Release Notes v1.0.0

Introduction

Astra™ is the new Synaptics’ compute platform designed for the IoT market. It features a series of high-performance, AI-native, multi-modal SoCs optimized for consumer, enterprise, and industrial IoT workloads. These SoCs come equipped with hardware accelerators for edge inferencing, security, graphics, vision, and audio, and offer out-of-box functionality with Synaptics connectivity.

Astra (v1.0.0) GA Release is a unified software development kit supporting the SL-Series of MPUs.

The high-level components included in this SDK are described below:

  • Upstream Linux Kernel and device tree.

  • Low-level Linux device drivers (U-BOOT) for peripheral devices.

  • Open source code for Multimedia and VOIP pipelines.

  • Synaptics proprietary security approach.

  • Related SDK Documents

All of these items can be found through Synaptics’ and third parties open source Git repositories on GitHub.

Yocto SDK

The Yocto Project is an open-source collaboration project that provides templates, tools and methods for custom Linux-based systems for embedded and IoT products. By leveraging the power of the open-source development community, Synaptics hopes to provide its customers with a wider array of compatible software packages to build their products faster, with more features, while at the same time having the stability and support of a large open-source development project. Additionally, the SDK enables customers who already use a Yocto-based development environment to migrate to Synaptics class-leading silicon solutions for improved performance and additional functionality. The Yocto Project offers a vast number of software packages that provide many options.

Reference Board Supported Scope

Below table lists the supported ASTRA reference board (Machina) and supported scope.

SOC / Reference Board

Test Validation and Support Scope

SL1680 Core board + IO board

GA

SL1640 Core board + IO board

GA

SL1620 Core board + IO board

GA

License

Using the Astra Software Developer Kit and BSP requires complying with the ASTRA EMBEDDED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT KIT LICENSE AGREEMENT –.

Synaptics Proprietary TAs

The following Trusted Applications (TAs) are Synaptics proprietary TAs which run in the OP-TEE Trusted Execution Environment. They are provided in binary format. Synaptics will migrate them into REE and open source the code to the public in a near future releases.

Package

Notes

MIPI-DSI

TA

SL1620

Fastlogo

TA

SL1680 / SL1640

SyNAP

TA

SL1680 / SL1640 / SL1620

DHUB

TA

SL1680 / SL1640

Vmeta

TA

SL1680 / SL1640 / SL1620

Where to get the SDK from GitHub

Images and Toolchains

https://github.com/synaptics-astra/sdk/releases/

SDK

https://github.com/synaptics-astra/sdk/tree/v1.0.0

Documentation

Getting Started

Astra Machina Eval Platform

Astra Yocto Linux Developer Guide

Astra Yocto Linux User Guide

For other collaterals please refer to the Synaptics Customer Portal.

New Features

Feature

SoC

Description

OP-TEE

SL1620, SL1640, and SL1680

All SoCs now use OP-TEE as their TrustZone operating environment.

V4L2 ISP Support

SL1680

Added V4L2 support for MIPI-CSI camera modules and the ISP. This feature includes 4K input and output and downscaling inputs.

initramfs

SL1620, SL1640, and SL1680

All SoCs now boot the Linux kernel from an initramfs.

U-Boot Improvements

SL1620, SL1640, and SL1680

U-Boot added support for OP-TEE, flashing sparse images to avoid a limitation with large image files.

SD Card Boot

SL1640 and SL1680

Booting from SD Cards is now fully supported.

Demo Applications

SL1640 and SL1680

New demo applications where added to demonstrate video playback and AI use cases.

Gstreamer Audio Mixing

SL1620, SL1640, and SL1680

Added support for audio mixing ti gstreamer.

Gstreamer MultiView

SL1680

Support displaying video and camera streams.

Wayland Overlay Plane

SL1620, SL1640, and SL1680

Add Wayland Overlay Plane to all SoCs.

Gstreamer MultiView AI

SL1680

Support AI inferencing on multiple streams. Including Video and Camera.

New Gstreamer SyNAP Plugins

SL1620, SL1640, and SL1680

Add new SyNAP plugins for Gstreamer which and preprocessing support and overlay support.

EDID Parsing

SL1640 and SL1680

Add EDID parsing for SL1640 and SL1680

SoC Core Feature Summary

This section summarizes the hardware features of Astra Machina SoCs.

Feature

SoC

2D and 3D Graphics with GPU

SL1620, SL1640, and SL1680

DRM-KMS

SL1620, SL1640, and SL1680

Multi-standard Video Encoding/Decoding

SL1640 and SL1680

Cortex-M core boot

SL1620, SL1640, and SL1680

HIFI4 DSP

SL1640

NPU

SL1640 and SL1680

Security for CPU, BOOT, and DRM engine

SL1620, SL1640, and SL1680

MIPI CSI & ISP

SL1680

Specific Modules and Features

Feature Modules

Feature Items

SL1620

SL1640

SL1680

Comment

GST Audio Pipeline

GST Audio Pipeline

Y

Y

Y

BT A2DP Audio

N/A

Y

Y

PDM MIC Support

Y

N/A

N/A

SW Decoding Capability

Y

Y

Y

  • Supported formats: AAC, MP2, MP3, Vobis, AC3, OPUS

File Playback

Y

Y

Y

  • Supported formats: TS, MP3, MP4, Webm

GST Sample Rate Conversion & Mixing

Y

Y

Y

  • Limitation on SL1620 audio mixing. Sample Rate conversion is fine.

GST Video Pipeline

Multi View

N/A

N/A

Y

  • MultiView: Camera + Video OR multi Video

  • Dual display means the output simultaneously

  • Dual display for SL1680 means HDMI-TX + MIPI-DSI

  • Dual display for SL1620 means MIPI-DSI + RGB

Video Decode with 2K Wayland Sink

Y

Y

Y

FFMPEG Decode

Y

Y

Y

V4L2 Decode

N/A

Y

Y

Dual Display

Y

N/A

Y

Video Decode with QT Applications

Y

Y

Y

GST AI

Pose Estimation (with USB Camera)

Y

Y

Y

Single View AI use case

Y

Y

Y

Multi View AI user case - with multiple USB cameras

N/A

N/A

Y

  • SL680 supports multi-view AI case

  • SL1640/1620 only supports single view AI case

Multi View AI user case - with USB Camera + Video

N/A

N/A

Y

  • SL680 supports multi-view AI case

  • SL1640/1620 only supports single view AI case

SyNAP

Y

Y

Y

  • supports SyNAP pre-process and sink

DRM-KMS

Fastlogo with OP-TEE

N/A

Y

Y

Fastlogo for SL1680/SL1640

EDID parsing

N/A

Y

Y

MIPI, HDMI on Astra Machina boards

Y

Y

Y

  • No HDMI for SL1620

  • SL1640 supports either HDMI or MIPI output.

    Default is HDMI, can be changes to MIPI via DTS

V4L2 ISP

Single Sensor V4L2 ISP Driver

N/A

N/A

Y

  • ISP feature is only for SL1680

  • Known limitation of Downscaling of inputs: YUV420

    SP 10bit and RGB 888

Support for 4K input and output

N/A

N/A

Y

Support for downscaling of the inputs

N/A

N/A

Y

U-Boot

General peripherals support

Y

Y

Y

  • Supports USB2.0 devices

  • Supports USB3.0 host

  • Supports Ethernet

  • Supports SPI Flash

Boot mode: from eMMC

Y

Y

Y

Boot mode: from SD-CARD

Y

Y

Y

Image Upgrade

Y

Y

Y

  • Supports eMMC image upgrade with USB U-Boot,

    SPI U-Boot and SU-Boot

  • Supports SD card image upgrade with SPI U-Boot and

    SU-Boot

  • USB U-Boot: image via TFTP and USB target

    (connected to PC)

  • SPI U-Boot: image via TFTP and USB Host

    (connected to USB Disk)

  • SU-Boot: image via TFTP and USB Host

    (connected to USB Disk)

  • Supports sparse image slices (Yocto will generate

    sparse image automatically).

OP-TEE Support

Y

Y

Y

OP-TEE

OP-TEE enabled

Y

Y

Y

WIFI

WIFI 6 & WIFI 6E

Y

Y

Y

wpa_supplicant 2.10

Bluetooth

Supported

Y

Y

Y

General Modules, Peripherals, and Interfaces Supported

General

Kernel

Kernel Version 5.15.140

Yocto

Kirkstone: 4.0.9

U-Boot

SPI U-Boot version: v1.0.0

USB Tool

version: 1.0

OP-TEE

OP-TEE version: 4.0.0

Gstreamer (GST)

GST version: 1.22.8

Memory

Memory - DDR

SL1620: (16bit or 32bit 2133 Mbps) DDR3 / DDR4 → 1G/2G/4G

SL1640: (32bit 3200 Mbps) DDR4 → 2G/4G

SL1680: (64bit or 32bit 3733 Mbps) LPDDR4 → 2G/4G

Memory - eMMC

General Peripherals

Interrupt

GIC

Clock

Controls the system frequency and clock tree distribution

Timer

GPIO

GPIO is initialized in earlier phase according to hardware design

SDMA

Conforms to the DMA engine framework

UART

USB 2.0 (OTG)

USB 3.0 (Host)

I2C

SPI

Network

Ethernet

SL1620: 10 / 100 Mbps

SL1640: 10 / 100 Mbps

SL1680: 10 /100 / 1000 Mbps

Wireless Connectivity

Supports WIFI & BT

GPU and Display

GPU

  • DDK 1.23.1@6404501

  • OpenGL ES 3.2

  • Mesa 22.3.5

  • libdrm 2.4.110

  • Weston 10.0.2

Direct Rendering Manager (DRM)

Display

RGB Parallel Output

Supported on SL1620

HDMI-TX

Supported on SL1640/SL1680

MIPI-DSI

SL1680/SL1640/SL1620. On SL1640 it needs to be enabled via DTS

Camera

MIPI-CSI

SL1680

ISP

SL1680

Audio Interfaces

PDM

SL1620

SPDIF

None

I2S

SL1680, SL1640, SL1620

Known Issues and Limitations

Note

Previous versions of U-Boot are not compatible with the v1.0.0 release. Please ensure that you are using USB Tool v1.0 or later when flashing using USB. Or U-Boot v1.0.0 when updating with internal SPI flash. See Updating Internal SPI Flash Firmware for instructions on updating the internal SPI flash.

SoC

Module

ID

Summary

SL1640,SL1680

Gstreamer Pipeline

30188

Video freeze and process hangs when decoding VP9 stream with Gstreamer

SL1640,SL1680

Linux Kernel

30193

Failure to allocate memory when encoding 1024x768 (I420) with Gstreamer

SL1640,SL1680

Linux Kernel

28970

Test pattern didn’t appear when running “GFX video test”

SL1640,SL1680

Gstreamer Pipeline

SyNAP Apps

30090

The video plays about 2 secs and then freeze when using “syna-ai-player”

to run the AI test cases. Video decode mode is V4L2.

SL1680

Gstreamer Pipeline

29662

Video freezes at about 5s and then console always print error info when

doing 4k V4L2 downscale to 1080p/720p/480p with zero copy mode using the

playbin command.

SL1640,SL1680

Linux Kernel

29839

Video freezes after 1 second when decoding H264 stream

SL1640,SL1680

SyNAP Framework

30091

Video freezes after 1 second when running AI Synapinfer + Synapoverlay

case Object Detection with Yolo-v8 –>Video

(WeAreGoingOnBullrun.mp4) – V4L2

SL1640,SL1680

Linux Kernel

30037

Always show 4 mounted USB devices in /media folder when insert any

number of USB disks.

SL1680

Gstreamer Pipeline

30063

V4L2 camera output is partially show on MIPI panel amd partially on HDMI

TV when using 4K camera (IMX258).

SL1640,SL1680

Gstreamer Pipeline

28484

Video Stutters when playing H264/H265 video with gstreamer on a Wayland display.

SL1640,SL1680

WIFI

29036

Failed to connect AP which used WPA3 security protocol

SL1640,SL1680

BT

28984

BT Remote control doesn’t work normally after being paired

SL1680

ISP

30092

Camera video flash continuously then goes to a black screen when testing

ISP camera(IMX258) in a dark environment.

SL1680

Display

29500

Test tool “glesdualtest” does not work during gltest app during dual

display testing.

SL1680

MIPI DSI

29498

Missing test method for MIPI PIP Video Playback

SL1680

Display

29513

Mipi display show abnormal video during run glmark2-es2-drm test

SL1680

Gstreamer Pipeline

30019

Video stutters seriously when play 4 views with

“Astra video playback demo” application V4L2 decoding

SL1680

Gstreamer Pipeline

30019

Video freezes when doing V4L2 downscaler

(2K H264 file SRC -> V4L2 Scaler (480p) io_mmu_output_buffer=0 &

io_mmu_capture_buffer=0) in three Instance at same time

SL1640,SL1680

Performance

29473

Some cases failed during run Synap NNAPI offline_test with latest models

SL1640,SL1680

Audio

29211

Fail to play the stream which bit depth is 24 bits with aplay

ALL

Linux Kernel

30180

The last frame is not getting flushed and stays on the display after

running “glmark2-es2-drm”

SL1620

Fastboot

30191

Fastboot devices don’t show Device Serial number

SL1620

Gstreamer Pipeline

29478

elephant-dream.webm stream not playing

SL1620

Display

29454

Brightness adjustment in MIPI Panel and TFT panel is not working

SL1620

Graphics ,MIPI DSI

30047

different mipi connector id , need to change glesdualtest connector id

SL1620

Audio

29228

while using arecord to record DMIC input with 16 and 24 signed bits,

it shows Sample format is non-available

SL1620

Audio

30080

In Audio Path (Gstreamer) , Audiomixer (multiple audio input mixing)

shows error as “ pipeline doesn’t want to preroll”

SL1620

Display

29430

No fast logo during boot up stage

SL1620

Linux Kernel

29893

Observed Horizontal Stride, whenever there is an object movement

during USB Camera Test