uDSP-Card: XCORE.AI Development Board for Portable Applications

This repository contains the hardware design files, pinout, and architectural documentation for the uDSP-Card, a small development board built around the XMOS XU316. Originally designed for a wearable ultrasonic sensing system, the board offers rich I/O and high-performance DSP capabilities at low power, making it ideal for audio, sensing, and real-time embedded tasks.

This repository accompanies the blog post "uDSP-Card: XCORE.AI Development Board for Portable Applications".

Repository Contents

• kicad_udsp-card/: KiCAD project folder containing schematics and PCB layout
• uDSP-Card_HAD.pdf: Hardware architecture design (HAD) documentation
• uDSP-Card_XMOS-XU316-pinout.xlsx: Processor pin assignments

Board Overview

The uDSP-Card is powered by the XMOS XU316, a dual-core, 800 MHz processor with 16 logical cores and a vector unit. The board is derived from the XMOS reference design and development board XK-EVK-XU316¹.

Key Specifications

• Dimensions: 60 mm × 30 mm (6-layer PCB)
• Processor: XMOS XU316-1024 (dual-core, 800 MHz, 16 threads)
• RAM: 128 Mb LPDDR1
• Flash: 32 Mb QSPI
• microSD card slot
• USB Interface: Device (power + audio/data)
• Line Output: Stereo via ESS ES9033 DAC
• Expansion Header: 44-pin interconnect
  • I²S (8ch)
  • I²C / SPI
  • PDM (8ch)
  • Power input
• Onboard Sensors:
  • BMI323 IMU (accelerometer + gyro)
  • BME280 EMU (humidity, pressure, temperature)

Board support

lib_udsp-card_board_support: XMOS board support package and configuration files for firmware development.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.

Footnotes

1. XMOS, "xcore.ai Explorer v2 BoardManual", Manual XM014531A, (2024) ↩