Olimex Launches Its Fastest MicroPython Development Board Yet, the 500MHz RT1010-Py
Built around NXP Semiconductors' MIMXRT1011DAE5A, this high-performance MicroPython board packs in the features.
Bulgarian open source hardware specialist Olimex has launched what founder Tsvetan Usunov calls the company's "fastest board running MicroPython," the RT1010-Py — based on an Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller core running at 500MHz.
"RT1010-Py is our fastest board running MicroPython with Cortex-M7 at 500MHz," Usunov writes in support of the company's latest design, "i.e. about 4 times faster than RP2040-PICO" — the latter referring to an earlier board design which uses Raspberry Pi's popular and low-cost RP2040 microcontroller with its two Arm Cortex-M0+ cores running at a stock 133MHz.
The compact breadboard-friendly development board is based on the NXP Semiconductors MIMXRT1011DAE5A "crossover" microcontroller unit, with a single Arm Cortex-M7 core running at 500MHz and 128kB of on-chip static RAM (SRAM). To this, Usunov has added 2MB of off-chip SPI flash, a real-time clock with crystal, a microSD slot for storage, physical boot-select and reset buttons, and a USB 2.0 On-The-Go (OTG) connector — allowing the device to act as a USB Host as well as to provide power and data connectivity.
All told, the development board features two hardware UART buses, two SPIs, two I2Cs, and one I2S bus, four pulse-width modulation (PWM) units with complementary outputs for push-pull drivers, and 15 digital and five analog-input general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins brought out to 0.1" pin headers on either side — plus a UEXT connector for solderless connectivity to external hardware.
For those looking for something even more convenient than breadboard use, Usunov has also designed a carrier board, the RT1010Py-DevKit, which accepts a RT1010-Py board and provides a USB Type-C power connector, two 250VAC 10A relays with screw terminals connections, two UEXT connectors, status LEDs, power and user-addressable buttons, and two 0.1" headers breaking out all the board's GPIO pins.
The RT1010-Py is now available on the Olimex store at €15 with the carrier board priced at €10 (around $16 and $11 respectively). Usunov promises "complete MicroPython support, with software and hardware I2Cs and SPI2, 1-Wire, buttons, etc."
