CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 11, 2020April 11, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

n-Fuse SX1302 Mini PCIe LoRaWAN Concentrator Card to Sell for 100 Euros

Semtech SX1302 LoRa transceiver was announced in Q3 2019 as an updated to the company’s SX1301 LoRaWAN gateway chip with improved efficiency, lower BoM costs, and the ability to handle more traffic. At the time, the company also showcased a mini PCIe LoRaWAN concentrator card reference design pairing SX1302 with SX1250 sub-GHz RF front end, and that could be connected to a Raspberry Pi board via an interface board. n-Fuse has now come up with a commercial product adapted from the reference design with LRWCC2-MPCIE SX1302 Mini PCIe concentrator card designed for LoRaWAN gateways. n-Fuse LRWCC2-MPCIE key features and specifications: MCU – STMicro STM32 (no details provided) LoRa Connectivity Semtech SX1302 digital baseband processor with 2xSX1250 and 1xSX1261 Tx/Rx front-ends Frequency Range – 863 to 870 MHz or 915 to 928 MHz Sensitivity <= -124dBm at SF7, BW 125KHz <= -138dBm at SF12, BW 125kHz <= -125dBm at SF7, BW […]

April 10, 2020April 10, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 43 Comments

MediaTek Caught Cheating but Says Benchmarks Just Represent Peak Performance

Silicon vendors have been cheating in benchmarks for years, mostly by detecting when popular benchmarks run and boost the performance of their processors without regard to battery life during the duration of the test in order to deliver the best possible score. There was a lot of naming and shaming a few years back, and we did not hear much about benchmarks cheating in the last couple of years, but Anandtech discovered MediaTek was at it again while comparing results between Oppo Reno3 Europe (MediaTek Helio P95) and China (MediaTek Dimensity 1000L) with the older P95 model delivering much higher performance contrary to expectations. Cheating was suspected, so they contact UL to provide an anonymized version of PCMark so that the firmware could not detect the benchmark was run. Here are the before and after results. As noted by Anandtech, the differences are really stunning: a 30% difference in the […]

April 10, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

HummingBoard Ripple SBC Targets AI Applications with NXP i.MX 8M Mini SoC & Gyrfalcon Lightspeeur 2803S NPU

SoliRun has made good use of its i.MX 8M Mini SoM which – as its name does not imply – comes with both an NXP i.MX 8M Mini processor and Gyrfalcon Lightspeeur 2803S AI accelerator, and can now be found in HummingBoard Ripple SBC part of the new HummingBoard-M family and based on a cost-reduced version of HummingBoard Pulse baseboard which we covered in 2018. Note that HummingBoard Ripple board is also available with the earlier SoliRun i.MX 8M module, and comes with up to 4GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, Micro HDMI. Compared to HummingBoard Pulse SBC, it does without MIPI-DSI nor digital audio, and removing one Gigabit Ethernet port, and one MIPI-CSI connector. HummingBoard Ripple SBC specifications: SOM Model NXP i.MX8M dual-/quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor up to 1.5GHz with Arm M4 MCU core NXP i.MX8M Mini single to quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor up to 1.8GHz with […]

April 9, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

NXP WiFi 6 Solutions Launched for Home, Enterprise, IoT and Automotive Markets

Several silicon vendors started to unveil WiFi 6 (802.11ax) chips in 2017-2018 such as Broadcom BCM43684, BCM43694 & BCM4375, and Marvell 88W906x. While NXP launched QorIQ LA1575 programmable wireless SoC with expected 802.11ax support early 2017, AFAIK they did not introduce any specific WiFi 6 chips. But last year, the company used some of its cash to purchase Marvell’s WiFi & Bluetooth business and has now announced the availability of Marvell NXP WiFi 6 chips and solutions which mostly are the ones announced by Marvell in 2017. NXP Wi-Fi 6 solutions include NXP 88W9064 & 88W9068 4×4 and 8×8-stream solutions with WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5 for home and enterprise access solutions NXP 88Q9098 concurrent dual Wi-Fi 6 2×2+2×2 + Bluetooth 5 AEC-Q100 qualified solutions for infotainment and telematics automotive applications NXP 88W9098 concurrent dual Wi-Fi 6 2×2+2×2 + Bluetooth 5 solutions for multimedia streaming and consumer access applications Unnamed […]

April 9, 2020 by Ayo Ayibiowu - 1 Comment

AgVa Phone Ventilator Connects to a Smartphone to Fight COVID-19

With the world at his knees, fighting the current coronavirus pandemic, which has impacted millions of lives around the world psychologically, economically, and physically. Engineers, scientists, politicians around the world are looking for ways to assist in stopping the virus spread, helping the critically ill people, and help restore society to the way it was before. One major highlight during this COVID-19 crisis is the lack of enough ventilators for patients, a piece of critical equipment that greatly affects the breathing of critically ill patients. There are not enough ventilators available in hospitals right now for all of the potential patients who will be struck by the virus, so it is clear we need more ventilators. Makers are joining the call to service with their existing maker tools, and an example is the attempt to make a low-cost, open-source Arduino ventilator device. Another solution is the AgVa phone ventilator produced by […]

April 9, 2020April 9, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

NXP i.MX 8M Mini Pico-ITX SBC Comes with Audio DSP, Optional PoE and Google Coral M.2 Module

We’ve covered several NXP i.MX 8M Mini SBC‘s since the announcement of the processor in 2018 as the first i.MX SoC manufactured with a 14nm process allowing for a higher CPU clock of 2.0 GHz compared to the 1.5 GHz frequency used with the original i.MX 8M processor. i.MX 8M Mini also removes some features (4K video playback, some video interfaces, …) in order to lower the cost of the processor. Companies are still releasing new i.MX 8M SBCs regularly, but we don’t always cover them all since many often do not offer much compared to the competition. But Estone Technology EMB-2237-AI Pico-ITX SBC has some unusual features and options including a Cirrus Logic audio DSP, as well as support for a PoE module and Google Coral M.2 AI accelerator module. EMB-2237-AI SBC is comprised of a system-on-module and baseboard with the following specifications: Estone SOM-2237 module SoC – […]

April 9, 2020July 23, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

3.5″ SubCompact SBC Leverages Intel Whiskey Lake Processor for Embedded & AI Applications

AAEON already has several Whiskey Lake SBCs in its portfolio including PICO-WHU4 Pico-ITX board for AI & edge computing and UP Extreme SBC targeting the maker community and enthusiasts. The company’s latest GENE-WHU6 is a features-rich 3.5″ SubCompact SBC offered with a choice of Intel Core i3/i5/i7 and Celeron Whiskey Lake Embedded processors and designed for embedded and artificial intelligence applications thanks to an M.2 socket accepting AI accelerator cards. AAEON GENE-WHU6 specifications: SoC (one or the other) Intel Celeron 4305UE dual-core processor @ 2GHz with Intel UHD Graphics 610; 15W TDP Intel Core i3-8145UE dual-core/quad-thread processor @ 2.2GHz / 3.9GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD Graphics 620; 15W TDP Intel Core i5-8365UE quad-core/octa-thread processor @ 1.6GHz / 4.1GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD Graphics 620; 15W TDP Intel Core i7-8665UE quad-core/octa-thread processor @ 1.7GHz / 4.4GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD Graphics 620; 15W TDP System Memory – 2x 2400 MHz Dual […]

April 8, 2020April 8, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Olimex Launches a Breakout Board with Quectel BC66 NB-IoT module

Quectel BC66 NB-IoT module is found on a few development boards such as Olimex NB-IoT DevKit, works worldwide – at least where NB-IoT networks are deployed -, and can be programmed with Arduino or PlatformIO. Olimex has now designed a breakout board fitted with Quectel BC66 module for people wanting a smaller footprint (26x26mm) and/or integrate the module easily with their own hardware. Olimex BC66 breakout board’s features and specifications: NB-IoT Connectivity Quectel BC-66 with worldwide GSM bands coverage 25.5 kbps uplink and downlink nano SIM card slot u.FL antenna connector + optional antenna I/O Expansion – 3x 10-pin header either unpopulated or fitted with male headers; Level shifters for 5x GPIOs, I2C, SPI, UART Misc – Status LEDs Power Supply – Dimensions – 26×26 mm As with other LPWAN modules, this module/board would typically be found in remote electricity, water and gas meters, smart city (parking/lighting) management systems, healthcare […]