A key addition to R3 was its "out-of-browser, native code implementation" of Microsoft's Silverlight technology, allowing developers to "dramatically improve user interface capabilities," according to the company. As for the iW-Rainbow-G8M, iWave says the module provides 720p video and is suitable for industrial, medical, smartbook, security, and digital signage applications.

The iW-Rainbow-G8M employs Freescale's i.MX51, which began sampling at the start of last year and subsequently featured in a variety of other COMs. (Examples include the Avalue RSM-MX515, the Digi ConnectCore Wi-MX51, and the Direct Insight Triton-TX51.)

iWave's iW-Rainbow-G8M module

The iW-Rainbow-G8M (above) measures 70 x 70mm and includes a 230-pin  "golden finger" connector originally designed for laptop graphicscards using Nvidia's MXM (Mobile PCI Express Module) format. In both of these respects, it appears to follow the Qseven COM standard. However, this is somewhat misleading, since iWave makes no claim that the device implements the Qseven bus.

The i.MX515 offers an ARM Cortex-A8 core clocked to 800MHz, a Neon floating point unit, a PowerVR graphics engine supporting OpenGL ES 2.0, and a hardware-implemented video codec. These capabilities are said to provide the iW-Rainbow-G8M with D1 (720 x 480 pixel) video encoding at 30fps, and 720p (1280 x 720) decoding.

According to iWave, the iW-Rainbow-G8M module is available with soldered-on DDR2 memory in capacities ranging from 128MB to 512MB, and from 128MB to 2GB of NAND flash storage. The device also includes a microSD slot and a USB On-the-Go port (both visible at the top of the left-hand image above), according to the company.

The bottom of the module has three surface-mount connectors that apparently provide JTAG and debug interfaces, though iWave's product page for the iW-Rainbow-G8 did not make their purpose definitively clear. Other signals pass through the edge-mount connector to an optional baseboard, including 10/100 Ethernet, video, audio, USB, serial, I2C, SPI, SSI, and GPIO, according to the company.

A block diagram of iWave's iW-Rainbow-G8D
(Click to enlarge)

A separately available iW-Rainbow-G8D baseboard (not pictured, but block diagram appears above) measures 8.26 x 5.1 inches (210 x 130mm) and incorporates a seven-inch touchscreen display, iWave says. Accepting the iW-Rainbow-G8M, the board provides two SD slots, two serial ports, two USB ports, a 10/100 Ethernet port, plus a composite video output and audio I/O, according to the company.

Specifications listed by iWave for its iW-Rainbow-G8M module include:

• Processor -- Freescale i.MX515 clocked at 800MHz
• Memory -- From 128MB to 512MB of DDR2 RAM, and from 128MB to 2GB of NAND flash storage
• Expansion -- microSD slot
• I/O:
  • Via onboard connectors:
    • USB 2.0 On-the-Go connector
    • UART interface for debug
    • JTAG
  • Via MXM connector:
    • 1 x 10/100 Ethernet
    • 2 x SD/SDIO
    • 2 x I2C
    • 1 x USB 2.0 host
    • 1 x USB On-the-Go
    • 2 x serial
    • SPI
      
    • SSI
    • Display interface
    • Audio interface
    • 1-wire touchscreen interface
    • TV out
    • GPIOs
• Operating temperature -- n/s
• Power requirements -- n/s
• Dimensions -- 2.75 x 2.75 inches (70 x 70mm)

Further information

According to iWave, the iW-Rainbow-G8M module and iW-Rainbow-G8D baseboard are available now. More information may be found on the iWave website here and here.

Related stories:

• UMPC ref design runs Windows Embedded Standard
• SODIMM module runs Windows CE on Freescale i.MX51
• Wireless Cortex-A8 module supports Windows CE 6.0 R3
• Cortex-A8 SoC family gains automotive, industrial members
• Cortex-A8 SoC targets netbooks
• ARM9, Cortex-A8 modules support Windows CE
• Cortex-A8 dev system supports Windows CE