Release Notes v1.7.0

Introduction

Astra™ is Synaptics’ new 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 are equipped with hardware accelerators for edge inferencing, security, graphics, vision, and audio, and offer out-of-the-box functionality with Synaptics’ connectivity solutions.

Astra (v1.7.0) 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 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

Fastlogo

TA

SL1680 / SL1640

SyNAP

TA

SL1680 / SL1640 / SL1620

DHUB

TA

SL1680 / SL1640

Vmeta

TA

SL1680 / SL1640 / SL1620

Note

The Vmeta TA was open sourced in release v1.6. Source code can be found at https://github.com/synaptics-astra/tee-optee_dev/tree/kirkstone_5.15_v1.7.0/ta/vpu.

Note

FastLogo and DHUB TAs were open sourced in release v1.7.

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/kirkstone_5.15_v1.7.0

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

Common New Features

Feature

SoC

Description

SU-Boot for SPI

All

Support Synaptics U-Boot when booting from SPI.

Multiple DTOBs via U-Boot

All

Support loading multiple devicetree overlays.

Syna Compositor

All

Adds capabilities for compositing multiple video streams in a

GStreamer pipeline.

Enable Gstreamer WebRTC

All

Add Gstreamer WebRTC plugin and example website (OOBE profiles Only)

SL1620 New Features

Feature

SoC

Description

Support Bridged WET mode

SL1620

Allow SL1620 to act as a WiFi bridge.

Seamless Fastlogo Transition

SL1620

Add seamless Fastlogo transition from U-Boot to the Linux Kernel.

SL1640 New Features

Feature

SoC

Description

Optimized Power Consumption

SL1640

Optimize power consumption when suspended.

SL1680 New Features

Feature

SoC

Description

OV5647 recalibration

SL1680

Re-calibration and tuning for OV5647 sensor for 640x480 resolution.

X11 Dual Display

SL1680

Support Dual Displays on X11 based profiles. (X11 OOBE profile only)

Face Recognition Demo

SL1680

Add a QT Application for Real-Time Face Recognition.

Audio Support for Synap

SL1680

Add synap audio support and demo application (demos app OOBE only)

I420 Format for Super-res

SL1680

Add I420 color format support for Super Resolution.

IMX477

SL1680

Add support for the IMX477 Image Sensor.

Direct Sensor Output

SL1680

Add support for accessing RAW MCM Buffers to bypass ISP.

IOMMU for MCM

SL1680

Default support for IOMMU with MCM (for dual image sensors).

V4L2 ISP Test Application

SL1680

Add test application for testing features not available with Gstreamer.

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

Y

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.

HDMI-RX (Audio)

N/A

N/A

Y

Volume Control for USB audio devices

Y

Y

Y

Supports volume control of USB audio devices using GPIOs

GST Video Pipeline

KMS SINK with IOMMU

N/A

Y

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

HDMI Rx Video Path to Display Sink

N/A

N/A

Y

RTSP stream with V4L2 playback

N/A

Y

Y

Multiview RTSP Playback

N/A

N/A

Y

Support Wayland Sink Window Dragging with mouse

Y

Y

Y

Multi View

N/A

N/A

Y

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

Multi-playback only on SL1680

GST AI

OpenCV Support

Y

Y

Y

Multistream AI with RTSP

N/A

N/A

Y

AI support for ISP Camera

N/A

N/A

Y

GST AI Support for GPU models

Y

N/A

N/A

Pose Estimation

Y

Y

Y

Image Classification

Y

Y

Y

Single View AI use case

Y

Y

Y

Multi View AI user case

N/A

N/A

Y

  • SL680 supports multi-view AI case

  • SL1640/1620 only supports single view AI case

Super Resolution AI use case

N/A

N/A

Y

Face Recognition use case

N/A

N/A

Y

SR Slideshow

N/A

N/A

Y

Audio Classification AI use case

Y

Y

Y

SyNAP

Y

Y

Y

  • supports SyNAP pre-process and sink

HDMI-RX

HDMI-RX 4K

N/A

N/A

Y

DHUB TA in OP-TEE

N/A

N/A

Y

HDIM-Rx Video 2K all formats support

N/A

N/A

Y

GST Pipeline Support

N/A

N/A

Y

HDMI-Rx Driver for Video – 2K60

N/A

N/A

Y

YUYV and NV12 formats as VIP output

N/A

N/A

Y

EDID Support

N/A

N/A

Y

VIP Scalar

N/A

N/A

Y

RGB, YUV444/422/420 – 12/10/8 bit input

N/A

N/A

Y

Gstreamer v4l2src pipeline to Display

N/A

N/A

Y

DRM-KMS

Fastlogo with OP-TEE

Y

Y

Y

Supports both HDMI and MIPI

HDMI Hot Plug Detect and Dynamic Resolution Change

N/A

Y

Y

EDID parsing

N/A

Y

Y

MIPI, HDMI on Astra Machina boards

Y

Y

Y

  • SL1620 /SL1640 supports either HDMI or MIPI output.

  • SL1680 supports HDMI and MIPI simultaneously.

    Default is HDMI, can be changes to MIPI via DTS

Display

Wayland Display Server

Y

Y

Y

X11 Display Server

Y

Y

Y

V4L2 ISP

Dual / 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

Support cropping in ISP down scaler

N/A

N/A

Y

Supports Bayer and RGB formats

N/A

N/A

Y

Support Simultaneous Path Playback w/ Single Sensor

N/A

N/A

Y

Direct Sensor(MCM) output for ISP bypass

N/A

N/A

Y

U-Boot

EMMC HS400 support

Y

Y

Y

SL1620 1G DDR4 x 16 support

Y

N/A

N/A

DVFS Support

Y

Y

Y

VCPU DVFS can be supported on SL1620/SL1640/SL1680

VCORE DVFS is only supported on SL1640

U-BOOT v1.1.1

Y

Y

Y

Release Notes

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

  • Support eMMC HS400 mode

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).

Suspend to RAM (S3) Power State

Y

N/A

N/A

Low Power Standby

N/A

Y

Y

OP-TEE

OP-TEE enabled

Y

Y

Y

WIFI

WIFI 6 & WIFI 6E

Y

Y

Y

wpa_supplicant 2.11

Host AP mode using hostapd

Y

Y

Y

Bluetooth

Supported

Y

Y

Y

General Modules, Peripherals, and Interfaces Supported

General

Kernel

Kernel Version 5.15.140

Yocto

Kirkstone: 4.0.17

U-Boot

SPI U-Boot version: v1.1.1

USB SU-Boot version: v1.7

USB Tool

astra-update: 1.0.2

OP-TEE

OP-TEE version: 4.0.0

Gstreamer (GST)

GST version: 1.22.8

ISP Firmware

version: 6.5.1

Memory

Memory - DDR

SL1620

DDR3

1GB 1866 Mbps

2GB 1866 Mbps

4GB 1866 Mbps

DDR4

1GB 2133 Mbps

2GB 2133 Mbps

4GB 2133 Mbps

DDR4x16

1GB 2133 Mbps

2GB 2133 Mbps

SL1640

DDR4

1GB 3200 Mbps

2GB 2400 / 2666 / 3200 Mbps

4GB 3200 Mbps

DDRx16

1GB 3200 Mbps

2GB 3200 Mbps

LPDDR4

2GB 3733 Mbps

3GB 3733 Mbps

4GB 3733 Mbps

LPDDR4x

3733 Mbps

3GB 3733 Mbps

4GB 3733 Mbps

SL1680

LPDDR4

2GB 3733 Mbps

3GB 3733 Mbps

4GB 3733 Mbps

LPDDR4x

2GB 3200 / 3733 Mbps

3GB 3200 / 3733 Mbps

4GB 3733 Mbps

Memory - eMMC

up to 32GB

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 / 1000 Mbps

SL1640: 10 / 100 Mbps

SL1680: 10 /100 / 1000 Mbps

Wireless Connectivity

Supports WIFI & BT

GPU and Display

GPU

  • DDK 24.2@6643903

  • 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 SL1620/SL1640/SL1680

HDMI-RX

Supported on 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

SL1620, SL1640, SL1680

Supported Camera Modules

Sensor

Module

Resolution

Interface (Device Tree Overlay if Required)

Notes

IMX258

Synaptics IMX258 Camera Module

3840x2160 30fps (mode 0)

1920x1080 30fps (mode 1)

MIPI-CSI 0 w/ dolphin-csi0-with-expander.dtbo

Synaptics SL1680 MIPI CSI Adaptor Board Required

IMX415

Synaptics IMX415 Camera Module

3840x2160 30fps (mode 0)

1920x1080 30fps (mode 1)

MIPI-CSI 0 w/ dolphin-csi0-with-expander.dtbo

Synaptics SL1680 MIPI CSI Adaptor Board Required

OV5647

Arducam 5MP OV5647 Camera Module

640x480 60fps (mode 0)

1920x1080 30fps (mode 1)

MIPI-CSI0

1920x1080 30fps output is non-calibrated

MIPI-CSI 1 w/ dolphin-csi1-without-expander.dtbo

Dual CSI0/1 w/ dolphin-bothcsi-without-expander.dtbo

IMX477

Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera

3840x2160 30fps (mode 0)

MIPI-CSI0

Single Sensor Support Only

3840x2160 30fps output is non-calibrated

MIPI-CSI 1 w/ dolphin-csi1-without-expander.dtbo

Known Issues and Limitations

Note

Versions of U-Boot included in the Astra SDK v0.9.0 release are not compatible with Astra SDK releases v1.0 or later. Please ensure that you are using USB Tool v1.0 or later when flashing using USB. Or U-Boot v1.0.0 or later when updating with internal SPI flash. See Updating Internal SPI Flash Images using U-Boot for instructions on updating the internal SPI flash.

Note

U-Boot version v1.1.0 improves emmc flash times significantly. We recommend updating to U-Boot v1.1.0 to benefit from these improvements.

Note

SD Boot with release v1.3 and later requires updating to U-Boot v1.1.1 or later. See Updating Internal SPI Flash Images using U-Boot for instructions on updating the internal SPI flash.

Note

In Astra v1.3, the default display output for the SL1620 is set to HDMI via a DSI-to-HDMI conversion. Starting with Astra v1.4, the onboard DSI-to-HDMI converter for the SL1620 Rev D core module has been enabled. For older core modules, an external DSI-to-HDMI adapter board is required. The default display output can be switched to MIPI by following the instructions provided in the User Guides. Haier Panel Configuration Guide and Waveshare Panel Configuration Guide.

Note

In Astra v1.4, the default MIPI display on SL1680 was changed to the Waveshare 7” Panel.

Note

In Astra v1.4, ISP IOMMU only supports the NV12 format. When using RGB888 format, set the v4l2src parameters extra-controls="c,mmu_enable=0" to disable IOMMU.

Note

In Astra v1.5, the rootfs partition sizes increased to accommodate the extra packages in the OOBE images. This interferes with OTA since SWUpdate expects the rootfs partition size to be the same. To perform OTA on a system with v1.4 installed, please build an image using v1.4’s partition sizes. (See eMMC Partition Customization on Astra Machina)

Note

Network Manager can be supported in Astra 1.7, but it’s disabled by default as there are some stability issues found. If needed, Network Manager can be enabled. Please, contact the Synaptics Astra support team for more information.

Known Issues

SL1620

SL1640

SL1680

Module

ID

Summary

Y

N/A

N/A

Display

34549

Waveshare 7” panel randomly does not show UI

Y

N/A

N/A

Audio

29306

Recorded audio is at 0.75x speed when recording from DMIC input at 44.1KHz with signed 32 bit.

Y

N/A

N/A

Audio

32139

24bit and 32bit are not available for all sample rates when recording using USB headphones and cameras.

Y

N/A

N/A

Graphics

33037

GFX Demo app UI goes to background when opened (OOBE image only).

Y

N/A

N/A

Gstreamer Pipeline

33062

Video playback output is not scaled on TFT panel when using vximagesink (X11 image only).

Y

N/A

N/A

Bluetooth

33074

Observed noise when playing sound through BT headphones while testing BT SCO.

Y

Y

Y

Display (X11)

33671

Fail to run color conversion test cases after set Color Conver to BGRA & RGB.

Y

N/A

N/A

OOBE

33998

No Wi-fi observed during browse to Wifi and Turn on Wifi search for SynaExplorer.

Y

N/A

N/A

OOBE

34348

QR code on the Desktop Backgroud is out of date.

N/A

Y

Y

Gstreamer Pipeline

30385

Last frame is retained after playback stopped when using KMS sink.

N/A

Y

Y

Linux Kernel

32944

Suspend to RAM fails to work.

Y

Y

Y

NNStreamer

33030

Failed to run NNStreamer Object Detection GPU test (X11 based images only).

Y

Y

N/A

Fastlogo

33042

Fastlogo not seen on Waveshare panel when switching DTBO.

N/A

Y

N/A

Display (X11)

33603

White rectangle observed around cursor during video playback.

N/A

Y

N/A

Display (X11)

33605

Observed screen tearing during video playback and camera streaming.

N/A

Y

N/A

OOBE

34030

Video Mixer layout does not use the entire screen.

N/A

Y

N/A

OOBE

34482

Bluetooth UI does not show “Connected” after connecting to a device.

N/A

Y

N/A

OOBE

34535

WiFi UI fails to connect to previously connected AP.

N/A

N/A

Y

HDMI-RX

31254

Video color is much darker when switching resolution 4K30 to 1080P30.

N/A

N/A

Y

HDMI-RX

31574

Adnormal UI shown when switching between 4k30 RGB 8bit to 1080P30 RGB 8bit.

N/A

N/A

Y

HDMI-RX

33066

Observed video tearing when playing YouTube stream with HDMI-RX using X11.

N/A

N/A

Y

Gstreamer Pipeline

33077

AI pipelines cannot run on X11 due to missing extension.

N/A

N/A

Y

OOBE

33670

Getting Started Video Stream won’t finish unless you move mouse after clicking close.

N/A

N/A

Y

Display (X11)

34424

Waveshare 7” panel in portrait mode when using Dual Display with X11.

N/A

N/A

Y

ISP

34475

IMX477 output has a blue tint.

N/A

N/A

Y

ISP

34476

Video flashes when testing IMX477 sensor.

N/A

N/A

Y

ISP

34477

IMX477 output has a purple tint in low light environments.

N/A

N/A

Y

HDMI-RX

34499

Output shows a green screen when testing HDMI-RX with kmssink.

N/A

Y

Y

OOBE

34526

Ping reports “Network is unreachable” when connected to IPv6 AP.

N/A

N/A

Y

OOBE

34533

Changing the display using the “Display Config” UI causes crash after rebooting.

N/A

N/A

Y

ISP

34536

Video freezes at the begining when doing dual sensor multistreaming using OV5647 (NV12 640x480).

N/A

Y

Y

Networking

34541

Stability issues when using NetworkManager as the default network manager.