NXP Unveils i.MX RT600 Series Arm Cortex-M33 + Audio DSP Crossover Processor

NXP IMX RT600

A little over a year ago, NXP introduces their first crossover processor that blurs the line between real-time capabilities of microcontrollers and higher performance of application processors with NXP i.MX RT1050 processor equipped with a Cortex-M7 core clocked at up to 700 MHz. The company has now announced another model with lower power consumption. NXP i.MX RT600 series comes with a Cortex M33 core clocked at up to 300MHz, a Cadence Tensillica HiFi 4 audio DSP, and up to 4.5MB shared SRAM. Main features of NXP i.MX RT685 crossover processor: CPU Core – Arm  Cortex-M33 up to 300 MHz DSP – Tensilica Hi-Fi 4 up to 600 MHz Memory Up to 4.5 MB on-chip RAM 128KB DSP TCM, 128 KB DSP Cache Storage 96KB ROM on-chip 2x SDIO with 1x supporting eMMC5.0 w/ HS400 1x Octal/Quad SPI up to 100MB/s Peripherals 2x DMA Engines with 35 channels each 1x USB […]

Beelink GT1 MINI S905X2 TV Box Ships with a Voice Air Mouse

Amlogic S905X2 TV Box Air Mouse

We’ve previously seen new TV boxes based on Amlogic S905X2 and S905Y2 processors, which mostly brings a more recent, but not necessarily more powerful, Mali-G31 GPU with OpenGL 3.2 support, and a USB 3.0 port not available in Amlogic S905/905X based TV boxes. S905X2 and S905Y2 are pretty much similar, and the main difference is that S905Y2 does not support Ethernet, so it’s only designed for WiFi/Bluetooth TV boxes and dongles. So far only generic OEM models were announced, but Beelink has now introduced their own S905X2 TV box with Beelink GT1 MINI featuring 2 to 4GB RAM, 16 to 64GB flash, and a voice enabled remote control / air mouse that works with Google Assistant. Beelink GT1 Mini specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X2 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with quad-core Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB or 4GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC flash, Micro […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC

Raspberry Pi TV HAT Adds a DVB-T2 Tuner to Raspberry Pi Boards

Raspberry Pi TV HAT Kit

The Raspberry Pi foundation has just launched another official HAT for their maker boards with the Raspberry Pi TV HAT based on Raspberry Pi Zero form factor, and is equipped a DVB-T2/T tuner in order to convert your board into a Linux based digital TV receiver and recorder. Raspberry Pi TV HAT specifications: Sony CXD2880 TV tuner Supported TV standards DVB-T2 (1.7MHz, 5MHz, 6MHz, 7MHz, 8MHz channel bandwidth DVB-T (5MHz, 6MHz, 7MHz, 8MHz channel bandwidth) Reception frequency: VHF III, UHF IV, UHF V RF coaxial input for antenna connection RPi Interface – 40-pin RPi header Dimensions – 65 x 30 mm (half-size HAT) Operating temperature – 0–50°C The Raspberry Pi TV HAT is also known as the Raspberry Pi DVB TV μHAT based on the markings on the board’s silkscreen. The add-on boards follows a new HAT specification called the “half-size HAT” matching Raspberry Pi Zero board’s dimensions. Instructions to use […]

STMicro STM32L5 Cortex-M33 ARMv8-M MCU Family Targets Secure IoT Applications

STM32L5

STMicro STM32 microcontrollers have so far been based on Arm Cortex-M0/M0+, M3, M4, or M7 cores, although we’ve also seen a yet-to-be formally announced Cortex A7 variant shows up in Linux 4.17 with STM32MP157C. The company has very recently announced a new family, namely the STM32L5 series, powered by an Arm Cortex-M33 ARMv8-M 32-/64-bit TrustZone enabled core clocked at up to 110 MHz, and equipped with on-chip SMPS for easy low power efficiency, USB FS device, and USB type-C PD Controller. Two sub-families are part of the STM32L5 series: STM32L552 with 256 to 512 KB of Flash memory and from 48 to 144-pin packages. STM32L562 with 512 KB of Flash memory, and an additional encryption accelerator engine (AES, PKA, and OTFDEC). Besides the extra HW crypto block both share the same key specifications: MCU Core – Arm Cortex-M33 ARMv8-M core clocked at up to 110 MHz (+20% versus Cortex-M4) with […]

Socionext HV5 Series HDMI 2.1 Video Processing ICs Enable 8K TVs and STBs

SocioNext HV5 Series HDMI 2.1 Processor

HDMI 2.1 specification was released late last year with the main benefit being the support of 8K videos at up to 120 Hz, and a small downside with the requirement for new 48G cables.  Samsung Q900R is one of the first 8K TV on the market, but according to the product page HDMI 2.1 is not supported just yet: Will provide complimentary upgrade for HDMI 2.1 support when available. Please contact customer support for more details So it looks like the Quantum Processor 8K processor found in the TV will be firmware upgradable to support HDMI 2.1. Anyway for 8K video equipment to be useful we’ll need video equipment to support HDMI 2.1 Tx & Rx, and SocioNext has launched what it claims are the first HDMI 2.1 compliant video processor ICs with their HV5 series. The processor family comes with HDMI Tx and Rx with two main series: Interface […]

Qualcomm QCA64x8 and QCA64x1 802.11ay WiFi Chipsets Deliver 10 Gbps Bandwidth

802.11ay, 802.11ad

WiFi has evolved in recent years with the introduction of 802.11ad and 802.11ax (now called WiFi 6). THe latter is now official, and in the last year several 802.11ax chipsets and WiFi 6 routers have been announced, but I’ve not heard much about 802.11ad with claims of up to 7Gbps bandwidth at 60 GHz when unveiled in 2016. The latter have been supplanted by 802.11ay, with Qualcomm having just unveiled QCA64x8 and QCA64x1 802.11ay chipsets capable of delivering 10Gbps and operating at a frequency of 60 GHz. According to Wikipedia, 802.11ay is not really a new standard, but just an evolution of 802.11ad  adding four times the bandwidth and up to 4 MIMO streams. Qualcomm chipsets will enable 10+ Gps speeds with wire-equivalent latency, while keeping the power consumption low, and bring the ability to play 4K UltraHD videos over WiFi, virtual / augmented reality games, fixed wireless mesh backhaul, […]

UP 7000 SBC

Arm ServerReady is a Compliance Program for Arm-based Servers

Arm ServerReady

The Server Base System Architecture (SBSA) specification was unveiled in 2014 in order to standardize all Arm based servers and let them all run the same operating system images. However so far, manufacturers would just test specification requirements by themselves without having their claims fully tested and certificated. That’s why Arm has just unveiled the Arm ServerReady certification program for Arm based servers which relies on the Architecture Compliance Suite (ACS) for SBSA and SBBR (Server Base Boot Requirements) verification. Basically the servers must be able to boot standard operating systems and run the ACS. The servers that pass the ACS are then granted the Arm ServerReady certificate. The current Arm ServerReady version 1.0 certification utilizes ACS version 1.6 for  testing SBSA version 3.1 and SBBR version 1.0 compliance. Ampere, HXT, Marvell, Qualcomm, as well as ODMs such as Femrice, Gigabyte and UIT have already received Arm ServerReady version 1.0 […]

One Mix 2 Yoga Intel Core m3-7Y30 mini Laptop is up for Pre-order for $650

Intel Core m3 mini laptop

GPD Pocket 2 Kaby lake mini laptop is getting some competition with One Mix 2 Yoga pocket laptop featuring the same Intel Core M3-7Y30 processor, but coupled with 8GB RAM, and a 256 SSD, and equipped with the usual 7″ touchscreen display and QWERTY keyboard. The product is an upgrade to the company’s One Mix Yoga powered by an Intel Atom x5 processor, and contrary top GPD Pocket 2 and the upcoming Topjoy Falcon which relied/will rely on Crowdfunding for their launch, One Mix 2 Yoga can be pre-ordered directly  for $649.99 on GeekBuying with shipping planned for next month. [Update: GearBest has it too for the same price] One Mix 2 Yoga specifications: SoC – Intel Core M3-7Y30 dual core / quad thread Kaby Lake processor @ 1.00 GHz / 2.60 GHz (Turbo boost) with 4MB cache, 24EU Intel HD graphics 615 @ 300 MHz / 900 MHz (Turbo […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC