tinyCLUNX33 MIPI-to-USB: From Prototype to Production
Which tinyCLUNX33 Product Is Right for Me?
The tinyCLUNX33 family is designed around a clear product development journey — from first prototype to production hardware. This guide walks you through each stage and explains which products belong at each step.
Understanding the Product Family
Before choosing, it helps to understand how the pieces fit together:
- The tinyCLUNX33 System on Module (SoM) is the core MIPI-to-USB engine — a 26.4 × 26.4mm module based on the Lattice CrossLinkU-NX33 FPGA. It runs RISC-V + Zephyr and handles the full MIPI-to-USB pipeline in silicon.
- The Developer Kit is a carrier board that comes with a SoM pre-installed. It breaks out all SoM pins, adds debug interfaces, USB-C connectors, and expansion slots — everything you need to develop and test without designing your own board.
- The Camera Adapters are small plug-in boards for the Developer Kit that add RPi-standard MIPI camera connectors. They are prototyping accessories — not needed in production, where your own carrier board handles camera connectivity directly.
Developer Kit + Adapter(s) = your prototyping platform. SoM alone = your production component.
Stage 1 — Prototype
Goal: Validate that tinyCLUNX33 works for your camera and use case before committing to a carrier board design.
tinyCLUNX33 Developer Kit
The Developer Kit gets you streaming MIPI camera data over USB3 on day one. The SoM is already mounted and flashed. Connect a camera adapter, plug in your camera, connect USB-C to a host, and it enumerates as a UVC device immediately — no firmware bring-up required.
At this stage you are confirming: does the MIPI interface work with your sensor? Does the USB throughput meet your requirements? Is the latency acceptable? The Developer Kit answers all of these without any hardware design investment.
- SoM pre-installed and ready to use
- USB3 Type-C at 5 Gbit/s, UVC out of the box
- FTDI debug chip for JTAG, UART, SPI Flash access
- All SoM pins exposed for probing and bring-up
- Expansion slots for camera adapter boards
Camera Adapters
The Developer Kit's expansion connectors accept one of two camera adapter boards:
| Adapter | Camera Inputs | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Dual MIPI Input Adapter | 2 × 2-lane MIPI in | Stereo vision, multi-angle, hyperspectral, sensor aggregation |
| MIPI I/O Adapter | 1 × 2-lane MIPI in + 1 × MIPI out | Single camera + passthrough to a downstream device |
Both use RPi-standard 22-pin ZIF connectors. The IMX219 is pre-validated with the tinyCLUNX33 firmware stack and works with both adapters out of the box.
Stage 2 — Development
Goal: Build and validate your firmware, camera drivers, and application software on the Developer Kit before committing your carrier board design to fabrication.
Once the prototype validates your concept, the Developer Kit becomes your development platform — writing camera drivers, building your Zephyr application on the RISC-V soft-core, tuning image processing pipelines, and testing your end-to-end software stack.
This is also where you choose which SoM variant to design into your production carrier board. Both variants share the same footprint and firmware stack:
SoM Variant Comparison
| Connectivity | Compute | |
|---|---|---|
| Differential pairs | 14 | 6 |
| Onboard SSRAM | None | 32MB @ 800 MBps |
| Best for | High IO count, multiple cameras, sensor aggregation, driving displays | Image processing, large frame buffers, ISP pipelines, on-board AI inference |
| Typical applications | Stereo/quad-camera systems, multi-sensor hubs, display bridging | Bayer-to-YUV, frame differencing, edge AI pre-processing, hyperspectral buffering |
Choose Connectivity when you need maximum camera IO and processing can happen on the host. Choose Compute when your application needs on-module buffering or frame-level processing before handing data to the host.
Not sure? Email sales@tinyvision.ai with your camera count, resolution, and frame rate.
Stage 3 — Production
Goal: Design your own carrier board with the SoM embedded, replacing the Developer Kit for volume manufacturing.
tinyCLUNX33 System on Module
When your firmware is validated and your carrier board design is complete, the SoM drops directly into your product. You design your MIPI connectors, USB-C port, power supply, and any other peripherals directly onto your carrier — the SoM handles everything from MIPI receive through to USB enumeration and UVC streaming.
- 26.4 × 26.4 × 4.5mm
- Commercial (0°C to 85°C) and Industrial (−40°C to 85°C) temperature grades
- MIPI CSI-2 input: up to 4 lanes at 1 Gbps/lane
- Up to 7 concurrent MIPI camera streams
- 3.5 Gbps application-layer throughput over USB3
- Same firmware stack as the Developer Kit — no re-bring-up needed
- Software IP license required for production use — contact us for licensing terms and volume pricing
SoM pricing is for development use. Production deployments require a software IP license. Please reach out before committing to production quantities.
Full Journey at a Glance
| Stage | What You Need | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Prototype | Developer Kit + one camera adapter + camera (optional) | See store |
| Development | Developer Kit (already have) — choose SoM variant for carrier design | Covered |
| Production — hardware | tinyCLUNX33 SoM on your own carrier board | See store |
| Production — IP license | Software IP license for production deployment | Contact sales@tinyvision.ai |
Still not sure?
Email sales@tinyvision.ai or use the contact form. Tell us your camera, use case, target resolution, and frame rate and we will recommend the right starting point. Most engineers get a response the same business day.