See also

• General Thermal Page
• Newport Thermal/Power Page
• Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling of the Processor

• ​Gateworks Shop - Heatsinks

Catalina Thermal

It is crucially important to read Gateworks Thermal explanation on the General Thermal Page

Catalina Thermal Ratings

The Gateworks Catalina SBCs are rated with parts that reach temperatures from -40 to +85C. Some parts are rated higher, but 85C is the minimum. Note, this is the part temperature, which is often hotter than the ambient air temperature. More explanation is available on the General Thermal Page

Gateworks pre-installs a heatsink on the CPU for all Catalina boards. This heatsink provides basic cooling for the board during development but customers need to design their own thermal solution based on their particular enclosure, environment and operating conditions.

The CPU being used is the NXP Semiconductor MIMX9596XVZXNBC in a 19x19mm package.

The 1800MHz IMX95 Industrial Temp SoC used for Catalina is rated at:

• Max: 125C Tj (Junction Temp)
• Min: -40C Tj (Junction Temp)

Catalina Heatsinks

The Catalina SOMs have a heatsink installed by default.

• i.MX95 - * This CPU has an exposed die, shown below * (no lid, see silver exposed area) which means it can be fragile if designing a custom thermal solution. A very specific amount of max pressure can be applied to the die.
  • 
  • Example standard included heatsink on a i.MX95 SOM (GW900x):
    • 

Heatsink Solution BOM:

• Alpha Novatech UB22-15B heatsink
• Alpha Novatech CQZL40-55 heatsink spring clips
• Alpha Novatech CNCR-10 heatsink mounting pins

The maximum allowable heat sink attachment force is a function of the BGA solderable pad area. A general rule of thumb is a maximum of 59 gm-f per square mm of solderable pad area. That snip came from AN13656 section 8.1

Catalina Fan

Some boards also have a 4-pin Fan controller connector suitable for driving a 5V fan via PWM with Tachometer feedback if active cooling is needed for the system.

An example fan is the Gateworks GW10130 fansink (fan mounted on top of a heatsink) shown here: ​https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/gateworks-corporation/GW10130/28717444?

• Please note, it has been observed that the GW10130 fansink can provide around a 25C degree improvement in CPU temperature on a GW7200 with a i.MX8M Mini CPU.

A programmable 5V power rail is available through a latching 4-pin connector in a 1x4 configuration with 1.25mm pin spacing. The mating connector is a Hirose DF13-4S-1.25C, available from Digi-Key as part number H2181-ND. The mating connector pins are Hirose DF13-2630SCF, available from Digi-Key as part number H9992CT-ND.

Fan connector and output information can be found in the product user manuals, which are provided on the Gateworks website under the actual product page (example, GW9200 product page under the documentation tab).

The fan is automatically controlled through the fan set points as defined here

We do not have a preferred fan for the SBC from DigiKey. The key is the wire and connector that is connected to our board. Note, any standard 5V fan with the proper signals above should work fine, but order one to test and confirm.

Catalina Temperature Readings

Catalina has the ability to measure the board temperature and CPU temperature.

Both values are important, but the CPU will be the hottest component and thus should be watched closely.

CPU Temperature

The IMX95 has an interface for measuring the internal CPU junction temperature.

A Linux thermal sysfs driver exists which supports reading the CPU temperature and configuring various limits.

internal CPU junction temperature can be read via Linux:

~# cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/type
cpu-thermal
~# cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp 
59000
~# cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/trip_point_0_type 
passive
~# cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/trip_point_0_temp 
95000
~# cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/trip_point_1_type 
critical
~# cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/trip_point_1_temp 
105000

• Linux thermal sysfs devices refer to temperature in milidegree Celcius thus 105000 is 105C
• The above shows the cpu-thermal sensor currently measuring 59C with a 'passive' trip at 95C (at which point CPU frequency throttling will occur) and a 'critical' trip at 105C (at which point the CPU will reset)

Board Temperature

Board temperature is monitored via the Gateworks System Controller (GSC) via a thermister located on the board.

A Linux hwmon driver exists to provide access to this temperature:

~# DEV=$(for i in $(ls /sys/class/hwmon); do [ "gsc_hwmon" = $(cat /sys/class/hwmon/$i/name) ] && echo $i; done) # find GSC device
~# cat /sys/class/hwmon/$DEV/temp1_input
48100

• Linux hwmon devices refer to temperature in milidegree Celcius thus 48100 is 48.1C

The board temperature can also be shown in U-Boot:

u-boot=> gsc hwmon
temp    : 34.0C
vdd_bat : 0.000V
vdd_vin : 15.292V
vdd_adc1: 0.000V
vdd_adc2: 0.000V
vdd_dram: 1.101V
vdd_1p2 : 1.190V
vdd_1p0 : 0.976V
vdd_2p5 : 2.464V
vdd_3p3 : 3.226V
vdd_0p95: 0.939V
vdd_1p8 : 1.796V
vdd_gsc : 3.168V

Catalina Sample Thermal Readings

Below are a few sample baselines that Gateworks has taken for reference:

SBC	Ambient	Board	CPU	Heatsink	Power	Notes
GW9201A-S00C-F1B0A-F2E0A	~23C	xxC	xxC	xxC	8.32W	TBD