imx8mp product purchasing advice

[timblaktu]

Coming from recent experience using a custom carrier board based on Variscite's var-som-imx8mp-symphony board, populated with a var-som-imx8mp, I found Olimex when searching for the most open and cost-effective alternative platforms that are based on the i.mx 8m plus SoC or SoM. My application is headless networked real-time audio processing and edge AI.

I'm a bit confused by what my actual options are in this area, and could use some help enumerating the available options Olimex provides for imx8mp SoM + carrier board and imx8mp SoC SBCs, and which are available for purchase and which are only open-source hardware schematics. I initially want to buy a prototype unit or 3, but may be wanting to make some PCB changes e.g. adding my own audio codec or modifying PoE capabilities, so I am interested in the options that come with open-source hardware designs I can reuse.

The NXP product page: https://www.olimex.com/Products/ARM/NXP didn't have any imx8 products, so I guess these are in another area.

I did find https://github.com/OLIMEX/iMX8MP-SOM-EVB and https://github.com/OLIMEX/iMX8MP-SOM, which may be my best option, but I'm interested also in SoC, non-SoM options that are also open designs. There isn't anything on the SoM that I need beyond what is provided on the imx8mp SoC.

Thanks for your advice and help with Olimex products. I should also state that I am a yocto fan and expert, and although I realize that you don't have yocto bsb support, I would be willing to contribute to yocto BSP support.

[LubOlimex]

Thank you for the interest in our products. You can find the iMX8 module and SOM board here:

https://www.olimex.com/Products/SOM/NXP-iMX8/

Both the SOM and the EVB are open source hardware designs. We made them with open source CAD software - KiCAD. No problem to use the EVB as basis for own designs, that is the purpose of the SOM-EVB designs.

We have Armbian Linux and Buildroot images. All software and hardware sources are already available for viewing and download without any purchase.

Important - I see that you want to use the board for audio processing - the iMX8MP-SOM-EVB-IND board has ES8383 audio processing chip which is currently not supported in our official Linux images. This shouldn't be a problem if you want to use own chip for audio processing or if you are experienced enough with Linux to get ES8383 working. This is mentioned on page 15 of the user manual:

https://github.com/OLIMEX/iMX8MP-SOM-EVB/blob/main/DOCUMENTS/iMX8MP-SOM-EVB-user-manual.pdf

Let me know if need further guidance.