TS-7970 Power Consumption

The i.MX6 power consumption can vary a lot depending on the build and activity of the board. Most of the power savings happens automatically when the cpu and gpu are idle, but it is also possible to disable the Ethernet PHY for additional savings.

# Put ETH PHY in reset
echo 116 > /sys/class/gpio/export
echo high > /sys/class/gpio/gpio116/direction

# Put USB HUB in reset
echo 43 > /sys/class/gpio/export
echo low > /sys/class/gpio/gpio43/direction

# Lower backlight to 50%
echo 4 > /sys/class/backlight/backlight_local_lcd/brightness

# Disable backlight
echo 0 > /sys/class/backlight/backlight_local_lcd/brightness

Ethernet is not connected unless otherwise specified, and serial is disconnected during the measurement. The CPU test is 5x processes of "openssl speed", and the GPU test is Qt5CinematicExperience in the Yocto image.

These tests are performed powering the board through 5V.

TS-7970 solo without WIFI or I210

Test	Max (W)	Average (W)
CPU 100% + GPU loaded (LCD 100%) + IO + Ethernet + HDMI	4.50 (0.90 A)	3.40 (0.68 A)
CPU 100%	2.80 (0.56 A)	2.35 (0.47 A)
CPU Idle + HDMI	2.75 (0.55 A)	2.05 (0.41 A)
CPU Idle + CPU Ethernet	2.75 (0.55 A)	2.20 (0.44 A)
CPU Idle	2.50 (0.50 A)	1.95 (0.39 A)
CPU Idle USB HUB off	2.75 (0.55 A)	1.95 (0.39 A)
CPU Idle USB HUB off, Ethernet PHY in reset	2.15 (0.43 A)	1.60 (0.32 A)
Using onboard uC to sleep CPU	0.185 (37 mA)	0.115 (23 mA)

TS-7970 quad core with WIFI and I210

Test	Max (W)	Average (W)
CPU 100% + GPU loaded (LCD 100%) + IO + Ethernet + HDMI	10.80 (2.16 A)	7.75 (1.55 A)
CPU 100%	6.15 (1.23 A)	5.40 (1.08 A)
CPU Idle + HDMI	4.55 (0.91 A)	2.90 (0.58 A)
CPU Idle + WIFI on wpa2 running iperf	6.85 (1.37 A)	3.95 (0.79 a)
CPU Idle + CPU Ethernet	5.00 (1.00 A)	3.10 (0.62 A)
CPU Idle + PCIe Ethernet	3.60 (0.72 A)	2.85 (0.57 A)
CPU Idle	4.85 (0.97 A)	2.80 (0.56 A)
CPU Idle USB HUB off	3.50 (0.70 A)	2.75 (0.55 A)
CPU Idle USB HUB off, Ethernet PHY in reset	3.30 (0.66 A)	2.40 (0.48 A)
Using onboard uC to sleep CPU	0.185 (37 mA)	0.105 (21 mA)