CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

December 22, 2018April 26, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 32 Comments

ATOMIC Pi Intel Atom x5 Board Goes for $34 and Up (Crowdfunding)

Following Raspberry Pi form factor, AAEON Up Board powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 processor launched in 2015 for 89 Euros and up via a crowdfunding campaign. Since then, the company switched to Atom x5-Z8350, and now offers for the board for $99 US and up, with for example the 2GB RAM / 16GB flash version going for $109 excluding taxes and shipping. I’m mentioning this board, as there’s now a crowdfunding campaign for a larger board with similar specifications (x5-Z8350, 2GB RAM, 16GB flash) called ATOMIC Pi, and being offered for just $34 plus shipping by “Team IoT”. This looks too good to be true, but that’s intriguing so let’s have closer look. ATOMIC Pi specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8350 quad core processor @ up to 1.92GHz with Intel HD graphics System Memory – 2GB DDR3L-1600 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, slot for SD expansion up to 256GB […]

December 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Omron HeartGuide Wearable Blood Pressure Monitor is Finally Available

Way back at CES 2016, Omron showcased Project Zero BP6000 wearable blood pressure monitor that was meant to be an FDA approved blood pressure monitor fitting into a watch form factor and starting to sell for $200 at the end of 2016. But the device was not particularly eye-pleasing and FDA approval is really hard, so they unveiled the thinner and prettier Project Zero 2.0 model the next year at CES 2017 with the goal of releasing the device sometimes in 2018 for $300. The good is that the product – now called HeartGuide – will up for pre-order, and slated to ship in January 2019. Sadly, the cost has gone way up since it now sells for $499, and will only ship to a US address. HeartGuide (BP8000-M) wearable blood pressure monitor technical specifications: Display – Transflective memory-in-pixel LCD Memory – Blood pressure measurement up to 100 times, activity […]

December 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Bluespec Flute is a 5-Stage Open Source RISC-V Processor

Bluespec is a US company that provides RISC-V processors and development tools that “speed integration, debugging and verification of embedded systems”. Their first RISC-V release was the Piccolo 3-stage in-order processor targeting low end embedded systems and IoT applications. The company has now announced Bluespec Flute a 5-stage in-order open source RISC-V processor with the release of a synthesizable Verilog for a bare metal RV32IMA core and a supervisor level RV64IMA core. Bluespec Flute key features: RV32IMU with ‘M’ extension (integer multiply/divide) RV64IMASU with ‘A’ extension (atomic memory ops) and ‘M’ extension (integer multiply/divide) AXI4-Lite interface 5-stage pipeline 100 MHz (Xilinx UltraScale) < 5000 LUTs (Xilinx UltraScale) 4KB Instruction & Data caches Hardware multiply-divide RISC-V Debug Module You’ll find the source code in BSV (Bluespec SystemVerilog) and instructions to get started in Github. Bluespec Flute core has been tested in Xilinx UltraScale/UltraScale+ boards so far. In the future, the company […]

December 21, 2018December 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Intrinsyc Qualcomm Flight Pro Development Kit Targets High-end Drones and Robotics

Intrinsyc is known for manufacturing and selling mobile development platforms (MDP) & hardware development kits (HDK) for Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, but this time the company is taking pre-orders for a slightly different Qualcomm development platform: Qualcomm Flight Pro development kit / reference design that targets the development of high-end drones and robotics projects. Qualcomm Flight Pro board specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (APQ8096) with quad core Kryo processor @ up to 2.15GHz, Adreno 530 GPU, and Hexagon 680 DSP System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 32GB UFS Flash storage, microSD card slot Wireless Connectivity – WiFi 5 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4/5.0 GHz 2×2 MU-MIMO + Bluetooth 4.2 via pre-certified QCA6174A module + 2x Wi-Fi/BT antennas Location Technology Integrated GNSS solution based on WGR7640 (not recommended for flight applications) Support for U-blox MAX-M8Q-0-00 external GNSS module with high performance antenna and shielding Sensors – Dual IMU (2x Invensense MPU9250): […]

December 20, 2018December 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Onion Omega2 Pro OpenWrt Linux IoT Board Comes with 8GB Storage (Crowdfunding)

Onion Omega2 and Omega2 Plus are MediaTek MT7688 MIPS based WiFi boards for IoT applications that were launched in 2016 for as low as $5. Both boards run OpenWrt (LEDE at the time), and Omega2 Plus included more memory and storage with respectively 128MB RAM, 32MB flash and a micro SD card. But Onion team found out that many users needed more storage space, and they’ve now come up with Omega2 Pro model with the same processor, 128MB RAM, and large 8GB flash considering we’re talking about a board running OpenWrt 18.06 here. Onion Omega2 Pro specifications: Wireless Module – Onion Omega2S+ with SoC – MediaTek MT7688 MIPS processor @ 580 MHz System Memory – 128MB DDR2 RAM Connectivity – 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 4 Antenna – 2 dBi directional chip antenna (on mainboard) & u.FL connector for external antenna (on-module) Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash USB – […]

December 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Qualcomm 9205 NB-IoT & Cat M1 LTE Modem Lowers Costs, Power Consumption

Qualcomm has introduced a new LTE IoT chipset with Qualcomm 9205 LTE modem that supports Cat M1 (eMTC), NB2 (NB-IoT), 2G/E-GPRS fallback, as well as GNSS. Qualcomm 9205 comes at a lower price, smaller footprint, and up to 70% lower power consumption in standby mode compared to its predecessor (MDM9206). Qualcomm 9205 LTE modem key features and specifications: Processor / OS – Arm Cortex A7 up to 800MHz with support for ThreadX and AliOS Things real-time operating systems Connectivity Standards 3GPP release 14 Category M1 and NB2; 2G/E-GPRS fallback where Cat M1 / NB2 is not available. Category M1 mode supports voice for applications such as monitored security panels, and mobility for applications such as asset trackers. RF transceiver Bandwidth support from 450 MHz to 2100 MHz Built-in RF front-end, a first in the cellular IoT space Geolocation Integrated GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) support for GPS, Beidou, Glonass, and […]

December 20, 2018December 20, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 14 Comments

Amazon Echo Look Camera Goes for $50 with Intel Atom x5, RealSense Camera SR300

Amazon Echo Look is a smart camera with Alexa Assistant that was launched about 2 years ago for $200, and designed to help you decide if your outfit is a good match, beside taking photo and video selfies with voice commands. Sales may not have matched Amazon expectations (unsurprisingly), and the product is now offered for just $49.99. What may be interesting for CNX Software readers is that Echo Look appears to be a consumer version of AWS DeepLens deep learning video camera for developers ($249), plus some cost savings as well, so there may be some hacking potential here. A teardown video – embedded below – reveals some interesting specifications: SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8350 quad core Cherry Trail processor @ up to 1.44 GHz System Memory – 1 GB LPDDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, 16 Mbit SPI flash Camera – Intel RealSense SR300 depth sensing camera + […]

December 19, 2018December 19, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Lenovo Z5 Pro GT Snapdragon 855 Phone Features 12GB RAM

According to Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 specifications, the processor can support up to 16GB LPDDR4x memory, so we should be expecting phones with insane of RAM. The first device to features Snapdragon 855 SoC, and take advantage of the additional memory addressing is Lenovo Z5 Pro GT smartphone that comes with up to 12GB RAM. The rest of Lenovo Z5 Pro GT specifications are pretty good too: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 octa-core processor with 1x Kryo Gold Prime core @ up to 2.842 GHz,3x Kryo Gold cores @ up to 2.419 GHz,4x Kryo Silver low-power cores @ up to 1.786 GHz and Adreno 640 GPU System Memory / Storage options – 6GB/128GB, 8GB/128GB, 8GB/256GB, or 12GB/512GB Display – 6.39″ Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 1080 x 2340 resolution Cellular Connectivity Dual Nano SIM card slot, dual stand-by 5G/4G/3G for the Chinese market (TBC, no detailed info so far) Other Wireless Connectivity […]