Makerdiary Puts NXP's i.MX RT1011 Crossover Microcontroller on a Sub-$15 Gumstick-Style Dev Board
Supported by CircuitPython and the Zephyr RTOS, this low-cost breadboard-friendly dev board packs a 500MHz chip.
Chinese hardware company Makerdiary has launched a compact breadboard-friendly development board built on the NXP Semiconductors i.MX RT1011 "crossover" microcontroller unit: the iMX RT1011 Nano Kit, priced at under $15.
"The iMX RT1011 Nano Kit [is] a small and high-performing prototyping kit designed around NXP's i.MX RT1011 Crossover MCU [Microcontroller Unit]," Makerdiary explains of its latest launch, "based on the Arm Cortex-M7 core, which operates at speeds up to 500MHz to provide high CPU performance and best real-time response. [The] iMX RT1011 Nano Kit comes in the same form factor we first introduced in our [Nordic Semiconductor] nRF52840 Connect Kit."
That form-factor is a breadboard-friendly gumstick, exposing 33 of the microcontroller's general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins along both sides on castellated pin headers also suitable for surface mounting — with 15 of the pins configurable as analog inputs. There's a USB Type-C connector at one end for data and power, while the NXP i.MX RT1011 microcontroller itself is joined by a generous 16MB quad-SPI flash package supporting execute-in-place (XIP).
The microcontroller itself includes the aforementioned Arm Cortex-M7 core running at up to 500MHz along with 128kB of static RAM (SRAM) and a 64kB boot ROM — which arrives running a U2F booloader, making it easier to flash new firmware over USB. The chip includes UART, SPI, I2C, and SAI peripherals along with USB support, and there's a Serial Wire Debug (SWD) bus at the edge. For software, Makerdiary promises full Zephyr RTOS (Real-Time Operating System) and CircuitPython support.
More information on the iMX RT1011 Nano Kit is available on the Makerdiary wiki; the device is available to order now at $14.90 from Makerdiary direct or via the company's official Tindie store.