Estone Technology Unveils i.MX 8M-Equipped EMB-2238 SBC with DSP Audio Module

Estone Technology has unveiled its new i.MX 8M-based EMB-2238 Pico-ITX board for audio and voice control applications through a DSP audio hub and DAC.

“The EMB-2238 embedded board takes advantage of the latest NXP i.MX8M application processors with scalable computing platforms, best in class multimedia performance, multiple high-speed interfaces and 15 years long life cycle support.”

On the hardware end, the EMB-2238 packs an i.MX 8M SoC with 4X Arm Cortex-A53 cores, a single Cortex-M4 core, Vivante GC7000L/GC7000LVX GPUs, up to 4Gb of LPDDR4 RAM, and 8Gb of iNAND Flash. Audio includes dual digital MEMS microphone header via CS47L24 with dual DSP, support multi-mic noise suppression, acoustic echo cancellation (AEC), omnidirectional spatial, 8-channel digital audio/DMIC inputs (SAI5), and 40-pin FPC extension header with 8X digital audio input and output.

Additional features include a 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet with POE option, optional second 10/100/1000 Mbps PCIe GbE via PCIe add-on card, and a WiFi/Bluetooth USB module (802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth v4.0). It’s also equipped with 2X USB 2.0 ports, 2X USB 2.0 headers, and USB Type C 3.0 OTG, as well as an RS-232/RS-485 terminal block and RS-232 header.

Estone Technology is offering several expansion boards to accompany the EMB-2238 development board as well, such as a 40-pin Digital Audio FPC expansion board for increased audio options, a GbE module for an additional Ethernet port, PoE module, and an additional 40-pin I/O expansion board.

For software, the board can take advantage of Linux (kernel version 4.9, Qt and Wayland), Amazon AVS (Alexa Voice Service) Device SDK, Sensory TruelyHandsfree Wake Word Engine, and Android 8.1. It also supports Snips’ AI voice control assistant for offline operation.

There’s no word yet on pricing or launch date.