CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

March 4, 2021June 9, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

SPARK UWB technology takes aims at Bluetooth with lower power consumption, higher bandwidth

Bluetooth is omnipresent in smartphones, headsets, smartwatches, and other devices thanks to its low-cost, low power consumption, and good interoperability between devices. But Montréal based SPARK Microsystems claims their SPARK UWB (Ultra-Wide Band) technology is vastly superior to Bluetooth with a data rate of up to 10 Mbps @ 1.5 nJ/bit, power consumption as low as 2 mW while transmitting and receiving at 1 Mbps, and going down to 6 μW at 1 kbps. In other words, that’s up to 40x better energy efficiency, 60x lower latency, and 10x more data throughput as compared to BLE (Bluetooth LE) and without interfering in the 2.4 GHz band. Other highlights include lower wireless latency (50 µs for 1 kb), and time-of-flight (ToF) positioning at 30 cm accuracy for a line-of-sight range of up to 100 meters. The company has launched the SPARK SR1000 family with two models: the SR1010 operating in the […]

March 3, 2021March 4, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Geniatech XPI-3288 Raspberry Pi lookalike features Rockchip RK3288 SoC

Geniatech XPI is a family of single board computers following Raspberry Pi 3 form factor. We first covered XPI-S905X SBC in 2018, which was followed by XPI 3128 board last year. The company has now launched another model with Geniatech XPI-3288 SBC powered by Rockchip RK3288 32-bit quad-core Cortex-A17 processor coupled with 2G RAM and 16GB eMMC flash. Geniatech XPI-3288 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad-core Cortex-A17 processor @ up to 1.6GHz with Arm Mali-T764 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash (8/32GB optional), MicroSD card slot Video Output – HDMI up to 4Kp60 (may be limited to 4Kp30 on some older 4K TVs) Video decoding H.264 up to HP level 5.1 @ 2160p24 (3840×2160) MPEG-1/-2/-4, AVS, VP8, MVC up to 1080p60 (1920×1080) VC-1 up to AP level 3 @ 1080p30 (1920×1080) H.263 @ 576p60 (720×576) Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet port Optional dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi 5 and […]

March 3, 2021March 3, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

It’s raining i.MX 8M Plus systems-on-module at Embedded World 2021

NXP introduced i.MX 8M Plus AI SoC with a built-in 2.3 TOPS neural processing unit (NPU) last year, and we’ve already covered several early announcements about i.MX 8M Plus systems-on-module (SoM) with Variscite VAR-SOM-MX8M-PLUS and DART-MX8M-PLUS, TechNexion EDM-G-IMX8M-PLUS and AXON-E-IMX8M-PLUS respectively using SO-DIMM edge connectors and board-to-board connectors, as well as SolidRun i.MX 8M Plus SoM that was announced together with the HummindBoard Mate carrier board with dual Gigabit Ethernet. But as Embedded World 2021 Digital is taking place virtually until Friday, other companies have now made their own announcements of i.MX 8M Plus SoMs as the processor enters mass production this month, and since as far as I know, it’s pin-to-pin and software compatible with earlier i.MX 8M Nano/Mini SoCs, the update must have been easy. That means we’ve got a longish list of modules, and I have probably missed some. Supported operating systems are basically the same across […]

March 3, 2021September 14, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Arduino IDE 2.0 beta released with live debugger, revamped user interface

Arduino programming language and the Arduino IDE are the most popular software development tools for the makers market, but it lacks some of the features found in professional tools like autocompletion and the ability to add breakpoints via a debugger, and that’s why the company announced its work on the Arduino Pro IDE in 2019. Work is now nearing completion with the release of the beta version of the Arduino IDE 2.0 based on the Eclipse Theia framework. The user interface has been revamped with easy access to the newly added debugger, as well as the boards manager and libraries manager on the left side of the interface, the possibility to type the name of the board, and autocompletion of variables and functions from your code and installed libraries. Pressing F12 while on a function name will bring you directly to the corresponding code in another tab, or alternatively, you […]

March 2, 2021March 2, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Raspberry Pi RP2040 boards are coming with… HDMI?

We’ve already seen Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU can support VGA output using the microcontroller’s programmable I/O blocks. But yesterday, I saw two upcoming RP2040 boards with an HDMI connector. How is that supposed to work? The first one is Olimex RP2040-PICO-PC that’s indeed like a pico PC board with an HDMI connector for video, a micro SD card for storage, a standard 3.5mm audio jack for speaker or headphone, and a USB host for a keyboard. RP2040-PICO-PC teaser small PC with RP2040-PICO module. Video, Audio, SD-card, UEXT, I2C, Lipo battery, Reset, USB pwr, USB host for keyboard, Debug TxRx, SWD for JTAG debug #rp2040 #raspberrypi #circuitpython #retrogames pic.twitter.com/str79xsMkm — OLIMEX Ltd (@Olimex) March 1, 2021 There are some I/O headers for good measure, what looks like a 3-pin UART console header, a 2-pin header for LiPo battery, as well as a reset button. The second board, dcelectr DC2040, follows the […]

March 2, 2021March 2, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

tCam-Mini IR thermal camera board ships with ESP32 module

While there are plenty of ESP32 camera boards, it’s much harder to find off-the-shelf solutions with ESP32 wireless SoC and an IR thermal camera. That’s likely why Dan Julio decided to design tCam-Mini board combining an ESP32 module with a Flir Lepton 3.5 sensor with 160×120 resolution to capture radiometric data for thermographic analysis. tCam-Mini board hardware specifications: Wireless module – Espressif ESP32-WROVER-E module with dual-core ESP32-D0WD0V3 WiSoC, 8 MB PSRAM, 8 MB Flash, and PCB antenna; Camera – Flir Lepton 3.5: 160×120 pixel radiometric LWIR camera with shutter operating in either Radiometric/TLinear (each pixel contains temperature data) or AGC modes (no temperature data in each pixel but better images). Expansion – 4-pin I2C header Debugging – Micro USB port with CP2102N-A02 USB to UART bridge for ESP32 boot loader control Misc – Dual color (Red/Green) status LED, Factory/Wifi Reset button Power supply – 5V input via micro USB port […]

March 2, 2021March 3, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

NVIDIA introduces lower cost Jetson TX2 NX SO-DIMM module

NVIDIA Jetson AI modules and developer kits range from the entry-level Jetson Nano module (5W, ~0.5 TOPS) to the high-end Jetson Xavier AGX module (30W, 32 TOPS). The higher-end modules usually come with a 400-pin board-to-board, while cheaper/cost-down modules like Jetson Nano and Jetson Xavier NX feature a 260-pin SO-DIMM connector and small form factor. But so far all Jetson TX2 modules came with a 400-pin connector, but this has changed with the introduction of the Jetson TX2 NX SO-DIMM system-on-module that is offered as a cost-down version of Jetson TX2 4GB module. NVIDIA Jetson TX2 NX specifications with highlights in bold or strikethrough showing the difference against Jetson TX2 4GB: Processor – Dual-Core NVIDIA Denver 2 64-Bit CPU and Quad-Core Arm Cortex-A57 MPCore processor @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – 256-core NVIDIA Pascal GPU @ up to 1.3 GHz AI Performance – 1.33 TFLOPS Video Encode H.265 – […]

March 1, 2021March 1, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

3.5-inch Atom x6000E embedded SBC features 3x GbE, 2x SATA, 6x USB, and more

Several Elkhart Lake SBC’s integrate two Ethernet ports including Avalue ECM-EHL 3.5-inch SBC or Congatec Conga-PA7 Pico-ITX board with the former equipped with 2.5GbE and GbE ports, and the latter two GbE ports. But if your industrial project requires more Ethernet ports, iBase IB836 3.5-inch Atom x6000E embedded SBC offers three Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports, as well as two SATA ports, six USB interfaces, plus various display options, as well as M.2 and mPCIe expansion sockets. iBase IB836 specifications: Elkhart Lake SoC (one of the other) Intel Atom x6425E quad-core processor @ 1.8GHz/3.0GHz, with 1.5MB cache, Intel UHD graphics; 12W TDP Intel Atom x6413E quad-core processor @ 1.5GHz/3.0GHz, with 1.5MB cache, Intel UHD graphics; 9W TDP Intel Atom x6211E dual-core processor @ 1.2GHz/3.0GHz, with 1.5MB cache, Intel UHD graphics; 6W TDP System Memory – Up to 32GB via DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM, with IBECC support Storage – 2x SATA ports, 1x mSATA […]