Release Notes v1.6.0

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 (v1.6.0) 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

MIPI-DSI

TA

SL1620

Fastlogo

TA

SL1680 / SL1640

SyNAP

TA

SL1680 / SL1640 / SL1620

DHUB

TA

SL1680 / SL1640

Vmeta

TA

SL1680 / SL1640 / SL1620

Note

The Vmeta TV was open sourced in release v1.6. Source code can be found at https://github.com/synaptics-astra/tee-optee_dev/tree/v1.6.1/ta/vpu.

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/v1.6.0

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

Upgrade HostAPD

All

Upgraded HostAPD to v2.11

Upgrade WPA Supplicant

All

Upgraded WPA Supplicant to v2.11

Upgrade Chromium

All

Upgraded Chromium to v131.0.6778.139 (OOBE only)

Waveshare 13.3” Panel

All

Added support for the Waveshare 13.3” Panel

SU-Boot for USB and SPI

All

Suppport Synaptics U-Boot when booting from SPI and USB

Volume control for USB

audio device

All

Added GPIO Key support for adjusting volume using GPIOs and added

a user guide.

Display Settings UI

All

Added a UI for configuring display settings (OOBE images only)

Wifi Setting UI

All

Added a UI for connecting to WiFi networks (OOBE images only)

CPU Thermal Protection

All

Enabled thermal protection to reduce CPU Freq or power down when

certain temperature thresholds are hit.

Save GST inference results

to file

All

Added support for saving GST inference results to a files for

further processing.

GST Image Classification

on the command line

All

Support image classification on the command line. Previously, it

required a custom app.

SL1620 New Features

No SL1620 specific features were added in this release.

SL1640 New Features

Feature

SoC

Description

3GB LPDDR4 Support

SL1640

Added support for 3GB LPDDR4

SL1680 New Features

Feature

SoC

Description

ISP Kernel Modularization

SL1680

Support ISP Kernel Drivers as modules

Upgrade ISP PQ Tool

SL1680

Upgrade the ISP PQ Tuning Tool to v6.5.1

ISP Camera App

SL1680

Add a built-in ISP camera app which supports streaming, capturing images, and recording video. (OOBE only)

Ubuntu Docker Development

SL1680

Add a Ubuntu based docker container for general purpose development

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

Audio Classification AI use case

Y

Y

Y

Not included in image

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

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: v1.6

USB Tool

astra-update: 1.0.0

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

Interface

Adapter Board

Device Tree Overlay Required

IMX258

Synaptics IMX258 Camera Module

MIPI-CSI 0

Synaptics SL1680 MIPI CSI Adaptor Board

Yes

IMX415

Synaptics IMX415 Camera Module

MIPI-CSI 0

Synaptics SL1680 MIPI CSI Adaptor Board

Yes

OV5647

Arducam 5MP OV5647 Camera Module

MIPI-CSI 0/1

None

CSI0 - No

CSI1 -Yes

CSI0/CSI1 - Yes

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 parition 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)

Known Issues

SL1620

SL1640

SL1680

Module

ID

Summary

Y

N/A

N/A

Display

34039

TFT output gets muted if MIPI panel is not connected.

Y

N/A

N/A

Linux Kernel

29893

Observed Horizontal Stride, whenever there is an object movement

during USB Camera Test.

Y

N/A

N/A

Chromium

31605

Chromium Web Browser window size and position on HDMI is no the same as TFT panel.

Y

N/A

N/A

Audio

32156

Observed corrupted file when recording from DMIC with 32bit pcm for AAC and

ffmpeg-mp2 formats.

Y

N/A

N/A

Display

32400

Observed garbage on HDMI Output during suspend and resume.

Y

N/A

N/A

USB U-Boot

32904

Not able to flash image with USB U-Boot using TFTP.

Y

N/A

N/A

Graphics

33037

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

Y

N/A

N/A

Chromium

33038

Observed colored dots while playing any content on HDMI.

Y

N/A

N/A

OOBE Demo

33048

FingerPaint GFX Demo is not working (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

Gstreamer Pipeline

33728

Observed Stutter while testing Multiple Decode testcase 9x320x180 [Video file is 640x360@25]

Y

N/A

Y

QT Browser

33750

Video freezes when running WebRTC_audio-and-video Test with QT Browser.

Y

N/A

N/A

Gstreamer Pipeline

33728

Observed Stutter while testing Multiple Decode testcase 2x1280x720 [Video file is 720p30]

Y

N/A

N/A

OOBE

33998

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

Y

Y

Y

OOBE

34015

There is no “13.3 Waveshare Panel” option under “Display Config” dropdown in the OOBE profile.

N/A

Y

N/A

OOBE

34030

Video Mixer layout does not use the entire screen.

N/A

Y

Y

Gstreamer Pipeline

34026

Error reported when testing FFMPEG using v4l2 codecs decode h265 stream to yuv420p.

N/A

Y

N/A

Gstreamer Pipeline

34034

Video playback stutters when running Face Detection case “Video-fitness.mp4 – V4L2 – Dump to file”

N/A

Y

N/A

OOBE

34032

No network with assigned IP when testing WiFi UI in OOBE (WiFi protocol: WPA2 & IPv6)

N/A

Y

N/A

OOBE

34033

WiFi UI always shows “Password is incorrect” when connecting to WPA3 AP.

N/A

Y

Y

Gstreamer Pipeline

30385

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

N/A

Y

Y

Display

30438

Observed video shaking and horizontal lines during playback of some streams when

using kmssink.

N/A

Y

Y

Display

30691

Green flash occurs at the beginning of playback on some streams when using kmssink.

N/A

Y

Y

NNStreamer

31011

Video freezes for 2 seconds during object detection using nnstreamer and an

external USB camera.

N/A

Y

N/A

OOBE

32928

OOBE image failed to enter standby when running echo mem > /sys/power/state.

Y

Y

Y

NNStreamer

33030

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

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

SynAP

33745

SyNAP NNAPI offline testcase failed with latest models.

N/A

Y

Y

WiFi

33951

Failed to connect to WAP3 AP when running the WiFi test.

N/A

N/A

Y

OOBE

34032

No network with assigned IP when testing WiFi UI in OOBE (WiFi protocol: WPA2 & IPv4)

N/A

N/A

Y

OOBE

34027

Captured video plays fast when doing test ISP camera application.

N/A

N/A

Y

OOBE

34029

Reset button in ISP Camera application does not work.

N/A

N/A

Y

Video Player Demo

30437

Observed video shaking when playing back 4 streams with V4L2 decoding in

syna-video-player.

N/A

Y

Y

Display

31173

No signal after hotplug from 4K TV to 2K monitor.

N/A

N/A

Y

HDMI-RX

31254

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

N/A

N/A

Y

Gstreamer Pipeline

31554

Video Stutter when testing Multi-AI configuration 4x1080p30 / 3x1080p30 + x1080p15

N/A

N/A

Y

HDMI-RX

31576

HDMI-RX Video freezes or reports no output when switching resolution 4K60 RGB 8bit to 1080P60 RGB 8bit.

N/A

N/A

Y

HDMI-RX

31622

Last frame retained after playback is stopped when running 4K60 RGB -> 4K60 NV12 ->

V4L2 Scaler -> 2K60 NV12 -> V4L2 H264 Encoder -> V4L2 H264 Decoder

N/A

N/A

Y

Gstreamer Pipeline

32532

Video Stutters when testing RTSP Server.

N/A

N/A

Y

Gstreamer Pipeline

32544

Video stutter observed when playing 4x 1080P RTSP IP camera streams.

N/A

N/A

Y

ISP

32959

OV5647 image contains color imbalance (too much green).

N/A

N/A

Y

ISP

32960

Excessive noise is visible on screen when testing OV5647 with ports CSI-0 and CSI-1.

N/A

Y

Y

Display

33034

Frame pushed to MAIN(stripes) only displayed on one quarter of the screen during mode test with a 4K TV.

Y

Y

N/A

Fastlogo

33042

Fastlogo not seen on Waveshare panel when switching DTBO.

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

33076

Camera stream is not smooth when streaming ISP camera on X11.

N/A

N/A

Y

Gstreamer Pipeline

33077

AI pipelines cannot run on X11 due to missing extension.

N/A

N/A

Y

Display (X11)

33083

Video tearing occurred when playing a local file stream with USB camera(720p/1080p).

(X11 image only).

N/A

N/A

Y

HDMI

33085

HDMI output audio channel mapping is incorrect when using QD980 as input set to

5.1/7.1ch 48khz.

N/A

N/A

Y

Linux Kernel

33325

Reboot command fails and console reports “fxl6408_i2c_read_le8 i2c read failed from addr 43”

N/A

N/A

Y

OOBE

33670

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

N/A

Y

Y

Suspend / Resume

33696

SL1680 uses more power in low power standby then SL1640.

N/A

N/A

Y

Display (X11)

33792

Video freezes for 2 seconds when testing NNStreamer with NPU USB Camera stream.

N/A

N/A

Y

Gstreamer Pipeline

33994

Video stutters when doing multiple decodes (4x1920x1080 [Video file is 1080p60]).

N/A

N/A

Y

HDMI-RX

34008

Audio glitch observed during testcase 4k30 RGB->1080p30Hz UYVY & audio_48k_S16_LE_2 channel_alsasink.