Venice SOM Comparison

Venice SOM Comparison

Gateworks manufactures two different SOMs (System on Module) for the Venice family of SBCs

  1. NXP i.MX8M Mini SoC
  2. NXP i.MX8M Plus SoC.

These SOMs are plugged onto the Gateworks Venice baseboards: GW71xx, GW72xx, GW73xx, GW75xx.

The SOM and baseboard are sold as a single unit as shown on the Venice SBC page, with part numbering described below.

Key Differences:

  • i.MX8M Plus adds USB 3.0 (NOTE 4)
  • i.MX8M Plus adds CAN Bus (NOTE 2)
  • i.MX8M Plus adds PCIe Gen 3 (NOTE 1)
  • i.MX8M Mini SOM supports MIPI DSI / CSI interfaces, the i.MX8M Plus SOM does not

Comparison Table:

SOM Processor DRAM USB PCIe Audio / Video CAN Bus VPU GPU NPU DSP ETH MAC Heatsink
i.MX8M Mini SOM (GW700x) 4x Cortex-A53 core

Cortex-M4

1500MHz (3000MT/s) USB 2.0 PCIe 2.0 MIPI-CSI/DSI

SAI/I2S Audio (NOTE5)

None 1080p60 h.264 & h.265 decoder, 1080p60 h.264 encoder 1x shader, OpenGL® ES 2.0, 3D Graphics: GC NanoUltra, 2D Graphics: GC320 None None FEC Standard
GW10085 Lidded SoC
i.MX8M Plus SOM (GW702x) 4x Cortex-A53 core Cortex-M7 2000MHz (4000MT/s) USB 3.0 (NOTE4) PCIe 3.0 (NOTE1) None Yes (NOTE2) 1080p60 h.264 & h.265 decoder, 1080p60 h.264 & h.265 encoder (NOTE3) 16 GFLOPS (high-precision) OpenGL® ES 3.1/3.0, Vulkan®, Open CL™ 1.2 FP, OpenVG™ 1.1, 3D Graphics: GC7000UL, 2D Graphics: GC520L (NOTE3) 2.3 TOP/s Cadence® Tensilica® HiFi 4 DSP @ 800 MHz (NOTE3) EQOS Premium
Heatsink Exposed Die SoC
  • NOTE1: While the i.MX8M Plus SOM features PCIe Gen 3.0, the GW72xx and GW73xx use a PCIe switch that is a PCIe 2.0 switch. Contact Gateworks Sales for a custom design if PCIe 3.0 is needed. Because the GW71xx does not use a switch, it will be able to use PCIe 3.0 when the i.MX8M Plus SOM is loaded.
  • NOTE2: CAN Bus is supported on the i.MX8MP SoC, but there is not a transceiver. Gateworks plans to add a transceiver on an expansion board that plugs onto the expansion header on the GW72xx and GW73xx. CAN will not be supported on the GW71xx.
  • NOTE3: GW702x does not support MIPI-CSI/DSI, HDMI on GW71xx, GW72xx, GW73xx, GW75xx
  • NOTE4: USB 3.0 is not available on GW72xx/GW73xx Front Panel OTG connector, use USB header on GW72xx and use Type-A connector on GW73xx
  • NOTE5: MIPI CSI/DSI is not exposed on the GW71xx baseboard.
  • More information between the two processors can be found on NXP Website here: ​https://www.nxp.com/products/processors-and-microcontrollers/arm-processors/i-mx-applications-processors/i-mx-8-applications-processors:IMX8-SERIES

Gateworks Venice Part Numbering Scheme

Gateworks Venice part numbers use the following scheme.

A standard Venice part number would be something like so: GW7300-00-F1G

The first part of the number, GW7300, refers to the baseboard which contains all the peripherals.

For example, a GW7300 is a standard baseboard and a GW7301 is a baseboard with maximum peripherals (GPS, onboard WiFi/BLE chip, etc.).

The last two digits after the hyphen refers to the last two digits of the SOM model plugged onto the baseboard.

The available Gateworks SOMs are:

  • GW7000: NXP i.MX8M Mini with 1GB RAM and 8GB of Flash
  • GW7001: NXP i.MX8M Mini with 4GB RAM and 64GB of Flash
  • GW7020: NXP i.MX8M Plus with 1GB RAM and 8GB of Flash
  • GW7021: NXP i.MX8M Plus with 4GB RAM and 64GB of Flash

For example, a GW7100-01 uses a GW7001 SOM and a GW7100-20 uses a GW7020 SOM.

The last alphabetical characters of the part numbers are the revisions of the baseboard and then SOM with no spaces in between.

For example, a GW7300-21-F1G has a revision F.1 GW7300 baseboard and a revision G GW7021 SOM.

Please view the entire line (SOM + Baseboard) of Venice Single Board Computers

Please contact Gateworks sales for any further questions.