Introducing the G80 System on Chip!

Press Announcements
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The USBizi SoC (System on Chip) by GHI Electronics was the very first single chip running NETMF (.NET Micro Framework), released in 2008. The chip had some limitations around memory but it was the heart and soul of many products around the world. It was also the heart of the FEZ Panda II, one of the most popular products from GHI Electronics! Unfortunately, the USBizi SoC ran NETMF 4.1 and the severely limited resources prevented us from upgrading to newer NETMF releases. There were not any good microcontroller options so we decided to wait for the ultimate microcontroller upgrade. Finally, the microcontroller we have been waiting for was announced and we can now announce the next generation of NETMF chipsets: the G80 SoC!

The G80 SoC is a 100 pin chipset that is absolutely packed with features. This is what a single chip running NETMF can do:

• 180Mhz, Cortex-M4
• 1MB of Flash, 256kB available for applications
• 256kB of RAM, 152kB available for applications
• Full and latest NETMF support through Visual Studio
• USB and Serial debugging
• Networking (more on this below)
• Graphics with BMP decoder and internal native SPI display support
• USB Host with mass storage support
• 4Bit SD/MMC Memory card interface
• 4x UART
• 2x SPI
• I2C
• 2x CAN
• One Wire
• 26x PWM
• 16x Analog inputs (12 bit)
• 2x Analog outputs (12 bit)
• TCP/IP Stack (.NET sockets)
• PPP
• USB Host
• File System (SD and USB Sticks)
• Operational 1.7V to 3.6V
• 112mA fully active, 40mA idle, 1.8mA deep sleep, 7uA off state

For speedy development and evaluation, we will be offering the G80 Development Board, a highly recommended product for anyone interested in taking the G80 SoC for a test drive.

We have created an early adopter program for those wanting to try the G80 SoC and jumping out of their chairs with anticipation! Please contact us directly with as many specific details about your project as possible. Public availability is expected by mid 2015. The current SDK already supports the G80 SoC.

For the Ethernet support, the G80 SoC supports networking through the ENC28J60 Ethernet controller. Using the internal MAC is possible in the future if a serious inquiry is made for a reasonable commercial need. So why not just support the internal MAC? Using the internal MAC will cost the same as using ENC28J60, as it requires adding a PHY. There will be a speed increase when using internal, but it is not drastically different. Finally, while ENC28J60 uses 3 component pins and 3 SPI pins that can be shared, using the PHY requires about 17 pins, causing the loss of 12 analog and 8 PWM pins, and a SPI, CAN, and COM port.

The current internal version of the G80 Development Board does not include an Ethernet connection yet. It is up to the community and the customers to decide which Ethernet goes on the G80 Development Board: the ENC28J60 controller or an Ethernet PHY. Please note that any ENC28J60 module, such as GHI Electronics’ Ethernet ENC28 can be easily wired to the development board.

G80 SoC: https://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/501
G80 Development Board: https://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/483
Ethernet ENC28 Module: https://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/333
*** Edit *** G80 SoC User Manual: https://www.ghielectronics.com/downloads/NETMF/G80/G80_User_Manual.pdf

But wait, we have more exciting news! We are releasing the binaries for the USBizi100 and the USBizi144 SoCs. You are free to use these commercially and non-commercially. This means we are no longer offering the the USBizi family for sale. Customers can order the LPC2387FBD100 and LPC2388FBD144 from electronics stores, like Mouser, and flash them with the binaries provided. The same applies for all products based on USBizi, such as the FEZ Domino, the FEZ Panda I and the FEZ Panda II. These can be manufactured anywhere with the provided design files. Of course, the files are provided as is with no warranty, guarantee or support.

We will continue accepting special orders for USBizi (types 100 and 144) until the beginning of the year 2016.

USBizi binary files: https://www.ghielectronics.com/downloads/NETMF/USBizi/

11 Likes
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Certainly the most exciting announcement (for me) in recent times! An excellent follow-up to the excellent USBizi!

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@ godefroi - Should I expect to see your email for the early adopter program? ;D

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@ Gary - I would think the USBZI news deserves a separate announcement. :clap:

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@ Mike - It will, I just have to wrap up a few other things but we wanted to mention it here since the two topics are related.

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Nice announce !

But may I ask why you have chosen the VG version instead of VI ?
And no, I am not asking because we are using the VI version on our board :hand: I though that the price difference between them is not that high for the double amount of flash and 50% more ram.

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Wow USBizi lives forever :slight_smile:

Hooray for G80!

Questions

1.what is the licensing for G80 ? same as Cerb ?
2.why was RLP dropped on G80?
3.Can USBizi source be contributed to the core ? - You can still protect your IP by stubbing out the non core features.

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This makes my day. :slight_smile:

However, I think something is wrong with the website… When I view the specs for the dev board, I see this. When I mouse over the problem areas then stuff jumps around and it changes. :frowning:

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@ ianlee74 - it is a glitch with the website and has to do with the “mouseover” events. I just haven’t told @ Josh about it yet.

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  1. the same as USBizi, you can use commercially or non-commercially, it’s part of the package.
  2. I will have to get back you.
  3. We have not made that decision yet, for the foreseeable future it will just be access to the binaries.
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I will have to get back to you on that one.

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Josh already knows and it’s been fixed ;D

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I’m sorry to hear that. I was trying to figure out what awesomeness I could demo using 1612 bit resolution analog inputs! :wink:

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Only the flash is different (according to the datasheet :slight_smile: ) and there is enough flash for all of the goodies with enough leftover for the user.

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  1. G80 is licensed like G120, for commercial and non commercial use. No additional licensing is required.
  2. RLP is actually in the firmware but is disabled. We haven’t decided yet on it’s availability.
  3. The latest porting kit already includes the LPC chip.
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I also just remembered that we already provided an open source version of the firmware years ago. The community didn’t seem interested and we never continued working on it.

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Can I nudge you towards supporting RLP please.

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@ hagster - an Order for 1000 chips would be a good nudge ::slight_smile:

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20 would be a big number in my game.

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@ Gus - I have a Panda I running the open source one :). Still on serial transport. Would love to have USB transport instead :).