Introduction
The Synaptics® Coralboard™ is now available worldwide, giving developers a production-ready platform for building and evaluating edge AI applications. The board incorporates the Grinn AstraSOM-261x system-on-module, and was developed by Grinn in collaboration with Synaptics and Google Research.
A limited edition version of the Synaptics Coralboard was revealed at Google I/O 2026. The general-production version is now available worldwide through DigiKey.
To extend the board's prototyping and development capabilities, Grinn is also introducing two add-ons for the Synaptics Coralboard: Grinn Sense and Grinn Test. They provide audio input, status indicators, HDMI output, UART access, and per-rail power measurement, helping developers move from initial bring-up to application development with less custom hardware.
Synaptics Coralboard Feature Highlights
- Grinn AstraSOM-261x with Synaptics Astra®[NS1] SL2619 (2x Arm® Cortex®-A55; 1x Cortex-M52)
1 TOPS Synaptics Torq™ NPU and Coral NPU by Google Research
2 GB DDR4
2-lane MIPI CSI-2 camera connector
4-lane MIPI DSI display connector
USB-C device/power port;
USB-A host port
M.2 Key E slot for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® modules
20-pin expansion header
mikroBUS™; Qwiic; I3C connectors
The board integrates the production-grade Grinn AstraSOM-261x, allowing developers to build and validate applications on the development board before integrating the same module into their own carrier board. Applications and models developed on the Synaptics® Coralboard™ run on the same silicon used in the production module. Grinn also offers a 10-year availability guarantee for its SoMs.
The Synaptics Astra SL2619 is the first production processor to incorporate the Coral NPU - an open-source accelerator core from Google Research based on RISC-V. The NPU supports convolutional neural networks and transformer-based models, including Gemma™ 3 270M.
The NPU handles AI processing while leaving the Cortex-A55 cores available for the rest of the application. Developers can use the Synaptics Torq™ toolchain to run models from widely used AI frameworks, including TensorFlow, ONNX, PyTorch and JAX. Applications can be developed in C/C++ or Python. The compiler is open source, giving developers visibility into how their models are prepared to run on the hardware.
"Developers should be able to go from an idea to a working prototype without unnecessary hurdles," said Robert Otręba, CEO of Grinn. "The Synaptics® Coralboard™ provides a flexible way to prototype and design edge AI products, while the Grinn add-ons bring additional capabilities developers need. The work done on the board can carry over directly to the final product."
"Our collaboration with Grinn and Google Research puts production-ready Edge AI hardware directly in developers' hands," said John Weil, VP & GM, Edge Processors, Synaptics. "The Synaptics Coralboard pairs the Grinn AstraSOM-261x with an open-source SDK and Edge AI toolchain, enabling prototyping with production in mind. With worldwide availability through DigiKey, developers can order today and get straight to building their preferred multimodal applications."
Expanding the Prototyping Capabilities
Grinn has developed two add-ons for the Synaptics Coralboard to address common development and bring-up tasks without requiring developers to build their own hardware.
Grinn Sense adds audio, indicators and convenient access to the board's interfaces, while Grinn Test provides display output, debug connectivity and detailed power measurement.
Grinn Sense Add-on Features
- 2x PDM MEMS microphones
- Mounting area for a CSI camera module
- Direct UART access
- 3-pin 5 V power header for a DSI display
- 3x LEDs
- 5 V buzzer
Grinn Test Add-on Features
- 4-lane DSI-to-HDMI 1.4
- USB-to-UART bridge
- 2-port USB 2.0 hub
- Multi-rail current measurement
- Boot and reset control
- 4x LEDs
- 5 V buzzer
Synaptics Coralboard Availability
The Synaptics Coralboard is available worldwide through DigiKey.com. The Grinn Sense Add-on and Grinn Test Add-on are also available through DigiKey.
Datasheets and product information are available at grinn-global.com.
Paweł Horbanowicz
