ZLG Zhiyuan Electronics has released the new MD9340-T series industrial control core board. This article uses the MD9340-T core board as an example to test the performance of its processor, Ethernet, and CANFD.
Introduction
MD9340-T Core Board is a high-performance embedded core board developed by our company based on the SemiDrive D series processor. The D9340 processor is an industrial-grade application chip that integrates four Arm® Cortex-A55 high-performance processors and two Arm® Cortex-R5 real-time processors, including a 3D GPU, H.264 video codec, etc.; the MD9340-T core board is equipped with DDR4, eMMC, QSPI_FLASH, and hardware watchdog circuits.
The MD9340-T core board provides a rich set of peripheral interfaces through four board-to-board connectors, including 2 Gigabit Ethernet, 2 LVDS, 1 MIPI_CSI, 1 MIPI_DSI, 1 8-bit parallel CSI, 4 Single I2S, 2 Multi I2S, 2 USB3.0, 2 PCIe3.0, 2 SD3.0/SDIO, 4 CANFD, 8 SPI, 16 UART, 12 I2C, 4 ADC, and several PWM, GPIO; it can meet the human-computer interaction, rich graphics, and high response requirements of digital signage, high-end instruments, medical devices, industrial and automotive in-vehicle entertainment systems.
The multiple cores on the MD9340-T core board are divided into AP1 domain, Safety domain, and Security domain based on functional domains. The AP1 domain typically runs a Linux system and is commonly used for running complex applications with relatively low real-time requirements; the Safety and Security domains run a FreeRTOS system, commonly used for running applications with higher real-time requirements, with hardware and software independence between each domain, ensuring real-time performance and functional safety. The division of functional domains is shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Division of Functional Domains of the MD9340-T Core Board
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Runs SafetyOS, actually runs FreeRTOS, can run programs with high real-time requirements
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Runs Security system, actually runs FreeRTOS, can run programs with high real-time requirements
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Runs Linux system, runs traditional Linux programs
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Processor Performance
The AP1 domain of the MD9340-T core board includes 4 Cortex-A55 cores, with a default maximum frequency of 1.6GHz; it can also run the processor at 2.0GHz to improve performance, but this will also increase power consumption and is suitable for application scenarios with stringent CPU performance requirements. Below, the Coremark application program is used to specify 4 cores for scoring tests. The scoring results at a 1.6GHz frequency are shown in Figure 1, and the scoring results at a 2.0GHz frequency are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1 Coremark Software Test Results at 1.6GHz
Figure 2 Coremark Software Test Results at 2.0GHz
As can be seen, the 4-core Coremark score at 1.6GHz is 24312, and at 2.0GHz the score is 30349. Compared with most processors on the market, it has a significant performance advantage.
Ethernet
The MD9340-T core board is equipped with dual Gigabit Ethernet, with a combined speed of up to 900+940Mbit/s, suitable for most applications requiring dual Gigabit Ethernet. The MD9340-T core board’s two Gigabit ports are connected to different devices, and the iperf3 command is used to test the two ports, with results shown in Figures 3 and 4.
Figure 3 ETH0 Port Test Results
Figure 4 ETH1 Port Test Results
As can be seen, the dual Gigabit on the MD9340-T core board meets most Gigabit usage scenarios, and the Ethernet also supports TSN (Time-Sensitive Networking) functionality. Using the ptp4l tool to test the Ethernet port of the MD9340-T core board, the test results are shown in Figure 5, which shows that the TSN time synchronization performance parameters of the MD9340-T core board have a stable single-hop delay of less than 600ns, jitter of less than 20ns, and time synchronization accuracy of 20ns.
Figure 5 ptp4l Test Results
CANFD
The MD9340-T core board is equipped with 4 CANFD ports. The interface is connected to a professional CANFD network card, setting the arbitration domain baud rate to 1Mbps (75%) and the data domain baud rate to 5Mbps (75%). Testing the CANFD interface yields the maximum non-loss frame rate at different data lengths, with results shown in Table 2.
Table 2 CANFD Test Results
Other Interfaces
The MD9340-T core board is also equipped with other rich peripheral interfaces. Due to space limitations, only some interface performance data is listed here, which can be used to determine whether the corresponding interface meets the application scenario requirements based on actual application scenarios. The performance is shown in Table 3.
Table 3 Other Interfaces
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Supports up to 5Gbps under 3.0
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Supports Gen1, Gen2, Gen3 rates
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Supports SD, HS, SDR12, SDR25, SDR50, SDR104 rates
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Supports 4-wire, 8-wire modes, etc.
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Supports up to 2560×1440 @60Hz
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Single channel supports up to 1920×1080@60Hz
Dual channel supports up to 2560×1440@60Hz
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Technical Communication Group
Long press to identify the QR code below to join the “Industrial Control Board/Core Board Technical Communication Group” to exchange with like-minded friends, and there are professional technicians to answer your questions. If you have any questions, you can consult Xiaozhi WeChat：zlgmcu-888.
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