHY).

l2x Gb Ethernet with AVB.

l3x CAN/CAN-FD.

lMedia Local Bus (MLB25/50).

l6x UARTs:

o4x UARTs, three of which support hardware flow control. (One of the UARTs with

hardware flow control is used by the Bluetooth and is not available for general purposes

in wireless variants.)

o1x UART tightly coupled with Cortex-M4F cores.

o1x SCU (not available for general use).

l10x I2C. Note that I2C ports associated with a specific PHY (e.g. MIPI DSI) can be used

generally but require the PHY to be powered on even if the PHY itself is not used:

o4x I2C: High Speed, DMA support. One of them (I2C0) is used internally in the SOM and is

not available for general purposes.

o4x I2C: Low Speed, no DMA support.

o1x I2C: PMIC control (dedicated).

o1x I2C: Cortex M4F (dedicated).

l4x SAI:

oSAI0 and SAI1 are transmit/receive.

oSAI2 and SAI3 are receive-only.

l2x Quad SPI or 1x Octal SPI (FlexSPI).

l1x SD 3.0 card interface.

lDisplays:

o2x MIPI-DSI/LDVS. For LVDS, VESA and JEIDA standards supported.

oThe ConnectCore 8X Dual SOM only supports 1x MIPI-DSI/LVDS interface.

o1x 24-bit parallel display up to WVGA.

lCameras:

o1x MIPI-CSI camera with 4 lanes.

o1x 8-bit parallel CSI.

l1x Enhanced Serial Audio Interface (ESAI).

l2x ASRC (Asynchronous Sample Rate Converter).

l1x SPDIF.

lMPEG-2 Transport Stream.

l1x 12-bit, 6 channel ADC converter.

l3.3 V/1.8 V GPIO.

l4x PWM channels.

l1x 4x4 KPP (Key Pad Port).

l1x MQS (Medium Quality Sound).

l4x SPI.

About the ConnectCore® 8X Module variants

ConnectCore® 8X System-on-Module Hardware Reference Manual 9

nArm Cortex-M0+ Digi Microcontroller AssistTM (MCA) subsystem:

lCortex-M0+ core operates up to 48MHz.

lPower and reset control.

lReal time clock (RTC).

l19 general purpose IOs (GPIOs), all IRQ capable with debouncing configuration.

l9 analog to digital converters (ADCs), all with comparator capabilities.

lWatchdog.

lTamper detection, both digital and analog.

l8 bytes of non volatile storage (NVRAM).

l3 UARTs, with optional hardware handshake.

l10 pulse width modulators (PWMs).

Module variants

See the ConnectCore 8X product page for information on available variants.

Block diagrams

The following figures show block diagrams of the ConnectCore 8X module and of the NXP i.MX 8X

application processor.

About the ConnectCore® 8X Block diagrams

ConnectCore® 8X System-on-Module Hardware Reference Manual 10

ConnectCore 8X module

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