1.RFNM Motherboard

What is packed into this motherboard are the common components required for many different applications, such as:

Software Defined Radios

Signal Generators

Oscilloscopes

Anything requiring good ADCs/DACs and clocking/timing

What is included in the motherboard

LA9310

The smallest brother of the NXP Layerscape series. This beautiful ADC/DAC comes with a powerful embedded DSP core and a 8 Gbps host interface.

Si5510

This is a timing chip from Skyworks that is also just now reaching the release stage and is still under NDA. It provides coherent, low jitter clocks to everything on the board that would benefit from them, has an optional external MMCX input and a numerically controlled oscillator that we can adjust down to 1-ppt for exact frequency adjustments.

i.MX8M Plus

The i.MX8M Plus onboard processor has the same CPU as the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B (Quad Core Cortex A-53), but is clocked slightly faster at 1.6 GHz vs 1.2 GHz. This is your usual, modern and fast embedded processor, but it being supported by NXP, it will receive kernel updates for a long time to come.

SN220E

The SN220E is a secure enclave (e-SIM) that can, in theory, be used to enable the RFNM ecosystem as a 5G RedCap node, allowing it to connect to the next generation of networks being deployed around us. This is only possible thanks to the advanced characteristics of chips in the motherboard, that meet the 5G specs, and the processing power of the VSPA DSP and Cortex A-53 cores that allow it to be a full, independent and autonomous node on a real network.

2.Lime RF Board

This daughterboard can cover 1-3500 MHz in a simplex configuration (one transmit or receive chain active at any given time). It is based on the LMS7002M chip from Lime Microsystems.

3.Breakout Board

The Breakout Board gives you direct access to the delicate ADC and DAC pins. While the board has embedded ESD protection, there is nothing stopping you from mishandling and destroying the LA9310, for example by supplying a DC voltage that is outside specs.