Sfera Labs, a leading designer and manufacturer of advanced solutions for embedded systems and edge computing, has extended the capabilities of its Iono family of industrial I/O modules with the announcement that the established and popular Iono Pi Max is available with a Raspberry Pi CM4S core. The combination of the latest core and a variety of integrated features simplifies the design and implementation of rugged and reliable control systems for industrial, commercial and residential applications.
The Iono Pi Max integrates the CM4S core with all of the digital and analog input and output lines, power relays and support for standard interfaces expected of modern PLCs. Backward compatibility with the Raspberry Pi CM3+ core protects investment in existing designs while allowing designers to improve performance and extend system functionality.
Designed for deeply embedded applications, Raspberry Pi CM4S incorporates a 1.5GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor (upgraded from the Cortex-A53 @ 1.2GHz of the CM3+), 1GB LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM (offering significantly greater bandwidth and power efficiency than the LPDDR2 on the CM3+) and has an extended operating temperature range (-20°C – +85°C). With Iono Pi Max, Sfera Labs has harnessed the power of this compact solution to create a versatile industrial I/O module that can be easily customized and optimized to meet the needs of target applications.
“The announcement of an Iono Pi Max with a CM4S core is the latest example of how Sfera Labs is using the Raspberry Pi platform to develop powerful, flexible and truly open solutions that support the rapid deployment and simplified management of control and monitoring systems across a variety of applications,” says Ulderico Arcidiaco, Sfera Labs CEO.
The CE/FCC/IC-compliant module incorporates digital and analog I/O, NO/NC relays, UPS support, RS-232, RS-485 and CAN interfaces, dual SD card, RTC, a hardware watchdog and a secure element chip. Target applications range from data acquisition, MES, building automation, access control and environmental monitoring.
Fully compatible with the toolsets, programming languages and development frameworks available for Raspberry Pi, developers can make use of a vast array of third-party software resources to quickly develop Iono Pi Max-based solutions.