Avnet, makers of the MicroZed System-On-Module, have introduced an Arduino carrier board which allows standard Arduino shields to be used with their MicroZed system. As well as the MicroZed and the shield connectors the carrier board also includes an expansion connector to fit a low-power MCU board.

The interface provides connections between the MCU and the processing system in MicroZed’s Zilinx Zynq-7000 all-programmable SoC and also allows the MCU to control power rails to the MicroZed. This is useful to reduce system power consumption by offloading routine tasks to the MCU and only powering the Zynq SoC for functions requiring its processing capabilities.

The MicroZed was introduced in 2013 and the Arduino carrier card is the fourth expansion card to be added to the system.

Features of the MicroZed Arduino carrier card:

•Carrier Card support for MicroZed SOMs
•Full Arduino-compatible Shield site with connection to MicroZed PL I/O
•Partial Arduino-compatible Shield site for connection to optional low-power MCU sub-system
-Supports MCU ON/OFF control of MicroZed power
-Enables offloading of MicroZed tasks to the low-power MCU
-Facilitates low-power sensor hub functionality, autonomous from MicroZed application processor
•Adds two 2x6 peripheral module expansion interfaces to MicroZed
-Supports interface for PS based SDIO/SPI
-Supports interface for PL based I/O
•Adds one 2x6 peripheral module expansion interface to the low-power MCU connector
-Supports interface for I2C/UART

The Avnet-designed MicroZed carrier card for Arduino retails for $89. The MicroZed SOM is available separately.