Today we would like to introduce you guys to an upcoming development SBC (Single-board computer) called Chirimen, which is currently being developed by Mozilla, the company behind the world's famous Firefox and Thunderbird software products.

Being designed by MozillaFactory.org in Japan, Chirimen aims to be a development board for Web developers who want to build Web-connected Internet of Things devices powered by the technologies implemented in the Firefox web browser, which means Firefox OS. However, it currently uses the open source Boot to Gecko (B2G) project, on which Firefox OS is based.

Chirimen was designed from the offset to use web browser technologies in various science projects by extending the I2C and GPIO WebAPIs to control devices powered by Mozilla's Firefox OS 2.0 and higher operating systems. As such, Web developers can easily use browser technologies to develop really awesome things.

"We will share openly the firmware code, board design, manufacturing process, API spec, and all necessary sources. In this project, we honor developer’s will and work on the standardization," said the Mozilla Japan community in the project's website.

Technical specifications of Chirimen

Among with Chirimen's technical specifications, about which we bet by now all of you are a little bit curious, we can mention an RK3066 SoC, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 1GB NAND Flash, two I2C ports, two UART ports, two SPI ports, a single, configurable GPIO port, one MicroSD slot, one USB port, and one USB microUSB OTG port.

Additionally, the board will come with a video micro HDMI female port, one Analog IN port, one PWM port, as well as audio analog/stereo input and output ports. Chirimen is quite compact at a size of 80 mm x 48 mm, and it's colored in red. Its hardware design is open, and the XX GPIO pins will allow devs to connect and program a wide range of physical components, such as LEDs, sensors, buttons, etc.

At the moment of writing this article, the MozOpenHard project is still working hard on the Chirimen board, which should arrive sometime this year. There's no official date set for the launch of Chirimen in 2016, but at least, we have a price tag, which is around $50 USD (€45). Don't hesitate to follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ if you would like to stay in touch with the latest updates about this product.

Update: We've been informed by the Chirimen devs that the board is not developed by Mozilla itself, but by the MozOpenHard project, a Japan-based a community group held the Mozilla Factory community, which is founded by Mozilla Japan. Also, Chirimen does not uses Firefox OS, but the open source Boot to Gecko (B2G) project, on which Firefox OS is based.